The Darkest Place

Inspector Tom Reynolds #4

by Jo Spain

Christmas day, and DCI Tom Reynolds receives an alarming call. A mass grave has been discovered on Oilean na Caillte, the island which housed the controversial psychiatric institution St. Christina's. The hospital has been closed for decades and onsite graves were tragically common. Reynolds thinks his adversarial boss is handing him a cold case to sideline him.

But then it transpires another body has been discovered amongst the dead - one of the doctors who went missing from the hospital in mysterious circumstances forty years ago. He appears to have been brutally murdered.

As events take a sudden turn, nothing can prepare Reynolds and his team for what they are about to discover once they arrive on the island . . .

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction, Thriller, Ireland, Mystery Thriller, Irish Literature

346 pages, Paperback

First published September 20, 2018

About the author

Jo Spain is the author of the bestselling Inspector Tom Reynolds series and several international No. 1 bestselling standalone novels. Her first book, With Our Blessing, was a finalist in the 2015 Richard and Judy Search for a Bestseller.
Jo, a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, writes TV screenplays full-time. Her first crime series was broadcast on RTE in 2018 and she's currently involved in a number of TV developments including adaptations of her own novels. In 2021, she co-wrote Harry Wild, starring Jane Seymour, with the Emmy award-winning David Logan (airing 2022).
Jo lives in Dublin with her husband and four young children. In her spare time (she has four children, there is no spare time really) she likes to read. Her favourite authors include Pierre Lemaitre, Jo Nesbo, Liane Moriarty, Fred Vargas and Jodi Picoult. She also watches TV obsessively.
Jo thinks up her plots on long runs in the woods. Her husband sleeps with one eye open.

Reviews

[Lit with Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up

One sentence review: Another strong book bar the hair on skulls (#triggered) and fatphobic comments

SYNOPSIS

DI Tom Reynolds is assigned a 40-year-old cold case after the missing person is found in a mass grave at a former psychiatric hospital.

MY OPINION

I am a sucker for an old psych ward. I visited the psych ward where The One That Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest was filmed and it was eerie but fascinating. Also part of it is still running? My religious Filipina mother was NOT vibing I'll tell you that LOL.

Anyways, although I love a psych ward, I'm not a fan of cold cases. I know yeetage of disbelief is required, but how the cases are often solved is waaaay too contrived for me. Especially when it comes down to key witnesses remembering NEW things. I know not everyone has a swiss cheese brain, but there ain't one moment in my life that I can look back on and remember MORE clearly than I could five years ago. Absolutely not. BUT I found this was well done for the most part. There were no forgotten memories unearthed, but rather new crimes bringing old crimes to live. And some good ole fashion forensic science.

I'm kicking myself for not seeing the twisty twist earlier. When will I learn to never trust a diary ??? I'm not a huge fan of the ending. I'll just leave it at that. I really didn't like the tufts of hair attached to skulls... CMON NOW!!! And the author's fatphobic comments continue. I haven't read one book in this series that isn't blatantly and unnecessarily fatphobic. Funny how when a fat character eats a strip of bacon they're at risk of keeling over from a heart attack right there and then, but when Dr. Linda deep throats enough croissants to feed a French army, her appetite is to be celebrated.

All in all, I shall continue with this series. I love the cases and the dry humor is quite LOL. The prose is solid as well. If only she could get rid of the fatphobia and not go so off da rails at the end. She doesn't quite Sharon Bolton it thankfully, but still. It's hard to find a novel with a solid ending.

PROS AND CONS

Pros: great writing, love the wit, character dynamics are great, case was juicy

Cons: fatphobic comment, contrived af ending... major eye roll!!!

[Paromjit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jo Spain grows in stature as a writer whose source material draws on the darkest and most traumatic parts of Ireland's history and here she has in her sights the deplorable and horrifying history of mental health, the psychiatric asylums for the unwanted in Irish society, the homosexuals, those who challenged the powerful, those with learning difficulties, epileptics, women who fall short of the rigid expectations of them and more. Ireland is not the only nation with a shameful past when it comes to mental health and the arrogance of 'doctors' using their positions of power to abuse, torture, and kill the vulnerable but it is right up there with the worst offenders. DCI Tom Reynolds has been sidelined from investigations amidst a series of leaks to the media that question his character and his abilities, and his self promoting, highly ambitious boss, Joe Kennedy, has been conspicuous in his absence of support for Tom. It is Christmas, and amidst the discovery of a mass grave on Oileanna Coiltte, known to locals as the island of lost souls, is the murdered body of man in the clothes and identity papers of Dr Conrad Howe, a man missing for over 40 years whilst working in the gothic and creepy St Christina's asylum.

Tom is suspicious at being landed the cold case that goes back so many years ago, with the asylum shut down for sometime, with so many patients and staff having died since, it feels as if he is being set up for failure. It would be well nigh impossible to identify the killer. He and DS Ray Lennon arrive on the isolated island with its fog and atrocious weather. Both are shocked at the harrowing picture that emerges of the horrifying surgeries, torture and abuse of patients, so many of whom were not insane but driven mad by what was done to them, where there was no possibility of help, cure or escape, an early death the only outcome that awaited them. Along with the old head of the asylum, the sick elderly Dr Lawrence Boylan, a few who worked at St Christina's still live on the island. Interviews with them, along with the diary of Dr Howe, the strange screams of a woman in the night, plus the evidence of the nightmares of what patients endured in the basement of the asylum ensure that Tom and his team are fired up with determination to uncover St Christina's and Ireland's dark buried truths.

Jo Spain gives us a chilling portrayal of the disturbing history of mental health in Ireland's asylums, movingly depicting through insights provided by looking beneath the facade of St Christina's, incarcerating the nation's undesirables, with society turning a blind eye and no effective monitoring of the hospital by the establishment. This is a time when doctors saw themselves as gods who can do no wrong and beyond being questioned despite their outrageous behaviour. This is a novel of horrors, a story compellingly told with unexpected twists that ensure a thought provoking and thrilling read. Another fantastic addition in what is turning out to be a marvellous series. Many thanks to Quercus for an ARC.

[Beata · Rating 4 out of 5]

*I would like to thank Jo Spain, Quercus Books and Netgalley for providing me with ARC in exchange for my honest review.*
This is a very well written novel focusing on the drama behind psychiatric treatment patients received in Ireland some half a century ago. The plot and the setting are really good and the Author kept me guessing till the very last pages. Narration is one of the strongest parts of this book but apart from telling a good story, Jo Spain admits her aim is to uncover some tragic moments from Irish social history. This book is worth the time you will spend reading it.

[Louise Wilson]

Inspector Tom Reynolds #4

Island of the Lost was the islands name long before the hospital was built. In winter, they say that the fog falls so heavily there that you can't see your hand in front of your face. Storms rage so forceful you can be blown from the cliffs. Once St. Christina's was built, the name took a new meaning. Very few who went into that place, ever left.

A mass grave is found near an abandoned asylum on a remote island off the North Irish coast. Dozens of bodies are in body bags but one has been wrapped in plastic., apparently the only one not to have died a natural death. It's the body of a Dr who went missing over forty years ago. Tom Reynolds and his team have been sent to investigate. It's narrated in in parts in diary form by the Dr who is missing.

This book is very easy to read. It's also full of twists and turns. The book also shows how people with mental health issues were badly treated back then. It seems there were many with motives to kill the Dr. Just when I thought i knew where this story was going, I was wrong and I was sent in a completely different direction. I did not want to put this gripping tale down. The pace is fast from the beginning. I have read all the books in this series and I think this is the best one so far.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Quercus Books, and the author Jo Spain for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Katerina · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Darkest Place is another great addition to the Tom Reynolds series! Even though I figured an important part of the mystery early on, it still had secrets to reveal that kept my interest!

The island and the gloomy past of the asylum created an atmospheric setting!
The investigation was fast-paced and through a diary divided into what the inspector and his team discovered and what the entries in the diary revealed!

Tom is faced with a difficult situation at his workplace but has the stability of home life to keep his balance and the support of his friends and his team!

Ray is finally in a good place after the devastating results of one previous case, as is Laura, even though a bit changed after what happened to her in the previous book! Sean is trying to cope with his loss and to help Tom! Emet and Linda are forced to work together, and it's worse because something new is added to their already tense relationship!

It was a shame some of Tom's team didn't make an appearance in this story!

