Syndetics cover image
Image from Syndetics

Down the darkest road / Tami Hoag.

By: Material type: TextTextPublication details: New York : Dutton, 2012.ISBN:
  • 9780525952398
Subject(s): Genre/Form: DDC classification:
  • 813/.54 23
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Star ratings
    Average rating: 0.0 (0 votes)
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Shelving location Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Phillipsburg Free Public Library Adult Fiction Adult Fiction FIC HOAG Available 36748002196055
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Once upon a time I had the perfect family. I had the perfect husband. I had the perfect children. I had the perfect life in the perfect home. And then, as in all fairy tales, evil came into our lives and destroyed us.

Four years after the unsolved disappearance of her sixteen-year-old daughter, Lauren Lawton is the only one still chasing the ghosts of her perfect Santa Barbara life. The world has given her daughter up for dead. Her husband ended his own life in the aftermath. Even Lauren's younger daughter is desperate to find what's left of the childhood she hasn't been allowed to have.

Lauren knows exactly who took her oldest child, but there is not a shred of evidence against the man. Even as he stalks her family, Lauren is powerless to stop him. The Santa Barbara police are handcuffed by the very laws they are sworn to uphold. Looking for a fresh start in a town with no memories, Lauren and her younger daughter, Leah, move to idyllic Oak Knoll. But when Lauren's suspect turns up in the same city, it feels to all the world that history is about to repeat itself. Leah Lawton will soon turn sixteen, and Oak Knoll has a cunning predator on the hunt.

Sheriff's detective Tony Mendez and his team begin to close in on the suspected killer, desperate to keep the young women of their picturesque town safe. But as the investigators sift through the murky circumstances of an increasingly disturbing case, a stunning question changes everything they thought they knew. In Down the Darkest Road , #1 New York Times bestseller Tami Hoag proves again why she is one of the world's most beloved storytellers.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Hoag's third series entry (after Deeper Than the Dead and Secrets to the Grave) returns to the small California town of Oak Knoll. With her daughter Leah, Lauren Lawton has retreated there to escape the pain and heartbreak of her eldest daughter's abduction four years earlier and the subsequent death of her husband. But peace is far from Lauren's grasp as she spots the suspected abductor, Roland Ballencoa, in town. So begins a terrifying turn of events. Series characters Det. Tony Mendez and retired FBI profiler Vince Leone and his wife, Anne, enter the picture as Lauren seeks to discover her missing daughter's fate. Her obsession develops into near vigilantism and the reckless stalking of Ballencoa. Verdict Fans of Lisa Gardner and Iris Johansen will be glued to their seats by Hoag's chilling cliffhanger scenes and psychological puzzles. This taut novel of suspense is a true nail-biter.-Susan Carr, Edwardsville P.L., IL (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Bestseller Hoag's so-so third thriller set in the small California community of Oak Knoll (after 2010's Secrets to the Grave) focuses on 42-year-old Lauren Lawton, who arrives in Oak Knoll in 1990 with her nearly 16-year-old daughter, Leah. Four years earlier, Lauren's other daughter, Leslie, disappeared at age 16 in Santa Barbara, where the police never managed to find a shred of tangible evidence against the obvious suspect in the abduction, creepy photographer Roland Ballencoa. The trauma of Leslie's unknown fate and her father's subsequent suicide left Lauren emotionally shattered and barely able to function. But Oak Knoll proves no refuge. Within months, she's horrified to spot Ballencoa in town. Despite Lauren's best efforts to shield Leah from further terror, history repeats itself. The major plot twist won't surprise many readers, and neither the characters nor the cliche-hobbled story line are among Hoag's best work. Author tour. Agent: Andrea Cirillo. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

Before her daughter, Leslie, then 16, was abducted four years ago, Lauren Lawton had been a lovely woman. But with no assailant or body ever recovered, she has devoted all her energy to trying to keep Leslie's case in the headlines while simultaneously not neglecting her younger daughter, Leah, now nearly 16 herself. In an apparent attempt to make a clean start, Lauren and Leah leave Santa Barbara and head to the fictional Oak Knoll, a high-end pastoral retreat in the foothills. How is it, though, that Ronald Ballencoa, the monster whom Lauren is convinced took and probably murdered her daughter, also now resides in Oak Knoll? Lauren's obsession with Ballencoa is well known to and mostly disregarded by law enforcement in many local jurisdictions, but new-on-the-scene Deputy Mendez doesn't dismiss Lauren's pleas and hopes to be the one to finally bring some closure to the fractured family. Mendez, a protege of legendary profiler Vince Leone (star of many Hoag thrillers), teams up with the feisty Danni Tanner, the original detective on the case (sparks fly between these two). Hoag takes obvious pleasure in keeping her setting circa 1990, before DNA technology had advanced to where it is today and before mobile communications rendered many otherwise tense situations easy-breezy. The setting and her consummate skill as a plotter add to plenty of old-school thrills that pack a punch and will leave fans breathless. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Hoag is on a remarkable streak: since 1995, she has written 30 books, and all 30 have appeared on the New York Times best-seller list. Her publisher will be doing everything in their marketing power to ensure that the streak hits 31.--Wilkens, Mary Frances Copyright 2010 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Phillipsburg Free Public Library
200 Broubalow Way
Phillipsburg, NJ 08865
(908)-454-3712
www.pburglib.org

Powered by Koha