The Dark Won't Wait

by David A. Poulsen

Dom's life revolves around cars and baseball until a chance connection to a high school audition hands him a major role in a psychological thriller. This would be exciting enough, except that real life begins to shadow the script in a very creepy way as an elusive girl and a local murder draw Dom out of his otherwise quiet shell. With a nod to Frederick Knott's famous play "Wait Until Dark" and its subsequent film, this book has it all — drama, mystery, thrills aplenty, and contemporary teen humour.

Genres: Young Adult, Thriller

296 pages, Paperback

Published March 1, 2025

About the author

David A. Poulsen has been a rodeo competitor and rodeo clown, rock singer, high school football coach, stage and film actor, documentary television writer and host, and college English instructor. Since retiring from rodeo competition - he admits to being a not-very-good bareback rider and later an accident-prone rodeo clown, David Poulsen has taken up residence in announcer's stands across North America. The results have been tremendously positive both for David and audiences who have listened to his knowledgeable and enthusiastic commentary for the last twenty-six years.

With 1500 performances to his credit, the likable Alberta native has appeared at many of the major rodeos and bull riding events in Canada, among them the Canadian Finals Rodeo (three times), the Calgary Stampede for the last sixteen years in a row and, the PCB Bull Riding Finals. He has been at the microphone for twenty-eight Finals events in seven different associations. Equally at home in front of a TV camera, he has been seen on CTV Wide World of Sports, TSN Television Sports and each year co-hosts the popular Stampede Roundup program on Calgary's CFCN-TV with Glen Campbell. He also acted as co-host of the documentary series The Complete Rider for The Outdoor Life Network. David's announcing talents have also taken him to the big screen. He twice played the role of a rodeo announcer in the successful family series The Black Stallion and was behind the microphone for the rodeo scenes in the movie Convict Cowboy that starred Jon Voigt

David is also a successful writer with some 17 published books to his credit. His writing career began in earnest in 1984 when his short story The Welcomin’ won the Alberta Culture Short Story Writing Competition. His newest book Last Sam's Cage (published by Key Porter Books, Toronto, ON) arrived in bookstores in October, 2005 and has been enjoying a tremendous reception with readers across Canada and beyond. Because a number of his books target young readers, David spends between 60 and 80 days a year in classrooms across Canada, talking to kids about his books and his life as a writer and sharing his stories with students.

David and his wife Barb raise running quarter horses on a small but picturesque ranch (El Rancho Pequino) in the Alberta foothills west of Claresholm.

Reviews

[Julie Turgeon Newman · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far this is the best Red Maple Nominee I have read this year. It was a fast read, and I didn’t want to put it down. I think it would be a great read aloud. I think the 7/8s would really like it.

[Ren · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was okay, I'm not the biggest thriller fan and especially so of the "amateur detective" range of them. The characters were alright, this was just kind of... Not necessarily bad, but not necessarily great either. Just kind of mid.

[Danielle]

Battle of the Books 2025/2026

[Mel David · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Rachael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly not good. Started strong (ish) then went downhill. Lost interest past 50%.

Red Maple 2026

[Delia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly? I wasn’t that big a fan of this book. I mean it was good but it was a lot of random stuff going on and only 10 pages of actually good thriller action, and even that wasnt the best. It’s a pretty straightforward plot so there are literally no twists except one which doesn’t even change a thing. I’m pretty sure I would give this book a 2.5 but I can’t do that so three it is. Not the best book :(

[Emily Guest · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book started very slowly and it took quite a while to build up to the actual good part of the story. The synopsis isn't entirely true because things only mirror the play in the final 5 chapters or so and I thought that as the play was being rehearsed the events of the play would be occurring as they covered scenes reaching a climax on opening night. But I guess that's my fault for expecting it to be how I imagined it in my head.

[Randy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Do teens accomplish everything that is in books like this? Probably not in most cases, but maybe that is why books like this are written and read: to inspire and encourage young people to be better and dream.

[Mrs. Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was enjoyable with times of humour and suspense. It's a great book for young people who don't want anything too scary but will keep them wondering at what will happen next. I highly recommend it.

[Ashley Kim]

*read for The Forest of Reading 2026

[ellayyreads · Rating 2 out of 5]

So many spelling mistakes - satin/satan, edmund/Edmond. Not my fave like what no get it away from me. So many better books out there

[Read by Curtis · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the first third of the book, I didn't even know what the book was about. Maybe I was too old to read this book, because I kept being confounded why the MC wouldn't just talk to an adult instead of putting himself in the line of danger to solve a crime...but then I guess there wouldn't have been a story. It was okay, but I liked the characterization.

[Galit · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t love the book. It had a good idea and plot, however I really didn’t love the writing of it. It had very little dialogue or at least the dialogue did not flow, it was interrupted each time by an action, movement, thought, or anything else that made it a paragraph instead of simply a line. Though I think this can work in some cases, I found the book quite boring and un-engaging, it felt very cliche and a lot of the time cringy, just really unnatural.