The environment of the asylum was the hardest part to read about because of the treatment of the patients! The author did a good job at describing the circumstances in which such institutions operated in the past!

All in all, it's a satisfactory story! Tom Reynolds is one of my favourite detectives since he is interesting without having overly complicated dramas to keep my interest! His banter with members of his team was a good release after intense moments!

I recommend the series!

[Gary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have previously read and enjoyed 'The Confession' by Jo Spain so was eagerly looking forward to reading this book.
On Christmas day DCI Tom Reynolds receives an alarming call informing him that a mass grave has been discovered on Oileán na Caillte, the island which housed the controversial psychiatric institution St. Christina's. The hospital has been closed for decades and onsite graves were tragically common. But another body has been discovered amongst the dead, one of the doctors who went missing from the hospital in mysterious circumstances forty years ago appears to have been brutally murdered.
Going on early reviews of this book I appear to be one of the few reviewers marking it down but for whatever reason I didn't find the book as absorbing as the previous novel. Read it for yourself and I will be interested to see what others think.

I would like to thank Net Galley and Quercus books for supplying a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[ABCme · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Netgalley and Quercus Books for the ARC.

The Darkest Place is a captivating murder mystery.
A mass grave is discovered near an abandoned asylum on a remote island off the Irish coast. There are dozens of bodies in bodybags, but one is wrapped in plastic, apparently the only one not having died a natural death. While the police investigates the reader is treated to parts of an old diary belonging to one of the doctors who once worked for the asylum. Slowly we discover the horrors that the insane were submitted to and why some of the staff stayed on the island long after the asylum closed.
The book has a good pace, with well described creepy characters and surroundings. Nothing is what it seems and the truth doesn't come out until the very end when we are treated to a twist I didn't see coming.
The mystery in all its darkness kept me glued to the pages.

[8stitches 9lives · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jo Spain is one of my favourite crime writers as not only does she write in such a fluent and alluring style, she also weaves some complex yarns often inspired by real world events. Many people will have been introduced to her earlier this year with her bestseller 'The Confession', but in reality she has been writing for quite a while. I'm so glad she is making a bigger impact and gaining some attention now, her books certainly deserve to be read by a wide audience. This one is no exception.

'The Darkest Place' is the fourth novel to feature DCI Tom Reynolds, a member of the police in Dublin, Ireland. One the aspects I loved most was the green and gorgeous setting of the Emerald Isle. I have loved the scenic surroundings for many years and felt the author did an amazing job of evoking the magic and myth of the island and its inhabitants. Sadly, with this being a thriller, the story is a dark and disturbing one and reminds me very much of the scandals that happened in Ireland over the past few decades, those involving the Catholic Church and other institutions. As always, this is an intelligently crafted, deftly plotted and ultimately horrific story, that had many twisty surprises that I appreciated. I really wasn't expecting the denouement - wowzer! An explosive ending if ever there was one! The horrendous abuse that the inmates suffered at the mental asylum was shocking, and the focus on mental health patients, sectioning and the treatment received at such institutions makes this book unforgettable. Being a mental health campaigner, this scarred me quite a bit but placing MH front and centre was something I very much admired.

A deep exploration of the dark secrets from Ireland's past and a hauting historical tale, Spain expertly uses misdirection to throw us off the scent. This is one I won't forget in a hurry. Meticulously researched, authentically developed and fast paced, this is an unmissable thriller!

Many thanks to Quercus for an ARC. I was not required to post a review, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first Jo Spain book. I bought it in Northern Ireland (from a book table run by the Belfast bookshop No Alibis) after seeing Spain in conversation with Mick Herron, moderated by the Northern Irish crime writer Stuart Neville.

The setting of this novel is a former mental hospital on a desolate island off the coast of Kerry. During work to start construction for a luxury hotel on the island , the remains of a man are discovered. They are believed to belong to a doctor who disappeared 40 years earlier. As Inspector Tom Reynolds and his team start they work, they sense that there are many secrets in this place. Irish Industrial Schools which included the infamous Magdalene Laundries, orphanages, and institutions for delinquent boys, have become notorious. Institutions that housed people with mental illness (and sometimes merely those who has rebellious spirits) are not as widely known, but as this story reveals, some were full of horrors.

As can happen, the story seemed to lag in the middle, but picked up quickly as questions were answered, and at the same time, the mystery deepened. Starting with the fourth book in a series isn't ideal, but it didn't spoil the earlier books for me. I am now a solid fan.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the fourth book in this detective mystery series and my favourite so far!

I love Tom and his team and this story offers the perfect balance between stand alone mystery and on-going character narrative.

The mystery itself is dark and hard-hitting and brilliantly executed. The setting is suitably sinister and chilled me to the bone!

An absolutely brilliant read. And brilliantly narrated by Aoife McMahon.

[Thebooktrail · Rating 5 out of 5]

Visit the island if you dare

Well that title is spot on.

This takes you to a VERY dark place - an asylum on an island, only accessible by boat at ceertain times, tales of goodness knows what going on inside these walls. The asylum is only investigated when a doctor who used to work there, who went missing 40 years ago, is found in a mass grave on site and it's clear he's been murdered...

Well that was just the start. This has shades of Jo's other books but with a hint of Shutter Island and something from Stephen King. The whole visit to this island is creepy to the extreme - well it is an abandoned asylum for a start..but there are many people still living here, who used to work there. There 's a LOT of secrets, dark corners, strange noises and shadows passing across the wall. Seems to be a place where the sunshine is even scared of. This woman can build atmosphere like noone else. The scenes set in the past in particular when the asylum was a working institution are brrrrrrr illiant.

Put this on your TBR list and I think its apt that the book is out in September, as this book and the autumn shade are bound to join forces to create a very chilling reading experience!

[Heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everyone knows that I am a sucker for spooky atmospheric settings, so what would better fit that description than an abandoned old asylum on a remote island? It cries out “spooky”! And even though this is the fourth book in the Tom Reynolds series, and I knew I may be missing some background, I absolutely had to read it.

I really liked DCI Tom Reynolds and I could see that I probably would have benefited from reading the earlier books in the series, as there seemed to be some very interesting history concerning his relationship with his boss, as well as some love triangles happening in the investigative team. That said, Spain provides enough detail that this was no obstacle to enjoying and following the story, but I think that I would have forged a better connection to the main characters had I started the series from the beginning. But I guess it’s not too late to do so!

As the title suggests, this is a very dark and sinister story, and not for the faint of heart – and I’m not just referring to the setting. In fact, the setting was perhaps the least frightening element of the novel, and I felt that it could have been utilised more to give the story a spooky undertone (which I had been looking for), perhaps in the vein of Simone St James’ The Broken Girls. However, seeing how the events the investigation uncovers are based on real historical facts, it made for truly chilling reading!

In The Darkest Place, Tom and his team investigate the disappearance of one of St Christina’s leading psychiatrists, whose remains have recently been discovered in a mass grave containing countless deceased patients who had been incarcerated in the asylum. Seeing that the man disappeared without a trace forty years ago, abandoning his wife and kids without warning, foul play is suspected. As the investigative team descend on the mist-shrouded island, they soon discover that some of the locals are very tight-lipped about the asylum and events surrounding it. A diary, found by the wife of the missing doctor amongst his personal effects, suggests that patients were mistreated, and subjected to cruel treatment regimens, some of which were common practice in the earlier years of the asylum. Trigger warning – some of the treatments described were truly hair-raising, and it was only due to the fact that the characters of the patients are only ever referred to through the POVs of the diary entries and witness accounts– and therefore stay somewhat remote – that the details of the “treatments” did not follow me into my worst nightmares!

Jo Spain paints a bleak and cruel picture of the treatment of the mentally ill and other undesirables in Ireland’s past. As shocking are the attempts by people to hide the truth about the atrocities committed, even in our times, when we have moved on to more humane and effective treatment methods. Incorporated into a present-day murder mystery, the events describe remain somewhat shrouded in mystery, which allows the reader to stay disconnected from the more horrible happenings. Personally, even though I can see how it all ties into the main mystery element, this disconnection took a bit of the emotional impact away for. I would have loved to get a perspective from one of the patients, in whichever form this may have taken – even from a survivor recounting their experiences.

All in all, a solid police procedural investigating a cold case anchored in one of Ireland’s dark chapters in history. Whilst it did not give me the same creepy vibes as other books with similar themes, such as the aforementioned book The Broken Girls, I found it to be an engaging read that kept me interested (and somewhat horrified) to the end.

Thank you to Netgalley and Quercus Books for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

*blog* *facebook* *instagram*

[Dimitris Passas (TapTheLine) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing a free ARC of this book, I didn't know what to expect as I've never read any book written by Jo Spain and ''The Darkest Place'' proved to be a pleasant surprise, combining classical police procedural storyline with a few thriller/horror elements. The setting is a small island in Ireland where a mental hospital used to exist and the plot begins when a mass grave is found near the premises of the hospital. An acclaimed doctor's body, missing for over 40 years is excavated and when foul play is suspected, Inspector Tom Reynolds along with his criminal investigation team is sent to the island in order to solve a cold, nearly frozen, case. Unfortunately, I was not familiar with the history of the characters and I believe that it would be better if I've read the previous novels in the series, but nevertheless, this fact didn't spoil the reading experience. ''The Darkest Place'' is an atmospherical thriller that reminded me a bit of Johan Theorin's novel ''The Asylum'' and is an excellent book for late night reading, sending chills down your spine through its great descriptions of the ominous mental institution which carries a disturbing history of patient treatment. The characters, both the protagonists and the secondary ones, are well-outlined, while the plot is moving forward at a steady pace reaching the climax in the last part of the novel. Jo Spain is a writer that I will definitely have to check out in the future. Highly recommended!

[Kirsty ❤️ · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first full book I've read in 2020 and I loved it. A mysterious island housing a former insane asylum and a body found in a mass grave that shouldn't have been there. Thinking they've found the answer to a 40 year old disappearance the detectives head across to investigate and find more mystery. There's been a lot in the news over the years about treatments in institutions not just in Ireland where this is set but everywhere. Treatment is not as it was and often barbaric methods were used where nowadays we would simply take a pill. Reynolds and his team uncover such horrors while they try and solve a murder. 

There are plenty of twists and turns and our baddies are truly evil. It makes for grim but fascinating reading. As the author says the story may be fiction but it's based on things that genuinely happened to people. It's excellently written and as mentioned with plenty of twists to keep you guessing right to the end. It's very atmospheric with the small island , abandoned asylum and lots of fog, so easy to picture and be creeped out by. A great start to my years reading and I highly recommend it. 

[Elaine Tomasso · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would like to thank Netgalley and Quercus Books for an advance copy of The Darkest Place, the fourth novel to feature DCI Tom Reynolds of the Dublin police.

Tom has been marginalised for the last six months so he is surprised by a phone call on Christmas Day asking him to investigate a cold case with a potential high profile. In a mass grave on a remote island formerly housing St Christina's insane asylum an extra body has been found which is strongly suspected to be Dr Conrad Howe, brother-in-law of a high court judge and missing for forty years. Tom and his wingman DS Ray Lennon set off for the island and what they discover there is horrific.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Darkest Place which is a gripping and intriguing mystery with some great twists in the tail (Ms Spain reserves her massive surprises for the denouement, and boy! was I caught off stride by her revelations). Some of my enjoyment was necessarily tempered by the horrific abuse the inmates suffered in the name of treatment. Not all of it was a surprise but I was shocked to learn that it was still going on in the 70s which I had always believed to be more progressive and even more shocked to learn how easily one could be sectioned. It's another institutional scandal waiting to be exposed. Kudos to Ms Spain for tackling it.

The plot itself, stripped of this background, is well done with plenty of suspects and motives and a steady stream of reveals and misdirection to keep the reader occupied and guessing. I found it gripping as the novel uses a present day timeline but fleshes out this narrative with excerpts from Howe's contemporaneous diary where he writes about his suspicions of an unnamed doctor's behaviour. It kept me guessing and hungry for more.

As befits a plot driven novel most of the characters aren't particularly well developed and are seen mostly through events, rather than thoughts. Tom has his problems with his boss, Chief Superintendent Joe Kennedy, and their interplay adds a frisson to the novel but the really interesting side plot is his involvement in the ongoing war between criminal psychologist, Linda, and chief CSI, Emmet. No spoilers but it's fascinating.

The Darkest Place is a good read which I have no hesitation in recommending.

[Katrin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Der vierte Band der Reihe und mein Favorit bis jetzt. Auch im Original kein Problem zu lesen, da sehr gut und flüssig geschrieben.

