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A WOMAN IS FOUND DEAD IN A SEASIDE HOLIDAY APARTMENT. SHE WAS LEFT NAKED - STABBED THROUGH THE HEART.

Witnesses say Vicki Braithwaite's recent behaviour was wild and dangerous, but Detective Joe Hogarth doesn't trust the testimonies or the evidence. Something doesn't add up - and Hogarth is determined to find the truth.

The nature of the victim's recent relationships are enough to suggest that she was responsible for her own demise. But Hogarth doesn't believe it – because everything he learns about the woman’s way of life contradicts her final actions.

Vicki Braithwaite is woman who doesn’t make sense... And the more Hogarth learns the closer he gets to the terrible truth…

Just who is the mysterious Mr Selmar? And why did he want Vicki dead?

Detective Inspector Joe Hogarth, DS Palmer and DC Kaplan must work through the lies in a complex and beguiling case… and the deeper they delve, the murkier it gets

In a thrilling conclusion, DI Hogarth and his team must track down a killer before they can escape.

THE DARK INSIDE. Don’t miss this thrilling new mystery!
And book 2 The Dark Intent - is almost here!

333 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 5, 2021

213 people are currently reading
162 people want to read

About the author

Solomon Carter

189 books99 followers
Hello folks,
My name is Solomon Carter, and I am the author of the Roberts and Bradley PI crime thriller series, The Last Line international thriller series, the DI Hogarth Darkest series and more. I write mysteries, crime and thriller novels and more besides.

I was born in Southend, Essex and lived there for most of my life apart from eventful student days in South London. But my life in Southend was even more eventful still. I ended up working in a string of jobs including as a jobcentre clerk, a book seller, tutor for youth with low skills and low self esteem, mortgage broker, and latterly manager of a food bank which dealt with all kinds of interesting people facing all kinds of eye-opening, jaw dropping problems. Because of these ear-to-the-ground jobs the majority of my novels are set in Southend. In 2016 I moved to North Cornwall because I liked the idea of never-ending holidays - but I also write almost every single day. My aim is to write action-packed thrillers and page-turning mysteries that readers love and my hope is to get better at what I do with every book across each and every year.

I like to give away lots of free books as part of what I do. If you would like to receive some of these and get the exclusives on offer, than you're invited to join my free readers group at SolomonCarter.net. I won't spam you, just send the occassional email with news on the latest books and forthcoming freebies.

And if you want to see the memes, personal shares and other oddball stuff I do, then you can join me at Facebook via www.facebook.com/solomoncarterwrites and join the fun there too.

What I am good at: telling stories
What I am bad at: dancing, being patient.
What I love: nature, the seaside, adventures
Writers I heartily recommend: Lee Child, Ian Rankin, Henning Mankell, Val McDermid, Harlan Coben, Robert Crais.
Writers I need to read more of: Val McDermid, Ian Rankin, Michael Connelly and others.
Other things I do beside writing: at present I like to keep my running going to balance out the sitting behind a laptop (a habit inspired by Haruki Murakami's 'What I talk about when I talk about running' - a great book).
-I am currently doing surf lessons. When in Rome, as they say...
-Getting out into nature as the weather allows.

I look forward to hearing from you.
Until then I'll keep on writing. Or running. Or surfing. Or chasing my children around the house.

All the very best,
Solomon :)

PS
if you have enjoyed any of my books, I'd be honoured if you could post a review. Those reviews really do help!

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5 stars
954 (53%)
4 stars
594 (33%)
3 stars
182 (10%)
2 stars
42 (2%)
1 star
19 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews
Profile Image for Julie Powell.
Author 72 books324 followers
May 4, 2022
I thoroughly enjoyed this crime drama, where DI Hogarth and his team investigate the brutal murder of Vicki Braithwaite, who is an enigma to say the least. Untangling the clues and mystery is not an easy road.

The characters fit well into the story, and although Hogarth isn’t perfect, as a detective, he is determined to get the job done. I liked the Palmer and Kaplan better, though as a team they worked well. There were certainly undercurrents of ‘more not said’.

