A series of sweetheart murders take place in a small town named Texarkana in 1946. Charlie Yates is a New York reporter who is out of favour with his boss. He is told to get out of New York and get the story.
His marriage is over and it looks like his career is heading the same way so he does as he is told. Nobody in Texarkana wants him there, they just see him as a hack who is desperate for his story with no thought for the victims or their families. The police see him as trouble and are very convincingly intimidating in their attempts to drive him out of town.
The Dark Inside is one of the most accurate titles of books that I have read. It is a fantastic novel that is very dark at times. Sometimes a little too much so for me and for a short period I could only read a few chapters at a time. Charlie is hard to warm to initially, he isn’t blameless in the collapse of his marriage or for the fallout with his employers. Many of his problems are due to him being unable to participate in WW2, the reasons why are revealed during the novel.
However part way through, after a quite harrowing time for him my opinions changed and I was willing him to succeed. From that moment Charlie wanted to get answers for Lizzie a woman he had feelings for but mainly for himself. To prove everybody wrong.
Before I started this novel I expected it to be similar to Raymond Chandler but I was mistaken. It’s so much more bleak than that. I could see it being on the screen, it would need a strong cast to carry of such a great novel and would ideally be in black and white. That is my wish anyway.
Quite violent, very atmospheric and totally different to other books that have been published recently. An excellent debut novel by an author that will go far.
With thanks to the publisher and the author for the copy received by netgalley
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