Reading "Child of Darkness" was an interesting experience for me. I had no idea, until I finished it, that it was part of a series. Consequently, I came to the novel without any preconceived ideas about the characters or expectations about the plot. It simply unfolded page by page and presented itself to me as a self-contained novel.
As such, I think it works very well. There is such an air of mystery about who Celeste Atwell actually is that it keeps the reader guessing from start to finish. Because the older Celeste in the mental institution and the younger Celeste who goes to live with wealthy foster parents have the same name, I was even uncertain about whether they might, in fact, be one and the same person. This ambiguity, while at times frustrating, was also fascinating. I wanted to resolve the puzzle and put all the pieces in their proper places. In fact, not knowing the back story as it appears in the previous two books in the series was actually a plus for me, because it caused me to be more engaged in solving the riddle about Celeste's past.
I really enjoyed the characters in this novel, too. Celeste appealed to me as an intuitive and well-balanced individual, grounded in good values and yet open to non-rational ways of perceiving. The foster mother, amy, was particularly interesting to me in the way she tries to coach Celeste in style and sophistication while simultaneously being extremely insecure and tormented about her own sexuality. The tenants of the farm, though only briefly sketched at the end, also feel like real people with believable reasons for doing what they do.
I am interested to read more books by this author but also slightly wary of being disappointed. I enjoyed being in the dark about much of the plot and would not like to be spoon-fed the story of a family, if that is what books in a series do. I guess I will have to wait to find out!