What do you think?
Rate this book
Alone in the Dark
When her dying father confesses that he is not her biological father -- and that he has a twin -- Washington, D.C., morning news anchor Ellery O'Brien is desperate for answers. Plagued by a recurring nightmare in which a blood-covered woman who has been stabbed repeatedly by a killer, staggers down the staircase of a beautiful old house, Ellery travels to her late mother's hometown -- Agarita Springs, Texas -- not realizing until she arrives that she has rented the very house she sees in her dreams. No one in town wants to dig up the past, but rancher Clint Littleton begins to help Ellery and white-hot attraction sparks between them. The nightmares, however, persist. And each time, before Ellery awakes, she sees an increasingly terrifying image: just a little more of the killer's face. . ."New York Times" bestselling author Elaine Coffman switches gears with pulse-pounding results in her first novel of heart-stopping romantic suspense.
368 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 26, 2006
2 people are currently reading
150 people want to read
About the author
Elaine Coffman
63 books116 followersBarbara Elaine Gunter was born in San Diego, California, to William Samuel Gunter, Jr., a naval officer and Edna Marie (née Davidson) Gunter, a homemaker. From the age of three she lived in Midland, Texas and graduated from Midland High School. After she received a degree in elementary education from North Texas State University, she taught elementary school in Midland, Texas, while working on her Master’s Degree and certification for Language and Learning Disabilities at Texas Tech in Lubbock.
Elaine currently resides in Austin, Texas, where her son, Chuck, also lives. She has two daughters, Lesley who resides in Raleigh, N.C. and Ashley, who lives in San Diego, California.
Elaine Coffman is a New York Times bestselling author with a large international following. She has penned novels in both the historical romance genre and suspense. A lover of history, she has penned several novels set in Scotland, Regency England, Italy and the American West. To date, she is the author of nineteen novels and five novellas.
While writing her first novel, My Enemy, My Love, she found herself inspired by a letter her great-great grandmother, Susannah Jane Dowell Shacklett wrote in 1920, telling about her journey from Brandeburg, Kentucky to San Antonio, Texas, and then going with an army escort to El Paso, Texas, where her brother, Ben Dowell, a veteran of the Mexican War, was El Paso's first mayor.
Elaine continued to write best-selling, award-winning books until the publication of her eleventh novel, If You Loved Me, which was the last book of her beloved Mackinnon series and her first book to hit the New York Times bestseller list.
Her first suspense novel, Alone in the Dark, was published by Pocket books in 2006.
Elaine currently resides in Austin, Texas, where her son, Chuck, also lives. She has two daughters, Lesley who resides in Raleigh, N.C. and Ashley, who lives in San Diego, California.
Elaine Coffman is a New York Times bestselling author with a large international following. She has penned novels in both the historical romance genre and suspense. A lover of history, she has penned several novels set in Scotland, Regency England, Italy and the American West. To date, she is the author of nineteen novels and five novellas.
While writing her first novel, My Enemy, My Love, she found herself inspired by a letter her great-great grandmother, Susannah Jane Dowell Shacklett wrote in 1920, telling about her journey from Brandeburg, Kentucky to San Antonio, Texas, and then going with an army escort to El Paso, Texas, where her brother, Ben Dowell, a veteran of the Mexican War, was El Paso's first mayor.
Elaine continued to write best-selling, award-winning books until the publication of her eleventh novel, If You Loved Me, which was the last book of her beloved Mackinnon series and her first book to hit the New York Times bestseller list.
Her first suspense novel, Alone in the Dark, was published by Pocket books in 2006.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
February 17, 2019
Not quite sure how I feel about this story. I gave it 3 stars since I finished it. I wasn’t bored but didn’t particularly like it. Somewhat cheesy and the main character’s reactions to events were not believable.
March 4, 2012
This book was one of the worst I ever read. The heroine was TSTL and I was so upset I wrote a nice letter to the publisher about this book, and sent this back to the publishing house. I have read thousands of books, and this ranks in the top 5 of one of the worst books I ever read.
November 18, 2007
Hated the ending of this book. It had great potential and then bombed in the end!!