Ich freu mich und mit der Enthüllung hatte ich wirklich nicht gerechnet.

Werde die Reihe dann ab jetzt im Original weiterlesen.

[Cathy Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

DCI Tom Reynolds is bearing the brunt of a leak to the media implying he had mismanaged an investigation, bringing into question his reputation and his suitability to lead the team.

Tom’s boss, the deplorable Chief Superintendent Joe Kennedy, is distinctly lacking in support, working to his own agenda as ever, taking Tom off present murder cases under the guise of letting the fuss die down. Tom is surprised and annoyed when Kennedy phones him on Christmas Day with a news of a cold case he wants Tom to investigate. A mass grave has been uncovered on Oileán na Coillte, a small island off the coast of Kerry and the site of the now defunct psychiatric hospital, St Christina’s. A body that shouldn’t have been there was found in the grave.

Miriam Howe has been waiting, and living in hope, for the last forty years for Conrad, her husband, to come home. Every Christmas she decorated the house just as it was the day he should have returned from his job as one of the senior doctors at St Christina’s. Just in case. Even though in her heart of hearts, she knew. But now a body has been found and reality knocks at the door in the shape of DCI Reynolds.

Tom wonders if this is another ploy by Joe Kennedy, giving him a case from so long ago, hoping for Tom to fail. The asylum has been closed for a good while and there can’t be many people left to interview. But no, Kennedy is hoping solving such an old case might be to his advantage. Miriam’s brother is a Supreme Court Judge.

I’m so glad I found Jo Spain’s books, thanks in no small part to Eva (@noveldeelights) The Darkest Place is another excellent instalment in the Tom Reynolds series. This story, like previous ones, highlights deeply shocking practices—a chilling reminder of a not so long ago past, when unwanted family members were shipped off to asylums, sometimes for the flimsiest of reasons. Where the doctors held all the power and patients, who had no way out and no-one to turn to, were subjected to the most horrific so called treatments, as the diary extracts sprinkled throughout the narrative show. Although this is fiction, it is based entirely on fact which makes it all the more horrendous.

The atmosphere of the island and the empty asylum is conveyed with disturbing clarity. The feeling of being isolated, with no wifi, a very hit and miss mobile signal and the weather conditions all add the overall eerie sense of place. There are secrets and lies to sift through, and several suspects with motives. Tom and his team could have no inkling of the wickedness they would uncover.

Jo Spain has delivered another fast paced, compelling read with some totally unexpected, clever twists, and I loved the ending. As always, Aoife McMahon’s narration, along with her command of the different accents, is superb.

[K Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m a fan of Tana French, Dervla McTiernan, and Jess Kidd (all mystery writers from Ireland), and I think Jo Spain must have been suggested to me because she also hails from the Emerald Isle. This is the first book of hers that I’ve read, though I see she has several.

This is the fourth book in the series (oops!), though I don’t think the plot really depended on readers knowing the back story in order to enjoy it. This was a solid mystery and, in case you were wondering, the darkest place is most definitely an abandoned asylum. Spain has a great ear for dialogue, and her Gardaí protagonist is certainly a decent fellow who is easy to like (he even loves his wife!). As comforting as Shepherd’s Pie!

The pace was a bit slower than I like, but there was plenty of suspense and a decent puzzle to solve. I will definitely read more by her. Highly recommend listening on Audible because the reader is spectacular.

File Under: Get Your Irish Fix Here

[Sherrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The concept for this story was good, a 40 year old disappearance mystery turned murder at a disused asylum. But the story was just too slow for me, nothing much developing until 200 or so pages in, and then it was still plodding along until the twist at the end. I almost gave up on it.

[Melanie O'Neill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this one .. an easy read and I would recommend.

[Pgchuis · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a bit of a mess (I'm still not entirely clear of the timeline for the various events in Howe's life) and unpleasant with it. We had the unoriginal premise of a spooky island, often cut off from the mainland for days at a time due to the weather, plus a cast of interchangeable medical suspects we didn't get to know sufficiently for me to keep straight in my mind. The inhumane treatment that had been meted out to patients at an asylum there over decades was described in more detail than I needed.

