ARC Audiobook Review: Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier
Things We Do in the Dark
Author: Jennifer Hillier
Narrator: Carla Vega
To Be Published: July 19, 2022
Audiobook
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: June 28- July 5, 2022
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
When Paris Peralta is arrested in her own bathroom—covered in blood, holding a straight razor, her celebrity husband dead in the bathtub behind her—she knows she’ll be charged with murder. But as bad as this looks, it’s not what worries her the most. With the unwanted media attention now surrounding her, it’s only a matter of time before someone from her long hidden past recognizes her and destroys the new life she’s worked so hard to build, along with any chance of a future.
Twenty-five years earlier, Ruby Reyes, known as the Ice Queen, was convicted of a similar murder in a trial that riveted Canada in the early nineties. Reyes knows who Paris really is, and when she’s unexpectedly released from prison, she threatens to expose all of Paris’s secrets. Left with no other choice, Paris must finally confront the dark past she escaped, once and for all.
Because the only thing worse than a murder charge are two murder charges.
Jessica’s Review:
I was intrigued with this one and hoping it would deliver on its premise and it mainly did. For most of my listening of this one I gave it three stars- I figured out some of the twists, I just didn’t know what direction it would end up going in. And the final hit is what gave it the 4th star. I loved the ending!
This is my first book by Hillier, and I plan on reading more by her. I actually bought Jar of Hearts in a secondhand bookstore and then for weeks afterwards, it was showing up on Bookstagram accounts! Talk about timing on buying that one!
But back to Things We Do in the Dark: Past and present come together throughout this novel. This is the story of a much younger wife charged with the murder of her famous much older husband who was in the process of a career revival. I was pulled in from the beginning.
Hillier has written a sympathetic and likable character with Paris who comes with a past. We also are dealing with another story 25 years ago with the Ice Queen herself Ruby Reyes, who brutally murdered a boyfriend and got everyone’s attention in Canada. The connection between the two is Drew who runs a podcast: Things We Do in the Dark. And the connection goes back and forth between the two stories. The past is dark with dealings in a strip club and there is also child abuse involved.
This novel is not super-fast paced, but set at a steady pace where reveals happen that keep the reader/listener involved. For the most part it was an average read for me, but then we get the final few chapters and WHOA: That brought it up another star for me!
You can’t say too much with this one without giving something away, which is why this review is somewhat vague. It’s better to go in not knowing much with this one. I enjoyed Things We Do in the Dark and will look into more of Hillier’s novels to see what might intrigue me.