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Paris Peralta has kept her life low-key and under the radar. When she marries a celebrity, she only does so because he’s retired and living a quiet life in Seattle. But then one night, her much-older husband is found dead in a blood-filled bathtub, with her nearby, holding a straight razor.
Charged with murder, Paris is now on everyone’s radar. And she’s terrified her past will now catch up with her.
Twenty-five years earlier, Ruby Reyes was put in prison for life for the stabbing death of her wealthy, much-older lover. Now, Ruby has made parole, and she knows who Paris really is.
Paris has to figure out who really killed her husband and how to protect herself from the past rearing up to ruin her future.
Things We Do in the Dark goes between the past and the present and between points of view of a few main characters. It’s definitely compelling and the story of Ruby’s daughter is heartbreaking. It’s fairly easy to figure out who is who in the story. But there are a few options for how Paris’s husband ended up bleeding out in a tub, and I didn’t know for sure what was the real cause until it was revealed. Hillier writes a page-turner. I just don’t think I would have read it had I known how much of the story involves child abuse and rape. It’s not detailed but still is haunting.
Rated: High. Profanity includes almost 80 uses of strong language, about 80 instances of moderate profanity, about 40 uses of mild language, and about 30 instances of the name of Deity in vain. Sexual content includes some fairly brief sex scenes but a good number of references to a girl being raped. Violence includes a bloody scene where a man bleeds out in a bathtub full of water, several flashbacks to a man being stabbed repeatedly and then deeply slashed in the throat, and numerous references to child abuse. A woman is stabbed and slashed viciously. Drugs are used and sold and a drug gang operates.
*I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
