Dark Falls, Detective Megan Carpenter’s third outing, starts almost a month after she and Ronnie Marsh – the trainee deputy – stop a serial killer and almost get themselves killed in the process. Megan is being stalked by someone who knows all about her murky and violent past and the stalker has upped their game now, by gruesomely killing a woman who had helped Megan in the past and was one of the very few friends she has had in her turbulent life. Megan has only one suspect – the sibling of the man responsible making her what she is. Now, she has to catch the killer and neutralize him, in order to avenge her friend’s murder and to prevent the secrets of her past from derailing her somewhat agreeable present.

Megan’s is a difficult character to readily like or dislike. Her aversion to playing by the rules and her readiness to use people to achieve her ends make her quite unpredictable. She seems to be living in her past most of the time, replaying often the old tape recordings of her sessions with her psychiatrist. Her longing to put her past to rest and lead a normal life like so many others shows a vulnerability inside her tough veneer. Intriguing though she is, her cynicism, her unsociable behaviour, and her obsession with her past starts to grate a bit. But, the lovable Ronnie lightens up all that bleakness, and she has grown more endearing in her second appearance. Sheriff Gray is another fine character, his trust and leniency towards Megan in spite of her faults feels unconvincing.

Dark Falls, like its predecessor Water’s Edge, is atmospheric, fast paced and is quite gripping in its narration. These factors, along with the strong central characters, make it a compelling read. However, I dearly wish that Megan’s obsession with her past is finished with this book and that she moves on to fighting crimes unrelated to herself in the future episodes. I would recommend Dark Falls to those crime thriller buffs who like powerful female protagonists and would advise that they read the series from the start for a better experience. My rating for this intense thriller is 3.5 out of 5, the extra half being exclusively for Ronnie.

I would like to thank the author (Gregg Olsen), the publisher (Bookouture), and netgalley.com for the e-ARC of Dark Falls in exchange for my unbiased review, which appears here... https://www.netgalley.com/book/206446/review/670189 ( )

In book three of the Detective Megan Carpenter series, Megan runs into Monique Delmont, an old friend from her past life. Unfortunately, someone had already removed Monique’s skin from her body—ew—so they didn’t get a chance to catch up. Continuing to lie about her past to her boss, Sherrif Tony Gray, and her new partner, Ronnie Marsh, Megan begins searching for the killer she knows is really after her—but what she doesn’t know is there’s a new player in town that won’t rest until Megan and everyone she cares about is dead. Fast-paced and action-packed, this story takes hold and doesn’t let go until the last page. ( )