In the Dark / Person of Interest

by Heather Graham

Alexandra McCord's perfect life was crumbling. After stumbling upon the body of a dead woman, she found that her working paradise on Moon Bay Island had turned into a nightmare. Each piece of evidence she discovered seemed to point toward someone on the island—and to herself as the next victim. But who would do this? And why had David Denham, the ex-husband she hadn't seen for more than a year, chosen this moment to reappear in her life?

When a hurricane destroyed her only escape route, Alexandra found herself believing her ex-husband's claims that he'd returned out of concern for her, but there had always been more to David than met the eye. What was he hiding? The evidence pointed toward his guilt, but Alexandra felt compelled to defy logic and trust in the safety of his embrace. No matter what, either her heart or her life would be forfeit.

Genres: Romance, Romantic Suspense, Mystery, Fiction, Suspense, Ebooks

448 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2004

About the author

Also published as Heather Graham Pozzessere and Shannon Drake.

New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Heather Graham majored in theater arts at the University of South Florida. After a stint of several years in dinner theater, back-up vocals, and bartending, she stayed home after the birth of her third child and began to write, working on short horror stories and romances. After some trial and error, she sold her first book, WHEN NEXT WE LOVE, in 1982 and since then, she has written over one hundred novels and novellas including category, romantic suspense, historical romance, vampire fiction, time travel, occult, and Christmas holiday fare. She wrote the launch books for the Dell's Ecstasy Supreme line, Silhouette's Shadows, and for Harlequin's mainstream fiction imprint, Mira Books.

Heather was a founding member of the Florida Romance Writers chapter of RWA and, since 1999, has hosted the Romantic Times Vampire Ball, with all revenues going directly to children's charity.

She is pleased to have been published in approximately twenty languages, and to have been honored with awards frorn Waldenbooks. B. Dalton, Georgia Romance Writers, Affaire de Coeur, Romantic Times, and more. She has had books selected for the Doubleday Book Club and the Literary Guild, and has been quoted, interviewed, or featured in such publications as The Nation, Redbook, People, and USA Today and appeared on many newscasts including local television and Entertainment Tonight.

Heather loves travel and anything have to do with the water, and is a certitified scuba diver. Married since high school graduation and the mother of five, her greatest love in life remains her family, but she also believes her career has been an incredible gift, and she is grateful every day to be doing something that she loves so very much for a living.

Reviews

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started on Dec. 1, 2013. Pg. 15. Dec 2. Pg. 24. Dec 3 pg. 40. Dec 4 pg. 150

I was immediately interested in the story. I love when exes still have chemistry, and I really loved that Alex thought David didn’t care about her or wouldn’t be jealous of her with another man, when he really was jealous of John Seymore and still loved her. That was so sweet and you can’t go wrong with this plot. The only things that really got on my nerves were the comments she made that it was unlikely David had remained single, and she mentioned two women’s names, Bebe something and Alicia, which thankfully he hadn’t slept with.

I really loved that they had a past together, and Alex was justified in divorcing him. She had her side of things, and David had his side. But a lot of their history became very glaringly absent, like how and when they first met, how long they dated, why they were attracted to each other or anything like that. That’s the important stuff, and the author just did not even explain it at all.

Alex wasn’t really that likable—at all. You think someone who cares so much about dolphins would spread a little of that compassion towards people, but nope. I don’t know if the author purposely made her that way, modeled Alex after herself, or she just ended up that way, but her personality and attitude rubbed me the wrong way. Right out of the gate she’s showing no interest to Laurie, who’s trying to find a man. She barely asks about her dating experience, and then just switches the topic back to her. Yeah, not likable. She sees a dead body on the beach, insists it’s a dead body to all who ask, but then gets talked right out of it and goes on to deny that every dead body after that is a dead body. Except in here it’s not just a dead body, it’s specifically “corpse.” There should have been a counter to tally how much times that word was used. Anyways, she starts thinking that the body of Alicia Farr wasn’t really a body, and was just a joke. Seth, the old rich guy, gets killed, and she keeps insisting to David that it was a drowning and not murder, and acts like he’s crazy to even suggest it could have been anything other than an accident. Wtf? Why would she suddenly not believe her own eyes? That was so freakin annoying and it made me really not like her.

Then she just has sex with David spontaneously. The scene where she brings him a towel, and he ends up coming out and teasing her, and her towel ends up falling, was really cute and sweet. But then it gets ruined when they have sex and she’s being mean and cold the next day. That was so unfair to David and I really hated her for doing that. I lose all respect for a woman when they’re mad or sad because of the guy, and then just has sex with them like a total idiot, and then treats the man bad when it was their decision to have sex.

