A Darker Side of Paradise

by R.J. Ellory

A brand new thriller from the internationally bestselling author of A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS

****

Rookie police officer Rachel Hoffman has never seen a dead body before.
It will not be her last.

Her first murder case is a young woman - sent off to sleep with a mysterious note that quotes from an eight-hundred year old Dante's Divine Comedy.

So begins an investigation that will haunt her for the rest of her life, and lead Rachel on a descent into obsession that upends everything she thought she knew about justice.

As the killings unfold over the decades, Rachel's obsession will drive her from small-town America through the streets of NYC, to a revelation that will cost her everything.

Because every case she thought she solved was a lie.
And the truth is more dangerous than she could have imagined.

****

PRAISE FOR R.J. ELLORY

'Beautiful and haunting... A tour de force' MICHAEL CONNELLY

'Beautifully written novels that are also great mysteries' JAMES PATTERSON

'A uniquely gifted, passionate, and powerful writer' ALAN FURST

'In the top flight of crime writing' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

'The master of the genre' CLIVE CUSSLER

496 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication January 6, 2026

About the author

Roger began his first novel on November 4th, 1987 and did not stop, except for three days when he was going through a divorce from his first wife, until July of 1993. During this time he completed twenty-two novels, most of them in longhand, and accumulated several hundred polite and complimentary rejection letters from many different and varied publishers.

He stopped writing out of sheer frustration and did not start again for eight years.

In the early part of September 2001 he decided to start writing again. This decision was based on the realization that it was the only thing he had ever really wanted to do.

Between August 2001 and January 2002 he wrote three books, the second of which was called ‘Candlemoth’. This was purchased by Orion and published in 2003. ‘Candlemoth’ was translated into German, Dutch and Italian, and has now also been purchased for translation in numerous other languages. The book also secured a nomination on the shortlist for the Crime Writers’ Association Steel Dagger for Best Thriller 2003. His second book, ‘Ghostheart’, was released in 2004, and his third book, ‘A Quiet Vendetta’, was released in August 2005. In 2006 he published ‘City of Lies’, and once again secured a nomination for the CWA Steel Dagger for Best Thriller of that year. His fifth book – ‘A Quiet Belief In Angels’ - was published in August 2006, and in the latter part of the year it was selected for the phenomenally successful British TV equivalent of the Oprah Winfrey Book Club, the Richard and Judy Book Club.

‘A Quiet Belief In Angels’ went on to be shortlisted for the Barry Award for Best British Crime Fiction, the 813 Trophy, the Quebec Booksellers’ Prize, The Europeen Du Point Crime Fiction Prize, and was winner of the Inaugural Prix Roman Noir Nouvel Observateur. It has since been voted Best Thriller of 2009 in The Strand Magazine. The book was also optioned for film, and Roger has recently completed the screenplay for Oscar-winning French director, Olivier Dahan.

Following on from ‘A Quiet Belief In Angels’, Roger released ‘A Simple Act of Violence’, again securing a nomination for Best British Crime Fiction of 2008. In late 2009 he released ‘The Anniversary Man’ to rave reviews.

Reviews

[Mark Adduci · Rating 5 out of 5]

A visceral, dark, and haunting read where our protagonist must hunt evil incarnate through decades of killing all in the name of “God.”

RJ Ellory has written some of the best thrillers of this generation, but “Paradise” may be his very best.

There are so many twists, all Perfectly placed, and an ending that you do not see coming, yet is perfect in every sense.

[Wayne Edward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark but Compelling

Ellory’s “A Darker Side of Paradise” is a deep dive into police work — painstaking research, interviews and frustration garnering tiny bits of progress toward the resolution of a serial killer. What is it like to confront evil? This story must be very close to the bone.

[Karen Chong · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.75 / 5.0

If there’s only one thing I can say about this book, is the fact that this plot will always remain with me. It’s too unique to be forgotten, the journey I went through reading this book almost felt weirdly spiritual. This book is dark, thrilling, encapsulating it has everything you ever think it would have. The only thing you need whilst reading this book is time, patience and belief to get to the end. I’ve not read a book like this before, it’s dark it has this invisible grip. Honestly when the book mentioned that the truth is addictive it’s exactly that. Getting to the ending and closure was something I didn’t think I would see in this book. What’s even more interesting is how this book is set in the past, imagine trying to catch a serial killer for over 15 years since 1975. Imagine how manual and painstakingly impossible it would be.

The book is deep, the more you read into it the deeper it gets. The level of detail and continuous quality in plot has me in awe. If you ever get your hands on this book, if you ever have the time you have to read it. It makes you truely question everything. The book is centred around Rachel Hoffman who is a rookie police officer that’s never seen a dead body. Her first murder case is a young woman who is sent off mid sleep with mysterious quotes from the 800 year old book Dante’s Divine Comedy. Little did she know this case would haunt her for the rest of her life as she descends into obsession to what she though was justice. The more she delve into the murder Rachel’s obsessions intensifies at the cost of everything because every case she thought she solved was a life and the truth was more dangerous than she could have imagined.

A book that I will probably recommend if anything is up for the read!

[Joshkun Mehmet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn’t think this author could surpass his last two books: The Bell Tower and The Last Highway—but I was wrong. A Darker Side of Paradise is, in my view, a masterpiece.

The story follows Rachel Hoffman, a new police officer who responds to a murder scene and discovers a note beside the body quoting Dante’s Divine Comedy. This marks the beginning of a case that will not only define Rachel’s career but also shape the course of her life, as the need to solve the string of murders that follow turns into an obsession.

This author is a master of gripping plots, vivid character development, and gritty, evocative language. A Darker Side of Paradise is a dark and compelling thriller that pulls you in and keeps you rooting for the good guys as they painstakingly search for the one clue that could unlock a decades-old mystery.

As with all his other books, this was an absolute joy to read.

[Eric Drysdale · Rating 5 out of 5]

R J Ellory's best novel so far.
As someone who has now read 15 of Roger’s novels, and equally, as someone who reads over a hundred books a year, I believe I am well equipped to make the following evaluation.
Roger is one of a comparatively small percentage of writers who consistently delivers quality work. Unfortunately, many writers, once they have some measure of success and the numbers of their books increase they skate along, or write the same type of books again and again – too much the same.
I have read hundreds and hundreds of crime, mystery, detective novels – this is among the very best.
Rachel Hoffman is a rookie cop who is cutting her teeth in the world of crime and has yet to see her first dead body. She attends a murder scene where a young woman has been “put to sleep” and with the body is an enigmatic note quoting Dante’s Divine Comedy. Little does she know her life will never be the same again, and her destiny for the coming decades is shaped and ordained that day.
I was particularly impressed with the development of Rachel’s character – both as the character in a fine novel and the character of a person coming to grips with the worst of evils. She moves from rookie to seasoned detective, and then after five years, it appears the case can be closed with the death of the alleged perpetrator, but she questions the evidence. There is something in the shadows, it is too tidy.
Over the coming years her questions take formidable shape with more bodies and more questions, but no answers. Her determination to find the truth, the answers, becomes and obsession, which in itself determines the steps she takes on the path she has chosen.
I was greatly impressed with Roger’s attention to detail in the day to day police work and the dogged determination of Rachel and her colleagues to push on and find answers in the void.
This is a book where the reader will be gripped from first page to last, and, most importantly, will feel for and empathise with the character of Rachel Hoffman. Ultimately we are rewarded with a powerful climax and a credible, satisfying conclusion. This is the type of book you hope is the next one you pick up, and this time it is. Enjoy every page.
Regina Reagan does an excellent job of the narration.
An additional note:
Norma and I have been on holidays up to the Gold Coast to see her family in Queensland. We were having dinner with her daughter, and as I related in an email to Roger: she was running around starting to get dressed and still listening to the last minutes, but didn't want to stop. She gave me the following quote to send to Roger, then we dashed out the door:
Norma: "I was involved with the story and the characters all the way through - right to the very last word. Enjoyed it immensely.
Your best book yet and I have read over a dozen of your books. Thank you, Roger."

[Andy Loftus · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Darker Side of Paradise by R. J. Ellory traverses almost two decades to bring an ingenious serial killer, or should I say a series of copycat killers to justice.

NYC Rookie Cop Rachel Hoffman is assigned to watch over the crime scene of a young murder victim, schoolteacher, Caroline Lassiter who seemingly has been drugged, placed naked in her bed below her bedsheets and then slowly suffocated with chloroform. Apart from the unusual cause of death, there is a further sinister twist which is a not placed in here hands which contains a handwritten passage from The Divine Comedy by Dante; which is an allegorical text of the soul’s passage towards God, through Hell Purgatory and then on to Heaven.