May 28, 2021
I would give this book about a 10/10 just because it hits all the pin points that I like to see/read in a book. I think that it was spot on and that just the way that it was written just made it a whole better book. My favorite character was Ellery and Clay, they were both powering and they just had a sad but good role to play in this book. My top favorite event was when she was just learning about how she had a twin sister and that her hometown and where she lived was in Texas. This is more so a mystery writing style and it goes into great detail if you like those books. This pace would probably be like a 8/10 it goes into some detail with what's going on but it doesn't stay like tht for long which is amazing to me. I feel as if I can make a few connections with this book and with the character Ellery just because she feels lonely and she just doesn't have many friends. I think that anyone that likes to read mystery books or even like murder mystery, should definitely read this book it was amazing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 27, 2018
This was a typical book. Nothing special about it. In fact the whole story line is so old that it’s almost boring to read. If it hadn’t been for Ellers sarcastic attitude I might have stopped reading. On her fathers deathbed Ellers learns a big secret & after he dies she goes off to find the truth. Very cliche. Of course she finds her soul mate and things end happily ever after. Not a lot of mystery in this mystery. I figured out who did it & why before getting to the end.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 25, 2019
This is the first time I’ve read a book by this author and was swept away by her. It grabbed me right from the start. Loved all the characters especially Ellery and Clint. This story had everything a reader could want. I will definitely look for more books by her.
January 30, 2024
Clever story. Thought the ending was very predictable. Not really any plot twists.
October 18, 2024
Well, my run of bad reads continues...😭
There were multiple points in this book where I considered not continuing with the read, and finally DNFed it after I started heavily skimming around chapter 25.
Let's start with the concept of the book.
It had such interesting potential! Searching for a lost twin, a mysterious dream that haunts our heroine, and a studly cowboy who wants to help our leading lady? Yes, please! But sadly, it was poorly executed.
The plot was drawn out and included quite a lot of unimportant details, starting with the opening scene of our heroine, Ellery, arriving at work at 5 am. Then we proceed to get useless periodic updates..."5:01, the elevator doors close", then we follow her around the newsroom, "5:50 she sits at her desk". I kept expecting something important to happen, but nothing occurred here that furthered the plot, save for a conversation establishing that Ellery's father was sick. Which could have been done in a much more efficient way.
We continue the theme of useless details that don't serve a purpose but instead feel like filler to get a larger word count... such as Ellery picking up the phone to call someone who doesn't answer, or Ellery sitting at the computer all day researching, and the bland passing of time that day. Or our heroine making a grocery list and how she takes her toast in the morning. Again things that do not serve a point.
Given the author was firstly a Romance writer, I had hopes that if the mystery fell flat, at least the romance would carry the book. However, instead of an engaging couple that I wanted to root for to get together, the romance was sparse and random. And at multiple points, our hero isn't even around, which I found odd.
We have Ellery who is supposedly a "ballsy reporter", and yet is also the most clumsy accident-prone character I've read. She is also annoyingly stubborn, which I think is many authors' idea of making a leading lady "tough". Instead, she comes off as foolish.
When a stalker has broken into your home, multiple times, and made threats against your life...staying in the house...alone no less...is not brave. It is idiotic. 😒 Our hero makes a few minor attempts to stay with her or to have her stay at his place but she refuses both ideas because "I can take care of this". 🤦♀️
This is one of the times our hero just randomly disappears. Ellery and Clint finally have a moment where sparks fly (which took forever, and not in a good slow-burn kinda way) and then he flat out isn't around for days. No calls, no checking in to see how Ellery is dealing with things. And no explanation for his absence either.
It's a shame too, because what we did get of Clint made him a likable hero. He had a lot going for him, including knowing how to cook (besides the usual trope of being incredibly hot). But where was he most of the time??
A few of these issues might have been forgivable, but the whole book (writing style included) came off like a rough draft that never got edited. We get long, overdrawn conversations that sound completely unnatural. Characters that are supposed to be rattled spouting complete paragraphs of polite explanations and apologies when they are trying to leave. Paragraphs where something happens, and is then explained twice in a row, in slightly different ways. For example, "she held out her arms" and then "when she held out her arms"... I could see there being instances where it might be necessary to slightly repeat details, but every time it happened in this book it felt out of place and repetitive.
Another aspect of the writing I found odd was when something happened with zero reaction details from our characters, only written action. Such as when Ellery accidentally knocks over a wine glass. I would expect her to have reacted by saying something like "oh no!" or even just a gasp or something. Instead, we get a list of what happens, "Ellery's glass fell and broke. She picked up the pieces and put them in a napkin, and poked her finger on a broken piece of glass." This whole time we get no reaction from her or even Clint, who probably would have said something such as "here, let me get that for you", or "woops, careful".
Instead, it's a moment (and there are lots of them) that falls into this strange void of reactive details that would naturally happen in real life. People don't just break something, and not react while everyone around them sits and waits for them to clean it up before saying anything. It was odd.
So yeah, giving up as a DNF...I can't force myself thru anymore of this. At this point, I don't care if Ellery finds out who killed her sister, and I don't care if she gets closer to Cliff. I just don't.
There were multiple points in this book where I considered not continuing with the read, and finally DNFed it after I started heavily skimming around chapter 25.
Let's start with the concept of the book.
It had such interesting potential! Searching for a lost twin, a mysterious dream that haunts our heroine, and a studly cowboy who wants to help our leading lady? Yes, please! But sadly, it was poorly executed.
The plot was drawn out and included quite a lot of unimportant details, starting with the opening scene of our heroine, Ellery, arriving at work at 5 am. Then we proceed to get useless periodic updates..."5:01, the elevator doors close", then we follow her around the newsroom, "5:50 she sits at her desk". I kept expecting something important to happen, but nothing occurred here that furthered the plot, save for a conversation establishing that Ellery's father was sick. Which could have been done in a much more efficient way.
We continue the theme of useless details that don't serve a purpose but instead feel like filler to get a larger word count... such as Ellery picking up the phone to call someone who doesn't answer, or Ellery sitting at the computer all day researching, and the bland passing of time that day. Or our heroine making a grocery list and how she takes her toast in the morning. Again things that do not serve a point.
Given the author was firstly a Romance writer, I had hopes that if the mystery fell flat, at least the romance would carry the book. However, instead of an engaging couple that I wanted to root for to get together, the romance was sparse and random. And at multiple points, our hero isn't even around, which I found odd.
We have Ellery who is supposedly a "ballsy reporter", and yet is also the most clumsy accident-prone character I've read. She is also annoyingly stubborn, which I think is many authors' idea of making a leading lady "tough". Instead, she comes off as foolish.
When a stalker has broken into your home, multiple times, and made threats against your life...staying in the house...alone no less...is not brave. It is idiotic. 😒 Our hero makes a few minor attempts to stay with her or to have her stay at his place but she refuses both ideas because "I can take care of this". 🤦♀️
This is one of the times our hero just randomly disappears. Ellery and Clint finally have a moment where sparks fly (which took forever, and not in a good slow-burn kinda way) and then he flat out isn't around for days. No calls, no checking in to see how Ellery is dealing with things. And no explanation for his absence either.
It's a shame too, because what we did get of Clint made him a likable hero. He had a lot going for him, including knowing how to cook (besides the usual trope of being incredibly hot). But where was he most of the time??
A few of these issues might have been forgivable, but the whole book (writing style included) came off like a rough draft that never got edited. We get long, overdrawn conversations that sound completely unnatural. Characters that are supposed to be rattled spouting complete paragraphs of polite explanations and apologies when they are trying to leave. Paragraphs where something happens, and is then explained twice in a row, in slightly different ways. For example, "she held out her arms" and then "when she held out her arms"... I could see there being instances where it might be necessary to slightly repeat details, but every time it happened in this book it felt out of place and repetitive.
Another aspect of the writing I found odd was when something happened with zero reaction details from our characters, only written action. Such as when Ellery accidentally knocks over a wine glass. I would expect her to have reacted by saying something like "oh no!" or even just a gasp or something. Instead, we get a list of what happens, "Ellery's glass fell and broke. She picked up the pieces and put them in a napkin, and poked her finger on a broken piece of glass." This whole time we get no reaction from her or even Clint, who probably would have said something such as "here, let me get that for you", or "woops, careful".
Instead, it's a moment (and there are lots of them) that falls into this strange void of reactive details that would naturally happen in real life. People don't just break something, and not react while everyone around them sits and waits for them to clean it up before saying anything. It was odd.
So yeah, giving up as a DNF...I can't force myself thru anymore of this. At this point, I don't care if Ellery finds out who killed her sister, and I don't care if she gets closer to Cliff. I just don't.
July 2, 2008
Ellery O'Brien is a news anchor for a major programme in Washington DC. Successful, very attractive and seemingly with everything she could wish for, she is astounded when her father, dying from cancer, tells her not only is he not her biological father, but that she has a twin sister. The girls were separated at birth, Ellery staying with her mother, whilst her sister was taken by their father – married to somebody else at the time the girls were born. Ellery's mother died when she was very young and her father has kept the secret as a promise to his wife for all these years.