David comes to her cottage after the island has been mostly evacuated, and Alex is acting afraid of him. This is after Laurie told her to be careful around him, that he could be the murderer. She actually doubts him, wonders if she can trust him. That made me hate her even more, but the author wasn’t done there, oh no. Alex is in the shower and David comes in, and they just have sex. Then, as soon as it’s over, she’s pulling away and acting afraid again. Does that even make sense? Pick an emotion and stick with it. If you’re afraid of him, be afraid and don’t let him come in your house and sleep with you. And before she took a shower she asked if she could trust him. She actually asked that. If you think you can’t trust someone, you don’t ask them if you can. What do you think they’re going to say? No, I actually killed someone and you can’t really trust me. Wth is wrong with her?

There’s more distrust and suspicion between her and David, and her and John, and all that, and there’s more threats on their life, in which Alex selfishly runs to her dolphins like a baby, not even caring about anyone else’s life. The murderer turns out to be Hank. Who would’ve guessed? The ending was completely rushed and I didn’t know until I was halfway through the story that it was a short story instead of a full book. I didn’t know there was even another story in here, until I realized the percentage was all wrong. I flipped through the book and realized that it was split in half between two authors. You think that would’ve been on the cover…I don’t know who created this book, but it clearly looked like this was 1 whole book. Anyway, I hate short stories because they’re too quick, things are left unresolved, and problems are just easily botched up and the story is rushed to the finish line in an unfulfilling way. They were not ready to get together, all the past problems just erased with something along the lines of “I’ll do better next time.” Those were real, concrete problems, and they don’t just disappear with love.

The author was not the best writer. Nothing was said in an eloquent or even good way. For example: “David burst into the bedroom of Ally’s cottage, speargun aimed.
But no one was there.
He immediately noticed the open window and the punched-out screen lying on the floor.
Silently, he left the bedroom, then the house, and hurried on toward Alex’s place.
Now the door was wide open. Cautiously, he entered.
He hurried through the cottage.
This time, it was her own bedroom window that was open. A punched-out screen lay mangled on the floor.
He heard a shot.
The sound had come from the area of the Tiki Hut.
He raced from the house and toward the lagoons.”

Women romance authors really fall apart at the action scenes. I’m convinced that women just don’t know how to write action. Just look at those short, choppy sentences. And some aren’t even full sentences. I hate sentence fragments; there’s never a need for them; they don’t make the writing better, unless the character is nervous or frantic or something and can’t think straight, then it would make sense.

Person of Interest:
I don’t like doctors, and I especially don’t like female doctors, and I really don’t like women who wear glasses. So, I certainly didn’t like Elizabeth. She’s so incredibly boring, a stick in the mud with her dumb routine and nonexistent life.
I expected David Maddox to still be alive. It definitely seemed to be leading that way, because his body hadn’t been found, and her profession left the door open that he could have had plastic surgery to reconstruct his face after an injury. But nope, I learned quickly that Joe Hennessey was really the guy she was going to get with, and he’s a total jerk. He has that cold, uncaring, smug, cruel attitude that I cannot stand. It’s just abusive, and there’s no other word for it. He had saved her life months before, keeping her in a dark room and being rude and arrogant, all forms of emotional and verbal abusive (why do so many authors like that?) and for some strange reason Elizabeth almost gets seduced by it. I can see what kind of woman she’s going to be, a doormat for all manner of bad treatment from this a**hole. I have no respect for her whatsoever and doubt I’ll ever get any.

Joe is talking about how he gets second glances from women, and how he finds pleasure where he can and doesn’t dwell on it, and how women can’t resist his dark, alluring charm. Just the kind of guy I like: one that has one night stands all over the nation, wherever he happens to be. And for some strange reason he’s attracted to her. He says she has nice legs, and eyes and hair, and a nice body because she works out. Boy, that’s attraction for you. But he’s knocking her schedule, saying she has a boring life and says she wears “the ugliest black rimmed glasses” and hides her hair in a bun. Ew. I’m so sick of stupid buns and boring skirts and sensible shoes and freakin glasses. I hate it. And why do so many authors like the man to call the woman’s style ugly?

I really hated that Joe had to get surgery to make his face exactly like David’s. I’m not sure what the appeal to that is, but what does it say about Joe if she falls in love with him, when he has David’s face? It’d be like a poor replacement. It really sucked. The only good thing was that she decided to give him his own face back.

It was the most disgusting thing when Elizabeth is giving him details, very intimate details, about her sex life with David. She told Joe how he kissed, what pet names he called her while having sex with her, how he touched her, and what positions he liked. Ew. And Joe actually gets turned on. I get the nature of the conversation would do it, but that’s her having sex with another guy. Again, ew. And she’s giving him all this information because he was expected to sleep with the woman David had been. Elizabeth had started liking him at this point, and the only thing she thought about this was that the other woman would know Joe was a different man because he was bigger in that area. That’s all she had to say, not that she was mad or sad that Joe would be sleeping with another woman, just that the woman would know a difference when they had sex. We seem to be missing something here, Webb, like a realistic, proper reaction.

It pissed me off so bad that David had been cheating on Elizabeth the whole time and didn’t even care about her. This just goes to show that the woman only deserves one relationship, which in this case turns out to be a lie, while the man, Joe, can have countless sexual relationships. Way to stay in the double-standard, hypocritical medieval standards there, Webb. It’s good to see we’ve progressed. Seriously, could Elizabeth not have had at least a few boyfriends? The only thing she deserves is a crappy relationship with a cheater.
And Joe says he would have sex with someone if it got him information. WTH?!?! What kind of relationship could they possibly have after he made that completely distasteful, unfaithful and disgusting comment? How can she be with him when he’s willing to do that? And he says field operatives can’t hope to be faithful or have relationships. Well I’m really glad that Joe is a field operative, it sets up a nice future for them.

I was so mad when Joe kissed that woman David liked. I absolutely hated that it had to go that far, and was quite surprised that nothing came of it. Elizabeth didn’t find out and Joe didn’t even express one ounce of guilt or distaste with it; he didn’t even think of it at all! Wtf kind of story is this?!

This story was so bad. I debated not reading it, and almost didn’t when I found out about his sexual past and her profession. But I stuck with it thinking it would go somewhere. There were like 2 funny quotes, and the rest was just crap. She went on and on and freakin on saying she had loved David and didn’t want to love another CIA agent. She said it so many times I wanted to scream or just stop reading, it was that bad. I don’t need to be told something a million times to remember it, once is enough. Then she performs the surgery on him and for so long after that it’s all about the care and symptoms and I was getting so bored I just wanted something to happen. Then they have sex before he’s supposed to leave on the mission, unprotected sex. There’s really nothing quite as inspirational as careless, un-thought out sex that results in a pregnancy. It’s role model material, really. Then the author throws in a run of the mill, completely boring threat on her life that wasn’t threatening at all. I’m failing to see how this is considered suspenseful, cuz barely anything happen. She escaped to an old man’s house where she had tea and then barely smiled at him, not thanking him at all for his help taking her in and letting her make a phone call. What a terrible person.
Elizabeth is pregnant and eats like a cow, Joe comes, says he loves her, she loves him. She breaks the news about the pregnancy, he’s just A-OK with it, like no one minds having an unplanned baby. The only good thing was that he took a desk job, so he won’t be having sex with any more women on the job. Thanks for small favors.
This story sucked and the ending was so sugary coated I almost threw up. The love was rushed, the ending was rushed, and short stories always suck.

[Jennifer Hill · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was just okay. There was a lot of story leading up to the climax, and then it was just over. I didn't really connect with any of the characters, and I found the "villian" to be lacking any interesting qualities. And the main character, Alex, I just found to be annoying.

[Anna McFadden · Rating 4 out of 5]

after leaving and divorcing her husband and moving to an island working paradise on Moon Bay Island to work with her beloved dolphins, Alexandra McCord's perfect life was about to crumb, and everything turns into a nightmare be she stumbles upon the body of a dead woman, Each piece of evidence she discovered seemed to point toward someone on the island—and to herself as the next victim. on top of this her ex-husband whom she hasn't seen in over a year, David Denham, has chosen this moment to reappear in her life. and then
a hurricane hits destroyed her only escape route, Alexandra found herself believing her ex-husband's claims that he'd returned out of concern for her, but there had always been more to David than met the eye. What was he hiding? can he prove his love.

[Sharon Gallup · Rating 5 out of 5]

once again i found one of her books so spell binding that i couldn't put it down. it takes place at a resort where murders were taking place and leads to a search for a sunken ship treasure map. oh yes there was love and romance and excitement in very move.

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bought the book as a Heather Graham book.

Already read this book. If I'd known this was a reprint, I wouldn't have bought it 😡😡😡😡😡😡😡. I feel deceived by the publisher!

[Lisa Arnold · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my all time favourite by this author but still enjoyed, will keep in the back of the cupboard for a rainy day

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

"In the Dark" by Heather Graham

Alexandra McCord is a dolphin trainer on a resort island off of the coast of Florida. She has been divorced from David Denham who is a treasure hunter / TV celebrity who decided that it was better to be off exploring the world with scantily dressed associates than with his wife doing dolphin research. So when he returns to her island resort she is suspicious -- why has he returned to her too-tame world? It turns out her name was raised by an elderly treasure hunter before he died and there seems to be a trail of death leading straight to Alexandra and David wants to protect his ex-wife whom he still loves.