I liked the twists and turns and how the plot unravelled, but I will say that I did guess the perpetrator and the reasons why.

It is set in Southend (Britain) and it was a pleasant change to read English spelling and way of life, therefore, I was surprised to read ‘purse’ instead of ‘handbag’ and CSI instead of SOCO, for example.

Overall, this was a great crime thriller, well-written and a nice ‘whodunit’.

Recommended.
168 reviews10 followers
May 9, 2023
2 &1/2 stars rounded up to 3. Disappointed. Maybe I'll try one of the author's other series.
Profile Image for Viva.
1,380 reviews4 followers
December 10, 2022
Spoilers ahead.

A beautiful woman is found naked and dead in a posh English seaside AirB&B. She has no ID and everything has been wiped clean in the flat. DI Hogarth and his team of two (DS Palmer and DC Kaplan) are assigned to the case.

Starting from scratch they do a good job of first identifying the woman (from tattoos) to finding her history, her contacts and who might have had a reason to kill her. Classic police/detective protocol and done well. However, I found the writing a bit slow and not gripping. The litmus test of this is when I decide to check the news on my phone or do other stuff in the middle of a chapter. If it's enthralling enough I will usually forget everything else and keep reading.

Once the culprit became obvious the writing slowed down even more. I'm sure readers were mentally shouting out wondering why the investigators didn't zero in on this immediately, surely it was obvious to the detectives too. Instead, the author tried to drag it out and as a result the ending was not as satisfying as it could be.

There is also a side plot of the Hogarth's live in girlfriend being involved in something weird. We are told snatches of this throughout the book. And in fact, the book ends on a cliffhanger of this side plot. I got this book free on the Kindle and this whole side plot and cliffhanger seems to be a way for the author, publisher or Amazon to get you to buy the next book in the series.

To be honest, the price for the series isn't bad. I checked out this author's offerings and his omnibus sets come out to be about $1 per book (range from 33 cents to $2-3/book depending on series), which is a very good deal indeed. However, I disliked the way that the ending seemed to be a ploy to get the reader to buy the next book, and it was a side plot anyway, that could be completely ignored in the book. I thought a lot about the rating to give this book. I didn't want my dissatisfaction of this to be a factor in the rating as the rating should only be on the content. In the end, I decided 3 stars to be fair. The writing was easy to read and follow, however it was slow going and the ending was even slower. A 4-5 star meant I would get the next in the series immediately and this wasn't one of them.
176 reviews
January 23, 2023
This is the type of book that I don't like because after reading 300 plus pages the author leaves the story hanging without finishing the story. He brought up a situation that was mentioned at different times in the story, but when he got to the end of the book he didn't finish it. The story line was well written with characters that were life like and the situation was believable so why didn't choose to end it? I don't think I will try to get the next book in the series to see if he carries it on, the fact that he did it this way just makes me mad. I hope that others that purchase this book will also post of their displeasure.
1,252 reviews6 followers
May 6, 2025
A cleaner turns up at a holiday let and finds a naked dead woman lying on the bed covered in blood having been stabbed in the chest. Detective Hogarth and his team arrive at this pristine holiday let, even the cleaner when she opened the door didn't see anything to clean, until she opened the bedroom door. The woman turned out to be a bit of an enigma, which is putting it mildly, Vicki Braithwhite who worked at a local firm, she was a pleasant popular likeable woman and her boss
and the staff were shocked by her death. Hogarth has quite a job on his hands trying to sort through all the different names the women were going by as he was tracking Vicki down and he was very suspicious of her former boss who seemed very upset that she had been murdered. The holiday let was owned by him and his wife and they seemed as baffled by her death. Well, wouldn't be too sure about that.

The investigation ends up by chasing a car down to Kent and trying to stop a woman leaving by a plane from Lydd airport which isn't that all that far away from here. It was a good story but spoilt a little when they were looking for a man named Selmar who had booked the holiday let and books it regularly to entertain ladies and they couldn't find any trace of his existence, and the owner was also baffled, but then if he had looked again at the letters in the name he might have worked out who it was, which I did early on in the book and that spoilt it a little for me. I mean Mr Carter usually keeps his clues tight and doesn't give away easy ones, so I was surprised to find that I had correctly worked out who killed Vicki quite early on.
Profile Image for Sian  Morant.
247 reviews25 followers
April 3, 2023
I really enjoyed this combination of crime thriller and police procedural. We are introduced to DI Hogarth, an old school copper whose aim is to get the ‘bad guys’. Hogarth sometimes relies on instinct and copper’s nose a bit too often, much to the consternation of the younger members of the team.
The story focuses on a murder victim’s body being found in a holiday let apartment, seemingly with no clues and very little forensics. The murder victim turns out to be Vicki Braithwaite. Vicki turns out to be complex character and there are many twists and turns to the story, before everything becomes clear.
The story is set in Southend which may seem unlikely, but certainly doesn’t detract from the story at all. I had a feeling on the identity of the murderer fairly early on, but didn’t realise why until quite late on in the book.
A cracking read and I will certainly read the rest in the series
Profile Image for Laura Stephen.
97 reviews6 followers
May 20, 2022
Crime thrillers are one of my favourite genres and this didn't disappoint. I liked the set up of the story line with a murder with little clues in a holiday let apartment. As Hogarth and his team dig in to the case we see clues appear, which initlly don't seem to tie together and eventually the team start to piece together the picture. Hogarth is a typical middle aged old school DI who seems to let his passion for getting the job done rule his life. I particularly liked the balance in the team with Kaplan who is younger and the 'techie' of the team balancing out Hogarth's impulsive behaviour by backing it up with evidence. I did guess the murderer and the 'why' quite early on but that didn't take away from how the story line wrapped up. Overall a good read and a hook to read the next story in the Hogarth series.
26 reviews1 follower
December 27, 2022
Downloaded for free from Amazon.

I enjoyed the first half immensely, however by the 2nd half I had already worked out who the killer was and the big reveal took far too long.

The characters were slightly weird, Hogarth was characterized well, but all the other characters including his team weren't well characterized.

The building up of the victim and characterization of her was very clever and I enjoyed that immensely. This was extremely well done by the author.

The 'side story' didn't really make much sense and nothing was really said on what that was about, it was probably an attempt to lead me into the next book, but that's a risky move as it relies on me caring and being invested enough to read the next book.

Still undecided on whether to read the next book... maybe.... As a standalone a solid 4.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for MARILYN RAYNER.
151 reviews2 followers
December 28, 2021
No enemy worse than a woman scorned.

Hogarth and his team at their best. But the twists and turns everywhere they looked muddied the waters. Hogarths pre conceived ideas could have led them along way down a dead end. D.C Kaplan and D.S. Palmer gently lead D I Hogarth to rethink his main suspect in this gruesome murder. Sadly underlying all this Joe Hogarth personal life appears on a shady slippery slope, who is targeting Hogarth and why?????
20 reviews
May 22, 2022
Solomon Carter has developed Hogarth’s character far more in recent books, and regular readers now recognise the that the surly cop does have a softer side. Thoroughly enjoyed the first book in this series and, yes, I will be looking to read the follow-ups because, as always, whilst the brutal murder of Vicki Braithwaite is investigated and the culprits brought to justice, it ends on yet another cliffhanger, “whose the man in the black suit?” A good story, a believable conclusion, and promise of more to come.
568 reviews2 followers
May 27, 2022
Gritty.

This has been a good introduction into the world of DI Hogarth. A man who is good at his job and has an interesting private life as well.
A mystery based around the murder of a woman in an apartment which leads us on a twist and turn route to get to the truth. And in his private life, something is developing involving his long term girl friend.
Now I am going to read the next story to find out what is happening.
1,149 reviews7 followers
November 5, 2022
Business & Pleasure

A beautiful woman's murder plunges Hogarth and his team into a twisted world of sex for money and betrayal. And Hogarth is being stalked by a mysterious man with a hidden agenda.

This was a decently paced book. The murder mystery was satisfactorily resolved though the stalker portion was not. Hogarth is not the most likable or interesting character but overall a decent police procedural.
15 reviews1 follower
December 23, 2021
The dark inside.