When her father dies shortly after, Ellery travels to her mother's home town in Texas to try to find her sister, not realising that in the process she has rented the very house that she is seeing in a series of violent and disturbing nightmares. At first, nobody in town seems to know anything but Ellery meets local rancher Clint and together they find out the truth about her sister.
This book has, on the face of it, an interesting concept. The search for a lost twin, the possibility of coincidence not only in the way that the girls look, but in parallel lines in their lives. Unfortunately the concept is not well served in ALONE IN THE DARK.
The main characters – Ellery and Clint are just way to “perfect” to be true. She's beautiful, successful, great legs, wealthy, independent, vulnerable..... He's the chisel jawed, taciturn rancher. They fall for each other despite a prickly first encounter. The town is full of happy friendly people; mysterious women sitting in darkened rooms; family members who just immediately open up about all the dirty secrets; family members who remain enigmatic.
And there are some very weird plot points that just don't make sense or surge to the front and then disappear never to be seen again. Ellery has her beloved dog Bertha, who, it's pointed out very early on “isn't much of a watchdog”. Convenient given what starts to happen when somebody is breaking into the house she's living in and performing all sorts of nefarious acts. But even allowing for the fact that we've got a dog that's not much of a watchdog, Ellery wonders why she doesn't bark when the house is broken into when she's home, although she never bothers to actually go and check on the poor thing, and then the dog is bundled off to Clint's ranch and never heard of again. Very strange behaviour for a supposed lover of that dog. There was also the almost incomprehensible goings on with Ellery's contact lenses – which are coloured and they, and her blonded hair, seem to have been the main reason that nobody connected Ellery immediately with her twin sister. Possible maybe, but the constant reference to those contact lenses, even after she had been firmly connected with her sister - what was the point? At the start of the book, assumingly to establish the level of Ellery's fabulousness, considerable emphasis is placed on how vitally important she is to her shows ratings and how they couldn't possible survive without her. So she packs up with zero notice and heads off to the wilds of Texas, without a backward glance at the job – except to tell all and sundry that she's a famous news anchor! Finally there was a real tendency throughout the book to telegraph all future actions in a very obvious manner. One small household accident, an appliance that “strangely” couldn't be repaired / replaced and you've got a potential future defence / murder weapon. At that point, given that there was only one Not Perfect character in the entire book, it wasn't too difficult to work out what was coming. The dialogue was arch, coy and frequently turgid and ultimately the book was messy with lots of loose ends thrown into the mix. It really felt like it couldn't decide if it was a straight romance or a mystery novel and just got lost somewhere in the middle.
Elaine Coffman's publicity mentions that she is a New York Times bestselling author, and that ALONE IN THE DARK is the first mystery / crime novel by this romance author. Fans of hers will undoubtedly read this book to see how she converts from straight romance to romantic mystery.
When her father dies shortly after, Ellery travels to her mother's home town in Texas to try to find her sister, not realising that in the process she has rented the very house that she is seeing in a series of violent and disturbing nightmares. At first, nobody in town seems to know anything but Ellery meets local rancher Clint and together they find out the truth about her sister.
This book has, on the face of it, an interesting concept. The search for a lost twin, the possibility of coincidence not only in the way that the girls look, but in parallel lines in their lives. Unfortunately the concept is not well served in ALONE IN THE DARK.
The main characters – Ellery and Clint are just way to “perfect” to be true. She's beautiful, successful, great legs, wealthy, independent, vulnerable..... He's the chisel jawed, taciturn rancher. They fall for each other despite a prickly first encounter. The town is full of happy friendly people; mysterious women sitting in darkened rooms; family members who just immediately open up about all the dirty secrets; family members who remain enigmatic.