Having to then attend the postmortem of the young schoolteacher. Hoffman becomes wedded to the investigation, especially as the investigations loses traction fast due to a lack of clues and an ever-expanding backlog of crimes. The coroner of the initial crime scene takes Hoffman under his wing, as the body was the first she had witnessed and the autopsy was also her first and he escalates his suspicions of a connected death to her as the cause of death is so similar and a further note is left. Thus starts Hoffman’s obsession for bringing the serial killer to justice.

This story is quite dark and menacing and has a slight connection to the FBIs fledgling Behavioural Science Unit, which you may be familiar with in other works and especially the excellent and alarming Mind-Hunter series. There are many obvious ingredients for an excellent thriller; a strong lead character driven ferociously to find their adversary, incredibly evil characters to counterpoint the lead character, ensuring the chilling and disturbing nature of the crimes never become gratuitous, and a twisting plot which in this case takes almost two decades to unravel.

R. J. Ellory, in my mind, never seems to put a foot wrong, regardless of the altering nature and style of his books. He is an automatic purchase for me every time and this story is no different. Easily ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ this time around and a late entry to my Books of the Year 2026.

[Tom - Reader of Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Relentless in both pace and psychological intensity, this dark crime thriller follows Rachel Hoffman as she confronts a killer who has shadowed her entire law-enforcement career. Spanning decades, the case resurfaces with chilling precision, taunting Rachel in a way that makes every new clue feel both personal and perilously close to breaking her.

The novel’s greatest strength lies in its atmosphere: tightly focused, bleak yet strangely hopeful, and always immersive. The writing balances dread with momentum, making it a genuine page-turner. The religious undercurrents are heavy and may deter some readers, but they enrich the narrative’s exploration of guilt, justice, and obsession. If you stay the course, the reward is a gripping, high-calibre crime thriller that lingers long after the final chapter.

[Catherine Blackmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you haven't yet tried anything by R.J Ellory yet, please do! You are missing a real treat and this is possibly one of his best - difficult to call as they are ALL so good!

This is a beautifully crafted story (as his always are) written in a way which drags you in to what is happening, the area it's happening in, and the lives of the people involved. The writing itself is almost poetic, it's so good to read.

Although a crime book, Roger's books almost have so much more detail in the characters, who are totally believable.

I really don't want to give anything in the plot away - please just try it - you won't regret it!

Don't miss out on one of (in my opinion of course) the best crime writers in the UK! A 5* read!

[David Beniston · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a long read and I don't mind that, the justification here is that it is about 15 years plus of Rachel Hoffman's life. But actually it isn't because in reality it is just about 4 periods in her life. we actually know little of what happens between. So in that sense it is overly long and dragged out. Then comes the real crux, having dragged out the story the end is like over in a couple of chapters. In the epilogue we find out where Rachel ends up in the long run but not how she got there. The author seems constantly trying to do two things One is to tell the story of Rachel Hoffman and the other is to write a crime novel. The problem in trying to do both is that this book fails to do either as well as it could have.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to think about this before posting a review. RJ Ellory is one of my favourite authors who usually gets 5* from me. Most of his books, if not all (?) are written from a young man’s perspective- the protagonist in A Darker Side of Paradise is a young female police officer, we follow her career in tracking down a serial killer who wants her involved in the investigation, and this causes serious mental and emotional issues. So I recommend the book as a good read but it doesn’t reach the heights I expect from this author. The reveal of the killer also didn’t work for me.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

a wonderful, dark , slow-burn thriller. rachel’s character was extremely well-developed, and the plot was unique and full of twists and turns. i did feel like the ending was slightly unsatisfactory after such a long and turbulent investigation - it felt like a slightly rushed conclusion and i was underwhelmed by the reveal of the perpetrator (it was a bit predictable). however, that doesn’t take away from the greatness of the writing or the depth of the characters and individual plot lines. a brilliant book.

[Dan Hand · Rating 5 out of 5]

Riveting story

[Richard Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a lot of the author's books but this one in my opinion was as good as others I have read.

[Alison Cherry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book, a real dark slow burn not like a regular thriller

[Jue · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF