Books Read: V.M Giambanco - The Gift of Darkness

Twenty-five years ago in the woods near the Hoh River in Seattle, three boys were kidnapped. One did not come home. 

A quarter of a decade later, a family of four is found brutally murdered, the words thirteen days scratched near their lifeless bodies. 

Homicide Detective Alice Madison ran away from home as a child, one breath away from committing an unforgivable act; as an adult, she found her peace chasing the very worst humanity has to offer. Madison believes these murders are linked. And she has thirteen days to prove it. 

To stop a psychopath, Madison must go back into the woods and confront the unsolved mystery of the Hoh River Boys. She must forget her training and follow her instincts to the terrifying end as enemies become allies and, in the silent forest, time is running out to save another life.

New to Homicide Detective Alice Madison is called out to what appears to be an open and shut murder case when a family of four are murdered in their own home and evidence seems to point to one man... a known killer that they've been after for a while.  But what does the note 'Thirteen Days' by the bodies mean?  Is something else going to happen and if so, what?

It's up to Alice and her colleagues to put together the pieces and try and establish why they were murdered and what the note means.  During her initial investigations Alice identifies that both the victim and the suspect were close friends and had both survived a childhood kidnapping twenty five years ago.  It doesn't make sense to her that one friend would kill another and his family, but if he didn't do it who did and why is he being set up?  It's up to Alice to decipher the clues and it would appear that she only has thirteen days to do so before something else is going to happen...        

If I'm honest there were a couple of points when I could have quite easily given up on reading this book but stubbornness kicked in and I perservered with it and actually am glad that I did so as the last half of the book is when everything started to happen at pace.   I'm all for build up but personally for me this could have been a lot shorter to have made it more of an enjoyable read.

I received a copy of The Gift of Darkness to review via the Real Readers review program.  Amazon links: Hardback or Kindle