However, we were supposed to believe that after the asylum was shut down some of the doctors and nurses, the pharmacist, and even some of the patients had opted to stay on...? It got less and less believable as the story went on, and the ending was both utterly unbelievable and reliant on a forensic scientist having made an error they surely couldn't have made - it was as if the author had boxed herself into a corner and chose this as the easy way out.

I have enjoyed the previous three instalments, but this one wasn't for me.

[Jasmina · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5*

[Kate Vane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved Jo Spain’s The Confession and was looking forward to reading this, but it hasn’t moved me in the same way.

The Darkest Place is the fourth in the police procedural series featuring DCI Tom Reynolds. As he is celebrating Christmas he is called on by his much-despised senior officer to investigate a cold case. A doctor went missing from a psychiatric hospital on a remote island off the Irish coast 40 years ago. His wife never gave up hope but now a body has been found.

Tom and his colleagues hotfoot it to the island where they discover a sinister setting and a lot of moody silence from the few remaining island dwellers, most of whom worked at the hospital until its closure some years earlier. He is also armed with a diary which the doctor’s wife found among her husband’s possessions.

It’s a great premise, and, like The Confession, should provide a gateway to explore an important element of recent Irish history – in this case the mass incarceration of people who deviated from social norms in ways which had nothing to do with mental health. However it never really comes to life for me.

There are no flashbacks giving us the story of the asylum so everything we know comes from either the witnesses (who are reluctant to talk, for a variety of reasons) and the diary. We get glimpses of the cruelty of the regime, and of some of the people locked up unjustly (pregnant girls, homosexuals and one man apparently incarcerated just because he was in a financial dispute with a powerful landowner). However the diary is written in a fairly clinical, prosaic style which didn’t bring the characters to life. It also (conveniently) documents everything except the name of the perpetrator!

The police characters felt a little bland to me after the pleasingly abrasive cast of The Confession. Tom is a steady, nice guy, a family man who loves to be around his granddaughter, while his junior officers are hardworking but, apart from learning that two of them are in a relationship, they had no distinguishing features for me. Perhaps this makes them – that dreaded word – relatable, but they left me cold. It may be that, some way into the series, the author has glossed over characterisation, because the characters are so familiar to her she doesn’t think she needs to explain them again.

As well as the couple in a relationship, there are two colleagues of Tom’s who are estranged and with a complicated backstory. Tom is quite happy to jump in with comments on both relationships, making the whole thing feel like they are still in high school.

Personally, I would have liked more on the conflicting beliefs and values of the hospital staff. Were the practices there undertaken by people who were sincere but misguided or just cruel? What was the motivation of those who went along with them? Having worked in institutional settings, I know how groupthink takes hold. In a remote and economically deprived area, the pressure would have been even greater. Was the hospital an anomaly or part of a structure that was maintained with the support of church and state? All this is hinted at but not fully explored.

The setting on the island is atmospheric. Things go bump in the night, the islanders all have strange secrets, there is a clever twist at the end. But I didn’t feel immersed in the story or that I’d rush to read another in this series.
*
I received a copy of The Darkest Place from the publisher via Netgalley.
Read more of my reviews on my blog at katevane.com

[Kerrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The mass grave on the island off the coast of County Kerry accommodates 60 bodies going back decades, The site is to be cleared for a new hotel complex but work stops so that the bodies can be lifted and re-located. All of the bodies have been put into body bags and tagged with names etc. But one does not belong. It has been wrapped in plastic and hidden under the top layer in the mass grave. And it has probably been there for 40 years when a promising young doctor disappeared.

That he is called about the case on Christmas Day and expected to go to the site almost immediately is a measure of the malevolence that DCI Reynolds' Superintendent has for him, and typical of how he has been treated for the past 6 months.

There is pressure from the Chief Commissioner for this cold case to be treated with priority because of familial links with the wife of the missing man. The wife gives Reynolds a diary she thinks the missing man left at home when he was last there forty years ago. For forty years she has held on to the hope that he will turn up. It makes for horrific reading.

There is some interesting discussion of how treatments of insanity and depression have changed over the last 40 years - provided by a clinical psychiatrist that Reynolds takes as part of his small team.

A very engrossing read.

This is the first novel that I have read by this author and I didn't feel my reading was at all impaired by not knowing the content of the previous three titles in the series. Although there were some references to earlier cases.