Anyone liking a good murder mystery will love this .d.i.hogarth.gets it done.five stars worth of good reading.prostitution and por n movies. And a wife that doesn't like her husband straying.a good story that I couldn't put down once I started reading.look forward to next one.
4 reviews
March 22, 2022
Solomon the greatest.

I've chosen this rating because to me he is one of the best authors that ever put pen to paper. I would recommend him to everyone who enjoys reading. I've enjoyed every one of his books books that i've read and look forward to the next one I'm about to read. Keep them coming Solomon.
205 reviews
April 24, 2022
A story within a murder story. Enjoyed the characters in this book and the way the storyline developed. I had guessed the culprit part way through but the writing kept you hooked. Would definitely recommend this book. Now I need the next book in the series to find out where the other storyline is going.
Profile Image for Suzi.
441 reviews13 followers
November 8, 2022
This book really irked me! The story line was good and I enjoyed the twists and turns to who did it. However it is the first book of a series and it felt like any background or depth to the characters had previously been explained in another book, there was also references in the book to previous happenings it felt more like the second/third book in the series.
596 reviews2 followers
November 23, 2024
slippery character

Another murder, Hogarth’s team at full strength better than he ever had, Kaplan was working wonders and a great asset. This was a challenging case.
A plot to upset Hogarth is underway by aiming revenge staring with his girlfriend, she thinks it’s romance not part of a plot.
5 reviews
Read
March 24, 2022
The Dark Inside

Absolutely brilliant. The storyline just keeps getting better and better. D I Hogarth is quite a compelling character. He is rather complicated, but utterly fascinating.
3 reviews
May 6, 2022
The dark inside

I enjoyed reading this book . D I Hogarth is a different kind of detective making it easier to enjoy because you find his personal life and work so deferent. The plot was fast moving and had a surprise ending I will look forward to the next book.



Profile Image for Val.
692 reviews
August 24, 2022
A mystery woman is brutally murdered in a high class apartment. Hogarth and his team twist one way and another before getting to the truth. Meanwhile things are not as well as they could be for Hogarth on the home front.
298 reviews2 followers
Read
October 23, 2022
Good

Figured it out pretty early on. Entertaining, well thought out process and good characters. Reads like a tv series. So you don't know what happens next with his girlfriend and why the sinister Percival is after him.....
538 reviews9 followers
November 25, 2022
a good read

The team are on the case of a murdered woman. At first it looks like she was a sex worker, but things turn out to be very different! Who wanted Vicki dead, and why?

A good read, looking forward to the next instalment.
15 reviews
December 24, 2022
Fast moving book with interesting characters

Solomon Carter is my favourite author at present. I enjoy his writing style, his characters and although I did rumble the culprit towards the end of the book, I was happy to read late into the night to finish the story.
7 reviews
March 5, 2023
Solomon does it again

The only trouble I find with Solomons books are that once I start I can’t put them down till I’ve finished. I know and have lived in and around Southend so I can really feel like I’m in the heart of the stories. Great work Solomon keep ‘ em coming.
Profile Image for Joyce Smith.
129 reviews
August 5, 2023
A Fast Pace Read!

Loved the main characters in this fast pace read. Quite a few red herrings on the way and many many twists and turns! Interesting how the layers were peeled away and options left to contemplate. Excellent read.
193 reviews3 followers
August 6, 2023
Hogarth is a compelling hero

I was gripped from the start by Dark Inside, following the many twists and turns to the end. Now, I want to know what happens next to this complex man!
46 reviews
December 17, 2021
Brilliant

As always another good book by a brilliant author I would highly recommend this book to everybody so grab a copy
32 reviews
December 22, 2021
Captivating story

This story kept my attention on each page. I can't wait for the next episode. I hope it is coming out soon
61 reviews
January 12, 2022
A cracking read

This is a great book. It's Solomon at his best.. I just couldn't put it down. I definitely recommend this book.
27 reviews
January 15, 2022
Dark inside ,

A very good read kept me guessing until the end. I like all of Solomon Carter novels they are very good
Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews

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