And there are some very weird plot points that just don't make sense or surge to the front and then disappear never to be seen again. Ellery has her beloved dog Bertha, who, it's pointed out very early on “isn't much of a watchdog”. Convenient given what starts to happen when somebody is breaking into the house she's living in and performing all sorts of nefarious acts. But even allowing for the fact that we've got a dog that's not much of a watchdog, Ellery wonders why she doesn't bark when the house is broken into when she's home, although she never bothers to actually go and check on the poor thing, and then the dog is bundled off to Clint's ranch and never heard of again. Very strange behaviour for a supposed lover of that dog. There was also the almost incomprehensible goings on with Ellery's contact lenses – which are coloured and they, and her blonded hair, seem to have been the main reason that nobody connected Ellery immediately with her twin sister. Possible maybe, but the constant reference to those contact lenses, even after she had been firmly connected with her sister - what was the point? At the start of the book, assumingly to establish the level of Ellery's fabulousness, considerable emphasis is placed on how vitally important she is to her shows ratings and how they couldn't possible survive without her. So she packs up with zero notice and heads off to the wilds of Texas, without a backward glance at the job – except to tell all and sundry that she's a famous news anchor! Finally there was a real tendency throughout the book to telegraph all future actions in a very obvious manner. One small household accident, an appliance that “strangely” couldn't be repaired / replaced and you've got a potential future defence / murder weapon. At that point, given that there was only one Not Perfect character in the entire book, it wasn't too difficult to work out what was coming. The dialogue was arch, coy and frequently turgid and ultimately the book was messy with lots of loose ends thrown into the mix. It really felt like it couldn't decide if it was a straight romance or a mystery novel and just got lost somewhere in the middle.
Elaine Coffman's publicity mentions that she is a New York Times bestselling author, and that ALONE IN THE DARK is the first mystery / crime novel by this romance author. Fans of hers will undoubtedly read this book to see how she converts from straight romance to romantic mystery.
February 11, 2010
I liked this book. It was very suspenseful due to the fact that the heroine was too stubborn to leave the house when anyone else probably would have. But I liked Ellery anyway, and Clint more than made up for any deficits on her part. As I read, I kept trying to think of a word to explain the romance because it was different than those I've read recently. I knew sweet didn't describe it because Clint was too much of a hunk, and I finally settled on the word, lovely. Even the physical parts were cleverly balanced; they didn't overpower the rest of the book.
I pretty much figured out who the stalker was around the middle of the book, but didn't know for sure. I would liked to have seen a little more time spent with some of the side characters. Ellery spent way too much time with the police, mainly because there were too many incidents. The ending was kind of rushed, and they never did really explain how the killer was able to gain access to Ellery so easily.
I would especially recommend it those who like good romance dialog. This author usually writes historical romances, but this book is written as a present day romantic suspense novel. As far as I can tell, this is the only one she's written in this genre. I like good historical romances, although I confess I haven't found a lot of interesting ones lately. After reading this book, though, I think I will definitely give one of hers a try.
I pretty much figured out who the stalker was around the middle of the book, but didn't know for sure. I would liked to have seen a little more time spent with some of the side characters. Ellery spent way too much time with the police, mainly because there were too many incidents. The ending was kind of rushed, and they never did really explain how the killer was able to gain access to Ellery so easily.
I would especially recommend it those who like good romance dialog. This author usually writes historical romances, but this book is written as a present day romantic suspense novel. As far as I can tell, this is the only one she's written in this genre. I like good historical romances, although I confess I haven't found a lot of interesting ones lately. After reading this book, though, I think I will definitely give one of hers a try.
May 26, 2018
When her dying father confesses that he is not her biological father -- and that he has a twin -- Washington, D.C., morning news anchor Ellery O'Brien is desperate for answers. Plagued by a recurring nightmare in which a blood-covered woman who has been stabbed repeatedly by a killer, staggers down the staircase of a beautiful old house, Ellery travels to her late mother's hometown -- Agarita Springs, Texas -- not realizing until she arrives that she has rented the very house she sees in her dreams. No one in town wants to dig up the past, but rancher Clint Littleton begins to help Ellery and white-hot attraction sparks between them. The nightmares, however, persist. And each time, before Ellery awakes, she sees an increasingly terrifying image: just a little more of the killer's face. . .
July 25, 2008
Great! It was suspensful even though it was obvious what would happen.
December 18, 2008
actually reading this story had me a little paranoid, it is that believeable
September 3, 2011
It was fair...in the realm of mindless fiction...like reading a James Patterson novel...
November 14, 2016
Liked it a lot
Read
April 11, 2014This book didn't translate well on my Nook, the formatting and font had problems. I couldn't finish and will not rate.
February 24, 2015
Thrilling but....
September 27, 2015
A very good, quick read.
July 12, 2009
Really good book.
March 20, 2016
great book, loved it.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews