Author: Digger Cartwright
Genre: Thriller
The House of Dark Shadows is an intriguing psychological thriller with film noir elements that harken back to Hitchcock’s era of Norman Bates-style mansions’ and terse unseen figures who linger behind closed curtains, unseen in the darkness.
Alex, the main character, is a man looking for love – in all the wrong places. Deeply torn with pain over his lost love Shannon, he tries to move on and explores the venue of internet dating – a venture which is sometimes successful and at other times filled with horror stories. Despite the warnings, he dates a number of women whilst having a meaningless affair with his secretary, all of whom he is unable to commit to because he is haunted by the ghost of Shannon.
The surreal dream sequences within the book also add an ominous air of foreboding, as do Alex’s breakdowns, which become increasingly frequent as the book progresses toward its climax.
Then he meets Hope – beautiful, elegant, intelligent, charming –and perfectly unobtainable. In a game of sexual cat and mouse, the more she refuses him, the more he wants her. But who is the hunter, and who is the prey? What begins as an innocent internet meeting spirals into a complex descent into obsession, madness, and a game of psychological torment. Is the beautiful Hope what she seems, or has Alex made a terrible mistake and become tangled in a cycle of madness from which there is no escape? Can he escape from The House of Dark Shadows?
This is neither the classic gothic thriller nor the classic dark romance, but something altogether different. Its completely unexpected ending throws a whole different light on everything you read earlier. The ending is good; it makes you actually want to go back and read it again!