I particularly found the characters of Marge and Andrew very well drawn. Marge is the lieutenant who felt she should have gotten the chief position when crusty old Paul retired. But instead, they bring in an outsider from New York with his own hidden secrets. The method in which the sour Marge turns to respect her new boss is done with credibility and sensitivity. The transformation is satisfying.

Likewise, we have Andrew, the husband of the heroine who married her for money, and has a criminally colorful past. Although you immediately want to despise him, as the story progresses, he becomes a flesh and blood character, driven by past greeds, but in the end, turning into a rather surprising force in the novel.

The scenes in the cave are at times tedious and drawn out, but they enhance the feeling of our heroine as she tries desperately to battle her evil brother.

This is a great read--I found myself saying things out loud, like "You just did something stupid," or "Come on, Erica, don't be so silly..."

This is good reading; although after reading "Stealing Faces," I think Prescott tends to supply his leading characters the same formulae, but hey if it works, why not?


More of a character story than a thriller   July 27, 2003
 6 out of 7 found this review helpful

For a story that closely follows the events of a single day, it's ironic that the only interesting parts of this narrative take place in the past. From the teaser on the back cover and the first hundred pages, you'd think the meatiest aspect of this story is the race to prevent a crazed killer from claiming another victim before the end of day. Instead, this aspect of the story is surprisingly mundane. The identity of the killer is revealed early in the story, and it's at this point that the story begins to lag. The revelation, by itself, isn't necessarily a mistake. Detective shows on TV do it all the time, and the story then focuses on figuring out how the murder was committed and the investigative work involved. This story, however, offers none of that. The killer is the only suspect, his actions will inevitably lead the police to arrest him, and the only reason the police don't arrest him is the fear they won't be able to find where he's hidden his next victim. The real meat of the story focuses on the relationships between the primary characters and why the killer is driven to murder. As the story unfolds, the motivations of the characters are slowly revealed, primarily through flashbacks and other revelations of the characters' past. The final revelations at the end of the story are well done and fully explain the motivations of the killer, but at that point it's not enough to have made the read worthwhile.


Comes the Dark   February 26, 2000
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

I don't know what Mike Moss was reading but it obviously wasn't this book. I was hooked by the end of the first chapter. There was always something going on: murder, suspence, adultery, mythology, and mental illness. This book has everything. It came from so many angles, and each point of view enlightened the plot. Although it wasn't as good a book as Prescott's Stealing Faces; it was still one where you put off reading for a short time for fear that the next story may not be as good.