"Person of Interest" by Debra Webb

Dr. Elizabeth Cameron is a plastic surgeon who has done super secret work for the government. When her past patients end up dead, the CIA sends an agent to have his face altered to look like her dead boy friend. Dr. Cameron has a difficult time changing the face of an agent she doesn't initially like to her dead lover until she learns some of what her dead lover actually did when he wasn't courting her. Joe Hennessey is an agent with a history of playing the ladies, but once he met the good doctor he can only think of her.

[Debbie Heaton · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the Dark-
Alex McCord has a perfect life until she stumbles upon the body of a dead woman. Suddenly, working on Moon Bay Island has turned into a nightmare where each piece of discovered evidence seemed to point toward someone on the island--and to herself as the next victim. Who would do this and why had her ex-husband, David Denham, a man she hadn't seen for more than a year, suddenly decide to pay her a visit? Believing her ex-husband's claims that he was there out of concern for her safety, she instinctly knows that there is more than meets the eye with David but with a hurricane destroying all escape routes, what could she do? The evidence pointed toward his guilt but what could he be hiding? Defying logic, Alex is compelled to trust him now no matter what. An incredible storyteller.

Person of Interest-
Dr. Elizabeth Cameron's work for the CIA has made her a target. She provides new faces to working agents so they can infiltrate the enemy. But now she's become a target and she can't help but wonder if her protector is more dangerous to her safety than the assassin in pursuit. Fast-paced, action packed. It will take you for a ride.

[Ursula Gorman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have finished the first story in this book, In the Dark by Heather Graham, and it deserves a 5 star rating for its fast paced action and storyline. It is also for its intrigueing beginning...The story starts out in the middle, then jumps to the beginning and takes you through the story up to and beyond where it started. Yes, this story deserves a 5 star rating in my opinion.
I'll see if the second half, Person of Interest by Debra Webb, is as deserving of a 5 star rating.

I read the paperback version, not the Kindle version, but the Kindle version was the only option available...

[Carolyn E · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. Heather Graham's stories are always good with plenty of action and a bit of romance thrown in.

Also included in this book is a story by Debra Webb, entitled Person Of Interest. This book is also romantic suspense; I enjoyed both of these stories.

[Janet]

"In the Dark" by Heather Graham was originally a SIM #1309 - 3+ stars for me
"Person of Interest" by Debra Webb was originally a HI #891 - 3.5 stars for me
.
Bestselling Author Collection - 36, reissues of Silhouette Intimate Moments - 1309 & Harlequin Intrigue - 891
.
On reread ITD was downgraded to either a 3 star or 2.5 star and POI is just as good.

[Autumn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love reading Heather's books. Her characters serm so alive and her books move at a nice pace. The bonus to this book was Debra Webb's book. I liked this book too my only critism is that at times the writing seemed choppy but I loved the ending.

[Karunakaran N. · Rating 3 out of 5]

In The Dark - Heather Graham... Suspense on who the killer is lasts till the end... Alex's predicament on suspicion of the killer explicitly hoovered over David and John the ex and the present lover. Treasure hunt being the story line turns to murderer hunt....

[Elsbeth Magilton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heather Graham's story, In the Dark, is fun if not really obvious in both the romance and the mystery, but fun. The second story, Person of Interest, I couldn't even finish. Truly poor and cliche writing style - or at least it didn't work for me.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. A riveting drama that keeps you on the edge of your seat. It's well written, has mysterious characters, a love triangle, murder and dolphins. I couldn't put it down, it kept pulling me in deeper.

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book, just enough suspense and romance to suit me. Worth reading, definatly.

[Doris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very Good, but it seems that pretty much all of the books by Graham have been excellent

[Terrie · Rating 1 out of 5]

TERRIBLE!! everybody runs in circles & there's VERY little story here. Usually love Heather Graham's books, but very disappointed in this one

[Norma Meyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

It wasn't one of her best but I still enjoyed reading it.

[Joann M · Rating 2 out of 5]

I usually don't read murder mystery kinda books but I did like this one

[c]

Joe Hennessey (FBI) and Elizabeth (cosmetic surgeon)

[Joann TRAVIS · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book its a woman that divorces her husband and goes to live on a beach and her husband shows up and dead bodies start to show up is he the killer or not it keeps you guessing.

[Pammy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good read and a twist at the end that I wasn't expecting.

[Kristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was an ok book. the stories were an easy read. nothing too exciting about either. it's a good rainy day read.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the Dark

This book was very good but way too short. It was over before I knew it! Didn't read the second book either.