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Dark Shadows
A modern twist on George Orwell's classic 1984 meets Black Mirror in this new conspiracy thriller from the No 1 bestselling author of Untouchable.
The Victims...
Two suicides.
One horrifying accident.
Each involving a university student.
The police don't think it's a coincidence. They just can't prove it.
The Detective...
Fearing a possible cult is coercing innocent students, Detective Becky Harris is sent undercover to investigate. But after more tragic incidents occur, she suspects the connection between the victims is even more terrifying. And finding the evidence to prove it may cost Becky her whole career.
The Counsellor...
A distraught student turns to her counsellor Toni with a strange story to tell. But a tragic car accident prevents Toni from learning more. Convinced something sinister was going on in the young woman's life, Toni starts digging further, enlisting the help of her godfather, an ex-SAS operative. What they discover is a nightmare conspiracy. And someone operating in the dark shadows is deciding who lives and who dies.
The Victims...
Two suicides.
One horrifying accident.
Each involving a university student.
The police don't think it's a coincidence. They just can't prove it.
The Detective...
Fearing a possible cult is coercing innocent students, Detective Becky Harris is sent undercover to investigate. But after more tragic incidents occur, she suspects the connection between the victims is even more terrifying. And finding the evidence to prove it may cost Becky her whole career.
The Counsellor...
A distraught student turns to her counsellor Toni with a strange story to tell. But a tragic car accident prevents Toni from learning more. Convinced something sinister was going on in the young woman's life, Toni starts digging further, enlisting the help of her godfather, an ex-SAS operative. What they discover is a nightmare conspiracy. And someone operating in the dark shadows is deciding who lives and who dies.
357 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 1, 2020
46 people are currently reading
92 people want to read
About the author
Sibel Hodge
54 books925 followersSibel Hodge is the author of the #1 Bestsellers Look Behind You, Untouchable, and Duplicity. Her books have sold over one million copies and are international bestsellers in the UK, USA, Australia, France, Canada and Germany. She writes in an eclectic mix of genres, and is a passionate human and animal rights advocate.
Her work has been nominated and shortlisted for numerous prizes, including the Harry Bowling Prize, the Yeovil Literary Prize, the Chapter One Promotions Novel Competition, The Romance Reviews’ prize for Best Novel with Romantic Elements and Indie Book Bargains’ Best Indie Book of 2012 in two categories. She was the winner of Best Children’s Book in the 2013 eFestival of Words; nominated for the 2015 BigAl’s Books and Pals Young Adult Readers’ Choice Award; winner of the Crime, Thrillers & Mystery Book from a Series Award in the SpaSpa Book Awards 2013; winner of the Readers’ Favorite Young Adult (Coming of Age) Honorable award in 2015; a New Adult finalist in the Oklahoma Romance Writers of America’s International Digital Awards 2015, and 2017 International Thriller Writers Award finalist for Best E-book Original Novel. Her novella Trafficked: The Diary of a Sex Slave has been listed as one of the top forty books about human rights by Accredited Online Colleges.
For Sibel’s latest book releases, giveaways and gossip, sign up to her newsletter at www.sibelhodge.com/contact-followme.php.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 21 reviews
April 4, 2020
A chilling, exciting and dramatic story
I love books where there is a character who has gone ‘undercover’ and in this book we meet Detective Becky Harris whose job it is to infiltrate a University where the body count is rising, unsure if a cult is at work or just what, or who, is behind the killings taking place she has to do her best to put the pieces together in this dark puzzle.....and it is a dark puzzle!.... ( I loved her character )
Then there is Toni, a counsellor at the Uni who is just about to find out what is troubling one of her students when ‘a tragic accident’ claims the students life, Toni knows she should leave it there but she doesn’t and what she uncovers shocks her, and will you!
