The Dark Room

By: Lisa Gray

Narrated by: Michael Orenstein

All’s fair in love and revenge in this taut thriller from bestselling author Lisa Gray.

Ex-crime reporter Leonard Blaylock spends his days on an unusual hobby, developing strangers’ forgotten and discarded rolls of film. He loves the small mysteries the photographs reveal to him. Then Leonard finds something no one would ever expect, or want, to see captured on film—the murder of a young woman.

But that’s impossible, because the woman is already dead. Leonard was there when it happened five years earlier.

He has never been able to shake his guilt from that terrible night. It cost Leonard everything: his career, his fiancée, his future. But if the woman didn’t really die, then what actually happened?

©2022 Lisa Gray (P)2022 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“Revenge piled on revenge, all of it served ice cold.”—Kirkus Reviews

“This taut, twisty standalone from [Lisa] Gray is dense with buried motives and betrayals…Fans of Colleen Hoover’s Verity will find much to enjoy.”—Publishers Weekly

“Another triumph from Gray…It’s all thrills in this police procedural with a twist.”—The Sun

Good

Liked the book as a whole. The story took some unexpected turns. About 3/4 of the way thru the book it lost my attention- had to work to stay interested. Ended good though.

Spellbinding

Will keep the reader on the edge of their seat. Surprise ending at its best.

This book was disappointing

this was my fifth Lisa Gray book and the only one I absolutely didn't like at all. It was like a completely different person wrote it. I did not enjoy the narration at all the female voices we're awful and sounded like they were supposed to be voicing a cartoon if not a woman who was on a national morning television show. The ending was kind of strange and I really wish I would have just skipped it. Total waste of a credit for me.

Guilt, Relief, then rinse and repeat!

This was a good thriller. I was intrigued by the premise of a newspaper reporter who collected and developed “lost and found” film. Leonard grabbed my interest from the first photo to the last. His collection results in many unexpected twists and turns as Leonard tracks down the subjects in those photos-and becomes the subject of someone else’s photos. Because he has some character flaws, Leonard has guilt and regret over some of his own actions and those become a major part of the plot.
This was a fun listen and I recommend it to those who are looking for a mystery thriller that’s a bit shorter than some others, but packs a lot of enjoyment into those hours. A little humor doesn’t hurt either.

Lots of twists and turns

Leonard Blaylock's hobby is purchasing rolls of discarded film and developing the pictures to see what is on it. One film which is dated only weeks ago shows what looks like the bloody stabbing death of a beautiful redhead. The date on the film shows that the pictures were taken recently. But Leonard knows this woman. As a matter of fact, he was there when she died nearly five years ago. How could she be in these pictures now?

We learn at the beginning of the story that Leonard is a serial cheater who picked up the redhead in a bar and went back to her hotel room. She ended up dead and he quickly left the hotel. He has been living with guilt ever since. Now that he knows she really didn't die that night five years ago, he is interested in learning what exactly happened.

As usual with Lisa Gray's books, the story is told from multiple timelines. Jumping from past to present with various characters points-of-view sometimes got a little confusing. I really had to concentrate on what was happening. I'm glad I did. This story has lots of twists and turns that I didn't expect.

I listened to the audiobook which was read by Michael Orenstein. It only took two days since it was a rather short book, and I didn't want to stop listening to it. My rating: 4 Stars.