Title: Into the Dark
Series: Karen Rose's Interconnecting Books, Cincinnati, OH
Author: Karen Rose
Read copy: Mass Market Paperback
Published: November 26, 2019
Publisher: Berkley
ISBN: 1984805282
ISBN-13: 9781984805287
Michael Rowland is not your typical teenager. Deaf from birth, he’s always looked out for his five-year-old brother, Joshua. When his stepfather comes after Joshua, Michael takes the child and runs. He’s determined to protect his brother at all costs, even if that means making himself vulnerable to a danger he can’t hear coming. And the danger intensifies when Michael witnesses a stranger kill his stepfather.
Desperate and afraid, the boys have nowhere else to go but to Joshua’s soccer coach, journalist and ex-Army ranger Diesel Kennedy. When Diesel sees that Michael is injured, he takes them to see Dr. Dani Novak—not only because she’s fluent in American Sign Language, but because he’s drawn to her and everything she stands for. She never refuses Diesel’s requests—because she, too, feels their connection—but she resists him for reasons she doesn’t want to confess.
When Dani and Diesel learn that Michael saw the face of his stepfather’s killer, they fear for his safety. But they quickly discover that it’s even worse than they feared: They may have a serial killer on their hands—and all signs point to Michael as the next target.
My rating:
Michael Rowland barely saves his five-year-old brother from being carted out of his home, sedated, by his step-father, and then witnesses said step-father's murder in their home driveway.
But, believing his mother that he and Joshua would be separated if he ever talks to the cops and no one would be there to protect his little brother, he keeps his mouth shut, enduring the pain.
Until, a week later, he's the one picking up Joshua from soccer practice, and Coach Diesel notices the cut on his head, the pain Michael tries so hard to hide, and takes them to the woman who holds Diesel's heart.
I felt that, unlike other recent books by this author, the romance took the leading role in this one, instead of the suspense. The killer was, after all known from the beginning, it was just a matter of time before his "reign" would end.
Still, the suspense was intriguing because of the moral ambiguity the killings. The grey area. The killer wasn't your run-of-the-mill serial, but a vigilante with a rather interesting portfolio. At the beginning he was even doing society a favor by getting rid of all the scum, it was when he started snipping off loose ends, that things turned ugly.
So, the romance took a more prominent role. Which could've been the book's downfall the way things went in the end with Dani and her refusal to accept Diesel, to let herself be happy. Luckily, she was forced to communicate with him, tell him just what her problem was, only for him to logically and calmly dismantle all her reservations. So that was over quickly, but that didn't mean Dani and Diesel had much time to spend with each other (and they were cute together), because they had the two boys to protect...The beginnings of their little family.
It was lovely revisiting all the old characters, seeing them interact with each other, co-workers and friends that have turned into a close-knit, highly protective family.
Their relationships provided much needed counterbalance and a note of levity (especially Stone) to the more serious and teeth-grinding subject matter of abuse, disability and disease that walked hand in hand with this story, but, unlike with many other books in this genre, wasn't used merely as a plot device, but tackled with dignity the topic deserves and aplomb of someone who knows it firsthand.
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