The Dark: The unputdownable and pulse-raising Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month

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Kate starts to suspect that someone on the base killed Jean-Luc but the more she pushes for answers the more danger she puts herself in. Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a magician able to switch genres with ease. Her previous novel, Mexican Gothic, was a dark and brilliant slice of gothic fantasy; her latest, Velvet Was the Night, is a superb noir thriller set in Mexico City in the 70s following the student massacre known as “El Halconazo”. The book made for a light read and if it wasn’t for the fact that Kate is an addict who’s swallowing pills like candy all day, I would have given it one star more. I can understand where the pill-popping comes from, but seriously? I counted sometimes a dozen very strong pills a day she took… even when she didn’t need them. No way she would have been allowed to come near patients, let alone pills. However, there are some good things to, of course. I mention lovely knitting work and delicious food. You’ll have to read to book to find out more.

Emma Haughton writes a thriller set in the vast unforgiving, desolate landscape of the Antarctic, beautiful but hostile. particularly in the winter months when the dark descends on the region. It is 2021, the flawed A&E Dr Kate North is left traumatised and broken after a personal tragedy, struggling to cope, so when she is offered the opportunity of becoming a relief medic on an Antarctic research station looking after a 12 member team, she jumps at the chance, becoming the 13th team member. However, whether she is really in a position to fulfill the duties required, given the current state of her mental health, in such a remote and bleak location, cut off from the world for the winter months is not something she considered, and neither, suprisingly, do those who recruit her for such a challenging position. I always love books that take me to a strange new world and let me experience life in the shoes of the people who live there. The author does exactly that here, providing a fascinating insight into what life in Antarctica is actually like: the protective clothing they have to wear outside to protect them from the deadly cold - they'd die in minutes without it; the limited diet (no fresh fruit or vegetables for months on end), the lifestyle, blood tests, mid-winter festivities, and more chillingly: accidents and medical problems and improvised emergency medical treatments. The story's pacing was painfully slow; there was little to no suspense or urgency; definitely not exciting, mostly we get plenty of scenes where Kate is feeling sorry for herself or nosing around and learning everyone's secrets. And, oh yeah, mooning over one of the dudes. When Kate discovers the dead colleague had suspicions about someone among the staff, she takes it upon herself to do a little investigating of her own, but her personal crisis threatens her credibility and when another death occurs, Kate realizes more people will die unless she does something. At the base where the characters are living, they are cut off from the wider world. It can take a long time for emergency services to reach them if anything goes wrong. It makes it more important than ever that they work as a team. When Doctor Kate North arrives, she turns up shortly after one member of the group she has been assigned to, has been killed. There is already a tense atmosphere, and everyone, of course, is still upset because of what has happened to their team member. Kate feels as though something isn’t right, and there are murmurings among the group, that there might be more to the death than first meets the eye. One member of the group isn’t prepared to let it lie. But is it possible there is a killer amongst them? If so they could all be in danger.In the most inhospitable environment - cut off from the rest of the world - there's a killer on the loose. I’ve read a few books set in desolate lands and have always enjoyed the feeling of stillness, claustrophobia, and tension that they bring and The Dark was no different, in fact, setting a thriller in such a cut-off, isolate place is perfect. It certainly makes the plot feel intense and urgent. Author Emma Haughton has done a great job of creating scenery so vividly that it made me feel chilly whilst reading. Trapped in an Antarctic ice station with no daylight for months, no hope of rescue, and a killer on the loose is a fantastic concept for a novel. The feeling of being trapped, of not knowing what is happening, who is doing it, or if there's any chance of survival gives this book a real head start for a compelling psychological thriller. Once she’s in the post, she starts to discover details about Jean-Luc’s death that disturb her. Addled by the drugs she’s taking to deal with her anxieties and grief, unable to sleep in the permanent night, she wonders who she can trust. “Something is very wrong here, I realise. No… worse. Someone is very wrong here.” As the story continues, we learn a bit more about the other crew members. Then not before long a crew member is found dead. Dead or murdered? While unexpected mechanical and infrastructure problems begin to occur with the base. Another member is found dead. As if a mysterious death of yet another crew member had not stroked their fear. If the base continues to break down, and they lose their heat source. The remaining crew members begin to believe if they are to die. The "how" will be determined by the winner of the race: The Killer or 50 below temperatures.

There was not one character I really liked or related to, and the ending, though not a huge surprise, was anti-climatic.Ultimately enjoyed reading this story. There was certainly room for more edge; more suspense in the writing. Overall a decent 3 to 3.5 star read. Some elements of the plot were too farfetched to seem plausible, i.e. how would an organisation employing people to live and work in one of the most remote places on earth not implement simple steps such as drug testing to keep things running smoothly? Almost every single member of the team was acting very unprofessionally for a group of experts employed to man a research station – I just didn’t quite buy it! The icy environment seems dangerous enough at the start of the book. But later in the story, when the temperature plunges and the lights go out leaving us in total darkness, ten

I didn't like Kate; I understand she's struggling with addiction and guilt over the accident, as well as grieving for her fiance, but I found it difficult to believe her as a competent medical professional.The kind of heart-pounding, sleep-stealing read that you want to recommend to everyone you meet. An absolutely thrilling book' CASS GREEN