Darkness in Him

by Andrew Lyons

Jake Conason is the Golden Boy of Jefferson University in St. Louis. His future is big and promising--top grades, a gorgeous girlfriend, membership in the most popular fraternity on campus, and he's headed toward law school. But when one night's drunken indiscretion with a woman he barely knows leads to murder, Jake discovers just what he's capable of to cover up his past and insure his own future success. A chilling, addictive first thriller, already optioned for the movies, that delves deep into the heart of an anti-hero and discovers the Darkness in Him .

Genres: Psychological Thriller, Crime, Mystery Thriller

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Maddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

PROTAGONIST: Jake Conason, college student
SETTING: St. Louis, MO
RATING: 4.0
WHY: Jake Conason is a law student in his senior year. He has everything going for him - a beautiful girlfriend, good friends, smarts, a bright future - until one evening, when drunk, he commits an indiscretion. Life changes for a lot of people as a result. He's not willing to have his future threatened; he's willing to go as far as murder to protect it. Jake is a real enigma. He can be warm and charming or cold and calculating. He is good at justifying all the bad things that he does. A real page turner and a fascinating psychological study. The ending was a bit of a letdown, though.

[Anne (w/ an E) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good story. Great ending. I know I could never keep all my "stories" straight and keep suspicion away from myself so I was a little surprised that the main character was so good at it, especially since he was only a Senior in college.

[La Livrophile]

La construction de ce roman m'a rappelé celles de Boileau-Narcejac. Le narrateur agit de manière peu reluisante, mais pas forcément horrible, cela entraîne des conséquences, le personnage tente de s'en sortir d'une certaine façon, ce qui entraîne d'autres conséquences, etc. Andrew Lyons maîtrise son intrigue de ce point de vue. Tout s'enchaîne très bien, avec logique. Comme je pinaille, j'ai trouvé quelques incohérences. Par exemple, lorsqu'on est au téléphone avec quelqu'un, si une autre personne éloigne l'appareil pour chuchoter quelque chose, on se rend bien compte qu'il y a des bruits, et on devine la nature de ceux-ci. Autre exemple, il est un peu gros qu'un personnage soit trop affaibli pour exprimer sa protestation, mais que trente secondes plus tard, il parvienne à articuler les quelques mots qu'un autre lui demande de dire.[...] Lire la suite sur:

[Tanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in the first person, I was completely into this story until the end. The manipulation of the characters was cleverly written but I just didn't like the conclusion. Unfortunately, I can't say what specifically without giving away spoilers. The story needed some polishing but I would read this author's work again.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Judy Frey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is Lyons' first book..and only one I can find. I'm drawn to authors by the characters they create. Jake is truly the perfect narcissistic sociopath ever, in the body of the all-American boy: great family, great student, headed to Harvard Law. Lyons has perfectly captured all that is lacking in a sociopathic human. I really enjoyed this book tremendously. There really are such people among us

[Catherine Corry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a hard book for me to get through. Very dark and violent. But it was well written. 4 stars because of the violent triggers.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Sue Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast fun read...great end!

[Marsha Valance · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of my 10 best first mysteries read in 2003.

[Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quel histoire.
Après 4 chapitres, tu es dans le stress...

[Kathleen Hagen]

Darkness in Him, by Andrew Lyons, A-minus, narrated by Christopher Lane, produced by Blackstone Audio, downloaded from audible.com.

Jake Conason has it all-he’s in a fraternity, a senior and cowtowed to by the pledges in the fraternity, he has a gorgeous girl friend that the other guys would salivate for, he has good grades despite continual fraternity parties, and he’s on the brink of being accepted for law school at Harvard. His path should be set. But he goes to a fraternity party, drinks too much, has a fight with his girl friend, has sex with the girl friend of a fraternity brother, and things unravel, morally at least, for him from that time on. It’s a well-written book, which begins with musings about whether or not people had become what they thought they would become. It ends with the same musings, somewhat like a musical piece that returns to its opening theme at the end. Jake is the anti-hero of the piece, in somewhat the same way as the narrator of “The Secret History” was. From the night of the party, he is busy trying to clean up his messes but digging himself in deeper. A very good book.

[Charles · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first half is extremely unpleasant. I almost quit. However, after that point the book becomes a fairly straight forward race to the finish. Even the little plot bump at the end doesn't dazzle.

[Mike Moskos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Light book; good ending.