“5 out of 5 stars. One of the Best Novels of 2019!” – Wayne Stinnett 4:23 a.m. The phone rings. The officer on the other end says, “It’s a bad one, Darren. Can you come?” Darren McDaniel has worked dozens of homicides in his years as a detective. It’s a dark and gritty business, and he’s prepared to handle whatever it throws at him. Or so he once believed.The pre-teen girl is dead, dressed in a … believed.
The pre-teen girl is dead, dressed in a white princess gown, lying on a bus stop bench. There’s a steel chain clamped to her ankle. A cryptic message scrawled across the booth’s dusty glass wall may be the only clue.
As McDaniel plunges into the case, he isn’t surprised to discover the girl had been held somewhere horrible before her death. But, his blood chills when the evidence shows she wasn’t alone. Other children were with her. Are they still there? Can McDaniel save them in time?
The detective races against the clock, but the closer he gets, the deadlier the chase becomes. Secrets this dark fight back. When those secrets turn their murderous attention on McDaniel’s family, he faces an impossible decision – let the killer walk free or risk losing his own daughter.
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WARNING: the disturbing pedophilia storyline is not for all readers. But the strong portrayal of Detective Darren McDaniel and his partner kept me rooting for the good guys in this dark story of trafficking and abusing children. Set in Bellingham, WA, the city’s unrelenting bleak weather adds depth to all the cops slogging out in the mud looking for clues to the death of a young girl found at a city bus stop. A horrific accident when he was a teenager gives us insight into McDaniels’ compassion and drive for justice in this meticulous police procedural. That accident also fuels his sly sense of humor. The ending is a cliffhanger–expected and logical. Not a HEA, but definitely hopeful.
Axel Blackwell has created a world and a cast of characters that keeps the reader engaged from the first page to the last. The plot is gritty and it’s hard, but so well-written, with a protagonist who is equally gritty but very easy to like, very quickly. This is a great first in series and I’m definitely going to be reading the rest of the books.
I love the characters and the small does of their backstory you find out as the tale unspools. They feel like old friends. The material is dark and it will lead you with a bad taste in your mouth because of the subject matter, but the superb writing more than makes up for the sleaze factor and makes you want to read more. And I will be reading more!
Hold Back the Night is dark, gritty and real. The characters are all vivid and relatable, McDaniel first and foremost, a flawed and sympathetic protagonist that I instantly identified with. Blackwell doesn’t pull any punches, and I couldn’t stop reading from start to finish
One of the best books of 2019! Can’t wait for the next one.
Fiction that could be real. Very scary.
Axel created perfect characters. There are many times that I had to gulp a little because the little girl was such a sad tragedy. I most certainly recommend this book.
This book introduces the reader to a detective, his wife, his daughters, his partner, and a serial killer. It is a grotesque crime, one that consumes the detective. Even though the detectives “get their guy,” the book feels a bit unsettled to me.
Couldn’t put it down. Well done. Thanks for the read.
Enjoyed reading very much.
Couldn’t put it down!
one of those that is hard to put down
When you first read a book there is usually a bad guy in the beginning of the plot. In this book you learn The Who done it along with the police. I so enjoyed this book very well written! I intend to look int more of his books!
Hard to put down. You want the guilty to be caught yet what a story! Unfortunately truly believable.
Hold Back the Night had everything a series opener should: a mystery that starts on page one and sucks you in. Wonderful world-building and a twisted case that still reads as true. None of the officers or criminals had to do anything stupid to move the plot forward, it simply unfolded in a wonderful way. And the story wrapped up leaving us with fantastic characters that we definitely want to follow to book 2.
Engrossing story about the battle and those who fight to hold back the night.
With characters to hate and some to love, so real you feel you could meet on the street. You will not want to put this book down. I will be adding more of Axel’s stories to my reading queue.
This is a great police procedural with one significant problem—Blackwell shows us the answer to half of the mystery in the first chapter of the book wherein a very young girl manages to escape a horrific pedophile before dying of exposure and hypothermia just before she reaches help. This first chapter is extremely well written, but it gives the reader way too much information when you consider that the police procedural encompasses the rest of the novel and the first third of those pages are dedicated to the detective discovering things we already know. The repetition almost caused me to abandon the book, but I’m glad I held on because when we move from locating where the girl came from to who her abuser is the novel becomes everything you would expect from this sort of mystery.
Blackwell is clearly a talented author who has created a cast of engaging characters. I just wish he hadn’t written he first chapter.
Hold Back the Night was a good read……very tragic and sad that something like this can and does happen. The characters were believable and it was hard to put down, I had to see how it ended….
This is about a detective who finds a dead girl and traces her back to an abandoned house. The house is owned by a Canadian and his affairs are managed by an accounting firm. One of the accounting firm’s partners is the pedophile.
It was great, not once did I ever have to look back and say now who is this character again.