Who is it in the ‘Dark Shadows’ and what is their motive for controlling people’s lives? Well you need to read the book to find out but anyone who has read any of the authors previous books knows there is a great story to be had here, a mystery with adventure, twists and police procedure that had me intrigued from page 1 and involved in the story the whole way through
A great read and at a time a book needs to take you away from reality for a while this ticks all the boxes
10/10
5 Stars
August 14, 2020
This is a (very) dark thriller from Sibel Hodge, an author I enjoy. Detective Becky Harris goes undercover to investigate unexplained suicides and accidents among students at a local university. Her boss suspects a brainwashing cult is involved and Becky tries to get at the truth by talking to the friends of the students involved. Then, a student counsellor, Toni gets involved when a distraught student comes to her with a strange tale of lost time and awareness and, when she flees the session is victim of a road traffic accident that Toni begins to suspect is no accident...so she, aided by her ex-SAS godfather, also starts to investigate. It becomes apparent that there is more than cult brainwashing at play here - particularly when a sinister character called Mr White starts telling the story from his point of view and Becky's boss calls her off the case after his family is threatened. So, towards the end, as Toni and Becky home in on the truth, one of the victims talks about a 'moth' being inserted into their brain, there are suggestions of mind-control experiments being organised at the very highest level, of chips injected with vaccines, pandemics to come ....hmm, reminded me of some of the conspiracy theories being discussed at the present time. One reviewer has researched the author and found she is an anti-vaxxer so clearly that may colour the timing and tone of this book. Rather a scary read...you may find it a little too disturbing in the current climate
July 12, 2021
A great thriller with a conspiracy theory undertone.
A detective goes undercover at a University to investigate a string of suspicious deaths of the students. She has to get to know the friends of the dead students in order to get some information on what was happening around the time of the deaths.
What she finds leads her into a whole new world too frightening to contemplate.
Alongside this character we have a student counsellor who witnessed one of the student deaths and starts her own investigation into what happened, with the help of her ex-sas uncle.
The storylines run nicely along side each other until they merge towards the end. It’s a thrilling story with more deaths along the way.
In today’s society that is beginning to look and feel more like a dystopian novel every day and in light of the recent global pandemic this book is even more chilling. It is also food for thought as it is based on worrying true life events.
I would have given it 5 stars but I found the detective rather heavy handed for an undercover assignment at times. It’s a wonder they didn’t all discover who she was straight away!
A detective goes undercover at a University to investigate a string of suspicious deaths of the students. She has to get to know the friends of the dead students in order to get some information on what was happening around the time of the deaths.
What she finds leads her into a whole new world too frightening to contemplate.
Alongside this character we have a student counsellor who witnessed one of the student deaths and starts her own investigation into what happened, with the help of her ex-sas uncle.
The storylines run nicely along side each other until they merge towards the end. It’s a thrilling story with more deaths along the way.
In today’s society that is beginning to look and feel more like a dystopian novel every day and in light of the recent global pandemic this book is even more chilling. It is also food for thought as it is based on worrying true life events.
I would have given it 5 stars but I found the detective rather heavy handed for an undercover assignment at times. It’s a wonder they didn’t all discover who she was straight away!
March 2, 2025
Predictable anti-vax covid conspiracy... So disappointed.
May 19, 2020
I usually like books by this author but was a bit disappointed with this one. The premise was good - unusual suicides in a university but got rather far fetched in parallel investigations reaching the same conclusions at the same point. It then descended into a bit of a rant about big brother watching you etc. Overall an ok read for conspiracy theorists.
June 22, 2021
Wow, this was certainly an eye-opener and really quite scary!
I know this was all fiction, but the author has done a lot of research into the ‘Great Reset’, and everything she wrote about in this story is already starting to come true. It is quite frightening that we could get to the point that is in this book. I actually resonated more with the dystopian future this was heading towards than I did when I read ‘1984’ by George Oswell. Unfortunately, Hodge’s seemed more realistic!
The story itself was very unique and unlike anything I have ever read before. It draws you in right from the start and keeps you gripped until the end. We are reintroduced to characters that we have seen in previous books by Sibel Hodge. However, if this is the first book you have read, you won’t feel like you have missed anything. A few things are referenced but in a vague way where you don’t need the full details. So, this can certainly be read as a standalone novel.
We are mainly getting Detective Becky Harris and counsellor Toni’s points of views. However, there are a few times where we see into the minds of the bad guys.
With the perspective being of that of two very similar women, it did become quite confusing about who knew what. They are both investigating the same crimes but without knowing of each other’s involvement. So at times, I did have to keep reminding myself that Becky didn’t know something or vice versa. I think even the author got confused a few times as Becky referenced something that she didn’t find out about until the next chapter! A few inconstancies like this made the book lose a star rating (I only give allowances for things like that in ARC books, and this wasn’t one of them).
Considering this book was written before the current pandemic, and the author couldn’t have known what would happen over the last eighteen months since the book was published, she was bang on the nose with a lot of her predictions. That is what made reading this so scary because if the beginning of this pandemic could be so well predicted, can what follows be too?
Overall, a very eye-opening read. Other than the few irregularities, this was a brilliant read, and I really must get around to reading Hodge’s entire back catalogue!
Thanks for reading! If you want to see more of my reviews visit www.pinkanddizzy.com
I know this was all fiction, but the author has done a lot of research into the ‘Great Reset’, and everything she wrote about in this story is already starting to come true. It is quite frightening that we could get to the point that is in this book. I actually resonated more with the dystopian future this was heading towards than I did when I read ‘1984’ by George Oswell. Unfortunately, Hodge’s seemed more realistic!
The story itself was very unique and unlike anything I have ever read before. It draws you in right from the start and keeps you gripped until the end. We are reintroduced to characters that we have seen in previous books by Sibel Hodge. However, if this is the first book you have read, you won’t feel like you have missed anything. A few things are referenced but in a vague way where you don’t need the full details. So, this can certainly be read as a standalone novel.
We are mainly getting Detective Becky Harris and counsellor Toni’s points of views. However, there are a few times where we see into the minds of the bad guys.
With the perspective being of that of two very similar women, it did become quite confusing about who knew what. They are both investigating the same crimes but without knowing of each other’s involvement. So at times, I did have to keep reminding myself that Becky didn’t know something or vice versa. I think even the author got confused a few times as Becky referenced something that she didn’t find out about until the next chapter! A few inconstancies like this made the book lose a star rating (I only give allowances for things like that in ARC books, and this wasn’t one of them).
Considering this book was written before the current pandemic, and the author couldn’t have known what would happen over the last eighteen months since the book was published, she was bang on the nose with a lot of her predictions. That is what made reading this so scary because if the beginning of this pandemic could be so well predicted, can what follows be too?
Overall, a very eye-opening read. Other than the few irregularities, this was a brilliant read, and I really must get around to reading Hodge’s entire back catalogue!
Thanks for reading! If you want to see more of my reviews visit www.pinkanddizzy.com
June 23, 2021
Wow. Wow wow, triple wow again
I was totally addicted to this book as I normally am with Sybil Hodge thrillers. How close she actually gets to the truth and puts it in novel form. Not once did I doubt rich from the beginning what was written about is in actual fact based on truths. It’s a brilliant novel that takes you into a world of suspected cults at a university. Although we are only a little country and people think cults are only in America how wrong you would be to think we do not have them in the U.K. we just don’t hear about them in the same way as they do in the states. I was reading away waiting for Becky to come across one as I was have expecting it. Excellent twists going on and unexpected turns. At one point I thought Curtis was a recruiter for some weird organisation of some type of cult. He seems to pop up in some of the most obscure places. A very very well deceptive move I thought. Absolutely fantastic However maybe Curtis is involved maybe not. Only way to find out is to read the novel. A real bone biting thriller with so much going on. I genuinely could not put the book down. Very very highly recommended. It can not recommend enough without giving a spoiler away and I can not do that. Enjoy you will ………,…
I was totally addicted to this book as I normally am with Sybil Hodge thrillers. How close she actually gets to the truth and puts it in novel form. Not once did I doubt rich from the beginning what was written about is in actual fact based on truths. It’s a brilliant novel that takes you into a world of suspected cults at a university. Although we are only a little country and people think cults are only in America how wrong you would be to think we do not have them in the U.K. we just don’t hear about them in the same way as they do in the states. I was reading away waiting for Becky to come across one as I was have expecting it. Excellent twists going on and unexpected turns. At one point I thought Curtis was a recruiter for some weird organisation of some type of cult. He seems to pop up in some of the most obscure places. A very very well deceptive move I thought. Absolutely fantastic However maybe Curtis is involved maybe not. Only way to find out is to read the novel. A real bone biting thriller with so much going on. I genuinely could not put the book down. Very very highly recommended. It can not recommend enough without giving a spoiler away and I can not do that. Enjoy you will ………,…
June 11, 2020
Oh my goodness! To think this novel was written and researched pre 2020. This is a novel everyone should read. All the hints of George Orwells 1984 mixed into a real msytery. Becky Harris goes undercover at a University to try to discover what is happening to students there. Odd behaviour that is out of character, that leads to death, with no seeming connection to each other. Using characters from some of her other novels, Sibel weaves a scenario so frightening and prophetical. with her ususal well researched writing skills. If you think Covid is scary read this because what comes after will be worse. I love Sibel Hodge she remains at the top of my reading list, her books tell us things we dont want to believe are true but her research is enough too show us how we can be hoodwinked. This is a book everyone should read especially now, its time to wake up and be discerning because Big Brother is alive and well. Pure Class.
