Title: As Darkness Falls (Dungirri #1)
Author: Bronwyn Parry
Publisher: Hachette Australia/Piatkus Books (UK)
Publication Date: 1st September 2008
Paperback: 360 pages
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Source: Own Copy
Guest Review by Zosia
RATING: 9/10
BOOK COVER SUMMARY:
An abducted child. A ruthless killer. A race against time. Haunted by her failures, police detective Isabelle O’Connell is recalled to duty by detective Alec Goddard to investigate the abduction of yet another child from her old home town. With the killer playing a game of cat and mouse they have only days in which to find the girl alive, but they have very few clues, a whole town of suspects and a vast wilderness to search. For Isabelle, this case is already personal; for Alec his best intentions to keep it purely professional soon dissolve. He starts to think of the missing child as if she were his own, and his anguish over Bella’s safety moves beyond just his concern for a colleague. Their mutual attraction leaves them both vulnerable to their private nightmares – nightmares that the killer ruthlessly exploits …
REVIEW:
Bronwyn Parry’s romantic suspense is unashamedly Australian but does not rely on stereotypes of any sort. The heartbreaking back story of the destruction of Bella’s faith in people – her own people – and the redemption she finds through working on the case of a missing child, make for an engrossing story.
At the heart of this story is Bella’s struggle to return to the living after self-imposed seclusion. She resigned from the police force after nearly being killed by an angry mob – a mob made up of all the ‘friendly’ faces of the small town she grew up in. She’s lost her faith in people. How can a person trust again after the man who sold her her first bike and the man who played Santa Claus when she was growing up put her in intensive care?
Alec comes with his own set of problems. How wonderful to come across a hero who has a legitimate reason for resisting the relationship! It’s a rare thing in romantic fiction these days.
‘As Darkness Falls‘ is first and foremost about the case. They’re racing against the clock to find a girl before she too turns up dead (she’s not the first girl to disappear). They’re in a remote region of dry bushland, in a crumbling town that doesn’t have any of the resources they need for this kind of operation.
Bella’s relationship with Alec moves fast – the search and the conclusion to the case take place over only a few days. I didn’t mind as I was reading, as the way it was handled seemed appropriate, but it was fast. But this is not a Mills and Boon story, and these realistic characters are not rushing into anything at the end. Australians tend to write romance a little differently – perhaps we’re too cynical for grand declarations of love!
This book kick-started Parry’s career, winning a Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Award. So often international readers run away from books set in Australia – often the best an Australian author can hope for is having their book published only after it’s been internationalised or Americanised. ‘As Darkness Falls‘ is Australia as it really is. What makes Parry’s books so good for the international market is that they capture rural Australia perfectly without resorting to scary slang that even I would need a phrasebook to understand.
VERDICT:
This excellent story would appeal to crime readers and romance readers alike. The strong setting, well-rounded secondary characters and excellent protagonists make this a fantastic debut novel for this writer.
You can find out more about Bronwyn online here:
5 Comments
Hey great review! I was just wondering how did you make that little button/logo thing for your blog?
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great review, Ill have to check this book out
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ooh I need to get this one!
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This looks like a great book, a gritty romance
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This sounds like a great read – never heard of this author before but will definitely check this out
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