The Gift of the Darkness

September 1, 2014
Rookie Seattle homicide detective Alice Madison, the heroine of this powerful but flawed debut, lands squarely in the middle of a headline-grabbing multiple murder—the execution of prominent tax attorney James Sinclair, his wife, and two young sons. The crime has apparent ties both to a notorious kidnapping decades earlier and to a currently suspected cop killer. Anonymous threats, the cryptic warning “thirteen days” carved at the crime scene, and a cunningly executed ambush of investigators suggest the family’s slaying might be just the first act of a fiendish plan. London-based Giambanco keeps the suspenseful plot moving with the assured pacing of the film editor that she is, even if she’s too often willing to sacrifice credibility for chills. She has created a series-worthy star in Madison, a complex young woman striving to put her own troubled past behind her, but leaves other major characters seriously underdeveloped. Hopefully, she’s got more in store for Madison’s well-earned return. Agent: Teresa Chris, Teresa Chris Literary Agency (U.K.).

October 15, 2014
Giambanco's first novel features a Seattle homicide detective who relies on her instincts to thwart a ruthless killer before he can strike again.Detective Alice Madison and her partner, DS Kevin Brown, are on the trail of a killer who trussed up and murdered a family that included two small children. To add to the complicated case, the murders seem connected to an infamous cold case in which three boys were kidnapped and one was killed. New to the homicide division and plagued by dreams of her past, Madison knows she has to carry her own weight to win approval from the division's other detectives, and the case seems fairly easy to crack since they believe they already know who committed the brutal murders early in the game. But figuring out who sent a card to attorney Nathan Quinn with the words "Thirteen Days" and carved the same thing at the crime scene proves much more challenging than Madison anticipated. Working her way through an assortment of dead ends and fighting a leak that lands the intimate details of the case in the newspaper, she decides to ignore procedure and go with her gut. Problem is, the suspected killer's watching her, and he's both deadly and unpredictable. It's obvious that Giambanco conducted impressive research into police procedure before writing this book, but she overshares what she's learned. Instead of having an air of authenticity, the novel often reads like a textbook. It's also too long by at least a third, made unwieldy by stilted dialogue, superfluous detail, random tense changes and a forest of not-very-compelling characters only peripherally connected to the story. A forgettable effort that could have been better with tighter writing and ruthless editing.

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October 15, 2014
This complex novel takes awhile to get going, and while we wait, we witness a foiled robbery, a domestic scene, and a cop pondering her career choices. When it cranks up, with a home invasion that leaves a family of four dead in their beds, readers may feel a memory tweak. It turns into a prod when the killer's brutalized youth is offered as an explanation. When he fakes his death in a fire, it's clear: we're reading a sort of homage to Thomas Harris' Red Dragon (1981), right down to the irritating journalist who gets his comeuppance. But it's not the source of the author's material that matters here; it's what she does with it. The murders are part of a scheme of revenge through misdirection. Clues are left that all but give the killer's name; only the heroine sees it's a trick, and the connection is a kidnapping 20 years ago. The setting is Seattle, but the author is European; her publisher in Europe is Stieg Larsson's, and his audience may well be hers: readers who like complex plotting inside an unhurried narrative.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)