May 10, 2020
An exciting read, consistent with Sibel Hodge's other books. It describes how a police officer is sent undercover to a university as a student to investigate some recent deaths of students there, which has also become a concern of a student counsellor at the university. Independently, the police officer and counsellor try to get to the bottom of what is causing the deaths, and their findings are very disturbing, and a warning to us all about the dangers of abuse of surveillance by the authorities. This aspect of the plot seems very relevant with the current lockdown, and tracking apps being used in some countries. Totally recommended.
October 26, 2020
Wow. That’s All I Have To Say...Terrifying and Interesting.
This book is mind-blowing and extremely disturbing, because the author says it is based in some reality, despite it being a novel. I am quite impressed with this book but have to warn people, it deals with some really scary things.
This book is mind-blowing and extremely disturbing, because the author says it is based in some reality, despite it being a novel. I am quite impressed with this book but have to warn people, it deals with some really scary things.
April 5, 2021
Interesting plot
As always I love this author she writes with such realism it feels like you're right there in the action trying to figure out what's going on and feeling totally hooked when doing so. Towards the end I thought it was quite fitting to feature similar events that are happening in the world right now. Really good
As always I love this author she writes with such realism it feels like you're right there in the action trying to figure out what's going on and feeling totally hooked when doing so. Towards the end I thought it was quite fitting to feature similar events that are happening in the world right now. Really good
September 17, 2020
One of my favourite authors, but the first half of the book is rather drawn out. This resulted in a lot of detail about the student victims, but not so much about those behind the conspiracy. Still 'Liked It'.
February 5, 2021
A good read, uniting characters from previous novels which are helpful to have read but not entirely necessary. It's reasonably well paced with a few twists and turns. Worth reading if you like Sibel Hodge and/or crime/conspiracy thrillers.
May 3, 2023
It started out great. Perfect hook. Unusual incidents that are all seemingly connected. There was so much possibility, but the climax just fell flat. The book was great until about 70% then it was downhill.
November 12, 2024
Dark shadows
I have had several Sigel Hodge books, but this has been my least favourite. It started off well with plenty of action. Unfortunately I feel this book has been more of a personal political statement than a crime thriller
I have had several Sigel Hodge books, but this has been my least favourite. It started off well with plenty of action. Unfortunately I feel this book has been more of a personal political statement than a crime thriller
October 10, 2025
Even better than the last book!
If I could give this book six stars, I would.
Terrifying, riveting, addictive…. This lady really is tuned in to what’s happening in this sick, twisted and depraved world.
It will probably give me nightmares but still …
If I could give this book six stars, I would.
Terrifying, riveting, addictive…. This lady really is tuned in to what’s happening in this sick, twisted and depraved world.
It will probably give me nightmares but still …
May 6, 2020
Absolutely amazing book, like all of hers! Can't wait for the next one
February 19, 2025
Excellent Read
I enjoyed reading this but I was disappointed with the ending. I expected it to go on a little bit longer.
I enjoyed reading this but I was disappointed with the ending. I expected it to go on a little bit longer.
July 14, 2020
I’ve enjoyed some of her books and though I felt this too on the nose with COVID towards the end I thought it’d be believable maybe until I got all kinds of AntiVaxx vibes. I decided to search her up only to find she IS an antivaxxer and organizes and promotes protests... AGAINST MASKS. She thinks Covid is a hoax and masks are being stripped from our rights. After losing my respect for her it’s safe to say I won’t be reading her stuff again.
June 4, 2020
On wow
If you do nothing else in life. Pick up this book. Amazing author. Such a well plotted out story. And love the weaving of my favourite characters through her many books. Thanks for a great read.
If you do nothing else in life. Pick up this book. Amazing author. Such a well plotted out story. And love the weaving of my favourite characters through her many books. Thanks for a great read.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 21 reviews