Chasing Darkness

This is the first book that I have read by Danielle Girard. I only hope her others are as good because I will be reading them all. "Chasing Darkness" is a great thriller. It contains enough suspense to keep me reading long into the night. However, it is the disturbing yet artfully revealed details about the child abuse and family relationships that made me want to keep reading when the story had ended.

If you've read Danielle Girard before, then chances are you're among her growing legion of fans. As with her previous thrillers, in CHASING DARKNESS she once again layers a frightening plot with finely crafted psychological backstory that invests the reader in the characters. Because she takes the time to craft these characters so deeply, these people come alive on the pages, and when the twists and turns arrive you find yourself dizzy along with them. In a publishing world in which the so-called "big" books are too often nothing more than annointed marketing strategies penned by average writers, Danielle Girard is the real deal, a writer of great craftsmanship and skill who is unafraid to open dark doors and shove you down into the cellar of her vision, leaving you breathless when you emerge, touched and entertained and hungry for her next novel. Get on board now, because her career is headed to the moon. Buy this book, because this is what you're looking for in a great mystery/thriller read.

I've been a fan of danielle girard's excellent suspense thrillers from her very first amazing debut, SAVAGE ART,which was so well written that i honestly thought she was an established nytimes bestselling author writing under another name. Her second, RUTHLESS GAME, was equally awesome and exceedingly suspenseful. CHASING DARKNESS is her third brilliant suspense thriller and competely grabs you with the very first page. Her characters are so throroughly fleshed out that you just KNOW these people. Page turning suspense with a truly surprise ending! So does she qualify to be at the top of the ranks? you betcha!!! looking forward to more and more from this phenomenal writer! I just wish that her publisher would afford her the respect that she deserves and provide her with better marketing for this terrrrrific book!!!

She was a homicide detective in the Sheriff's department but she became sick of dealing with death all the time so she transferred over to the State of California of Department of Justice working mainly with abuse victims. At the same time she transferred jobs Sam Chase unexpectedly gained guardianship of her twin eight-year-old nephews. Their parents died in a car crash and their deceased mother (Sam's late sister) did not want her family in Mississippi even getting near them. Eight years later Sam and her two nephews Derek and Rob are a family. Sam is a success at work and envied by her peers when one of her old cases comes back to haunt her. The mother of a child abuse victim is found murdered and Sam is forced to work with Derek Thomas of the Sheriff's department since the victim looks like she was murdered by a serial killer that Sam once caught. Since the killer is dead, the police are working on the assumption that it's a copycat killer until another homicide is committed and Sam is linked to both deaths. Danielle Girard is a name to watch because she's rapidly reading the level of a Nancy Taylor Rosenberg or a Sandra Brown. CHASING DARKNESS is a tightly woven thriller that shines a dark light on the evil things done to children and shows how it affects them long after the abuse stops. The strange and off beat romance that develops between Sam and Derek is a realistic necessary subplot to reduce the tension, which becomes unbelievably high voltage at times. This one sitting read entertains as well as educates.Harriet Klausner