Haynes offers up one of the most effective uses of alternating past/present narratives that I've ever read. It's so... unsettling to see the character of Catherine as she was before and as she is now - it at first seems like you're reading the POVs of two different characters. But not only that, it's the development of Lee himself that is even worse. If you are an Author and you’d like me to consider reading and reviewing your book please just message me. It’s a great, keep-you-up-all-night reading and thinking exploration of the dark side of relationships with the wrong person.... INTO THE DARKEST CORNER begs for a film adaptation for many reasons, even if there is no possibility that such a movie would be anywhere close to being as good as the book."

This is not a book for the faint hearted and I have to warn readers there is quite a bit of profanity in this novel and some people may find that offensive so therefore be warned. The ending was brilliant. I couldn't quite figure it out if it was a cliffhanger and there will be a sequel coming up or if it was just authors last attempt to screw with my mind. The ending left me wondering "What's next?". I realize that everything that needed to be told, was told. But the way the book ended still left me feeling like I read just half of the story... I have listened to Karan Cass twice before and she gives a flawless performance in this book with accents and variations for each character. David's performance is similar although his part is smaller that that of Ms CassThe story was partly inspired by my work as a police intelligence analyst. At the time I was producing a quarterly report on violent crime and as part of this I read a lot of accounts of domestic abuse. I was guilty of having very fixed ideas about violence in the home and the sort of people who were victims of it, and this stereotype was challenged in every way by the reports I was analysing. I’d always thought of domestic abuse as something that happened to ‘other people’, but it affects many couples and families from every part of society and is often very well hidden. In the book, Cathy’s friends don’t realise what is going on right in front of them, partly because they have no experience of violence – it’s something that happens to ‘other people’. Into the Darkest Corner was suspenseful, riveting, and disturbing. The story is unsettling because of how realistic it was. I’m sure something of what happened to Cathy has probably happened or is happening as I write this review. Four years ago Cathy fell for Lee who is equal parts good looking, intense, and charming. From that point on her life slowly turns into hell.

Told from the point of the view of a female victim, this first novel is utterly gripping, extremely well told and considerably more detailed and textured than the typical crime thriller.”

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The gripping tale is told in an alternating narrative that switches between the two timeframes: dates are clearly marked so that it is easy to distinguish the “when” of events. There are also two court transcripts that explain certain incidents. Haynes gives the reader a riveting plot with a twist or two, several nail-biting climaxes and some bombshell revelations that will have them gasping. Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.