[Noemi Proietti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Never title was more apt to the setting of a novel. This novel by Jo Spain featuring DCI Tom Reynolds and his team investigating a 40-year-old murder is set in a closed-down psychiatric hospital on a remote island that with its secrets and dark halls really gave me the chills and kept me glued to the pages.

The novel starts on Christmas Day and a woman is still hoping for her husband Conrad to knock on the door, after disappearing 40 years earlier, but what she receives is the call she’s been dreading. In another house, DCI Tom Reynolds is trying to enjoying Christmas with his family and trying to forget the last stressful months when he receives a call from his boss: a mass grave full of bodies has been found by St. Christina’s, an abandoned mental institution on the island of Oileán na Caillte. However, that’s not the most disturbing thing. The police is interested because among the bodies of the patients of the hospital, the body of doctor Conrad, who disappeared on Christmas Eve 40 years earlier, has been found and it’s clearly a murder. DCI Reynolds and his team travel to the hospital to try to figure out what happened to the doctor and the secrets that St. Christina’s holds.

I have been a fan of Jo Spain for a while now and I am captivated by her twisty plots, her well-developed characters, and her flawless and brilliant writing style. The Darkest Place is a particularly gripping story, with many surprises and twists and a claustrophobic atmosphere that gave me the chills. For some reason, remote islands are my favourite settings in crime stories and Oileán na Caillte is a fantastic place where to set a thriller: hard to access, bad weather, and few residents, all of them hiding something, and a mental institution full of horrifying story that really gave me goosebumps.

Gripping, compelling, and dark, this is another fantastic story by a great author who keeps churning out amazing novels.

[Tiger · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the 1960's Ireland had the highest number of people lost to asylums per capita in the entire world. Patients with dementia, deformities, domestic violence sufferers, homosexuals and depression sufferers were just some of the many whose families couldn't deal with them and sent them to these asylums. There was a constant effort to "fix" these people and those who couldn't be fixed were just locked up......forgotten by their families and the world. The "treatment" they received was often barbaric, like the spinning chair which caused the patient to vomit multiple times in an effort to cleanse them.........shudder.

In this superb 4th entry in Spain's DCI Tom Reynolds series, Reynolds and his small team head to one of these asylums, St.Christina's Psychiatric Institute, to investigate a 40 year old cold case when the body of a doctor who vanished back then is found in a mass grave. St.Christina's has been closed for decades but when Reynolds tours the facility several doors in the basement are locked.......and a terrifying scream is heard in the middle of the night. The fact that the asylum is located on a remote island called "Island of the Lost" by the locals only adds to the eerie atmosphere.

A chilling story, with great characters and a haunting setting.......this was a great read.

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Darkest Place is a new installment in the series with DCI Tom Reynolds and his team. A mass grave has been found in the grounds of St Christina's, a former psychiatric hospital situated on an island off the coast of Kerry. However one body turns out to be that of Doctor Conrad Howe, who mysteriously disappeared in 1972. What happened to the young doctor?

This book is an easy read full of twists and turns. All former staff are interviewed by the Garda team and it appears nobody can be trusted. There were horrific practices in the hospital in the 70's to which young Dr Howe objected. What exactly did he know? Who did he cross? What were his intentions with his newly acquired information? Everyone is a possible suspect. I enjoyed this book a lot and look forward to reading more by Jo Spain

[Niki · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow!! A new author i now discovered, so thank you Netgalley for granting me an ARC of Jo Spain's book!!

Great atmosphere, very well written and the story is full of twists that you will not see coming!

Also, i really liked the development of the characters in addition to the subject of the book, which i personally found very interesting and intriguing!

5* from me, definitely pick a copy when it comes out!!

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An abandoned asylum on a remote island, a murdered man found in a mass grave and mysterious disappearances make for a riveting book. I haven’t read any others in this series but I will certainly track them down now. The detective team were formidable and professional and the story moved at a cracking pace. The ultimate revelation left me gasping in shock and it all fell into place. Top Marks Jo Spain.

[Lindamac Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another thoroughly entertaining. Thought provoking thriller from the very talented Jo Spain ....
It's an absolute abomination the way we have treated our own people with mental health issues over the years... Quite distressing in parts but nevertheless a great read .