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A Darker Place
A respected university professor, Anne Waverly has a past known to few: Years ago, her own unwitting act cost Anne her husband and daughter. Fewer still know that this history and her academic specialty—alternative religious movements—have made her a brilliant FBI operative. Four times she has infiltrated suspect communities, escaping her own memories of loss and carnage to find a measure of atonement. Now, as she begins to savor life once more, she has no intention of taking another assignment. Until she learns of more than one hundred children living in the Change movement's Arizona compound....
Anne soon realizes that Change is no ordinary community and hers is no ordinary mission. For, far from appeasing the demons of her past, this assignment is sweeping her back into their clutches...and to the razor's edge of danger.
Anne soon realizes that Change is no ordinary community and hers is no ordinary mission. For, far from appeasing the demons of her past, this assignment is sweeping her back into their clutches...and to the razor's edge of danger.
477 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published February 1, 1999
181 people are currently reading
1236 people want to read
About the author
Laurie R. King
135 books6,842 followersEdgar-winning mystery writer Laurie R. King writes series and standalone novels. Her official forum is
THE LRK VIRTUAL BOOK CLUB here on Goodreads--please join us for book-discussing fun.
King's 2018 novel, Island of the Mad, sees Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes travel from London's Bedlam to the glitter of Venice's Lido,where Young Things and the friends of Cole Porter pass Mussolini's Blackshirts in the streets. The Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series follows a brilliant young woman who becomes the student, then partner, of the great detective. [click here for an excerpt of the first in the series, The Beekeeper's Apprentice] The Stuyvesant and Grey series (Touchstone; The Bones of Paris) takes place in Europe between the Wars. The Kate Martinelli series follows an SFPD detective's cases on a female Rembrandt, a holy fool, and more. [Click for an excerpt of A Grave Talent]
King lives in northern California, which serves as backdrop for some of her books.
Please note that Laurie checks her Goodreads inbox intermittently, so it may take some time to receive a reply. A quicker response may be possible via email to info@laurierking.com.
THE LRK VIRTUAL BOOK CLUB here on Goodreads--please join us for book-discussing fun.
King's 2018 novel, Island of the Mad, sees Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes travel from London's Bedlam to the glitter of Venice's Lido,where Young Things and the friends of Cole Porter pass Mussolini's Blackshirts in the streets. The Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series follows a brilliant young woman who becomes the student, then partner, of the great detective. [click here for an excerpt of the first in the series, The Beekeeper's Apprentice] The Stuyvesant and Grey series (Touchstone; The Bones of Paris) takes place in Europe between the Wars. The Kate Martinelli series follows an SFPD detective's cases on a female Rembrandt, a holy fool, and more. [Click for an excerpt of A Grave Talent]
King lives in northern California, which serves as backdrop for some of her books.
Please note that Laurie checks her Goodreads inbox intermittently, so it may take some time to receive a reply. A quicker response may be possible via email to info@laurierking.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 236 reviews
April 30, 2018
this book would have been good if it hadn't been for a few scenes. now, all this may be normal to mothers but I am not one so to me it's weird AF. my breast do not swell in anticipation of nursing or the thought of it when a 5 year old child gets near me, or any child for that matter. I do not have lustful thoughts about 14 year old boys. this is some of the weird that is the main character. if all that had been left out, this would've been a little better.
June 10, 2017
I love Laurie King's Holmes/Russell series, especially where Mary gets to use her theological training. So I was hoping this book, whose main character is a professor of comparative religion who occasionally investigates fringe religious groups for the FBI, would be equally good. I still love the premise and think it has a lot of potential, but alas, the novel fell flat for me, mostly for two reason.
The first is that the book reads like the third or fourth in a series. What happened to Anne in her early 20s is critical to understanding who she is, what she does (infiltrates offbeat religious groups that show signs of becoming dangerous), and why she does it, but because she's now in her forties, all of that backstory -- some 18-20 years of it -- has to basically be handed to the reader. Although it's fairly well done through a mix of memories, flashbacks, and third-person discussion, it's still a hell of a lot of tell with very little show. It wouldn't matter so much if these were just trifling little details invented to bring the character to life (they like jazz, they used to be a vegetarian, they don't understand modern art), but in this case the past events are truly core to who Anne is. I didn't want to be told what happened to Abby, or that Glen dragged Anne from the brink of suicide by getting her to work for him, I wanted to go through it with her so I could feel like I knew her. So I wish this book had been set years earlier and told the story of Anne's traumatic past and her first case for the FBI instead of her third or fourth. Or I wish this really had been a later book in a series, and we'd had two or three books to get to know her.
The second problem was that the two halves of the book, the first in Arizona and the second in England, didn't mesh well. OK, they didn't really mesh at all. The Change compound in Arizona runs a successful school for difficult kids and a shop in town, they're free to come and go as they wish, it's very open and friendly, and the leader Steven is pretty normal and non-threatening. Once Anne gets to England it all goes downhill really fast but since we haven't had time to get to know any of the England people or places, it's hard to get invested in it. As a result the tension feels artificial rather than organically generated. The people we did get invested in, back in Arizona, just disappear from the scene. (Except the two kids, and speaking of them wtf was up with her obsession with Jason?) So Arizona ended up feeling like nothing more than a mechanism for getting Anne to England, which is where the real action takes place. I think it would have been stronger if the whole thing had been set in England, and we'd had more time to experience Jonas' growing weirdness and obsession, the claustrophobia of the overgrown Change house, the latent menace of Jonas' sidekick, the mystery of the missing Samantha, etc. Or if the Arizona group had come back into the picture somehow. For example, I was half-expecting, based on the one phone conversation transcript, . That would have been a nice way of wrapping things up.
I have some other minor nits with it, but these were why I give it only two stars ("it was ok"). I will say that if the author ever does go back and write the story of Anne's first case, I would definitely read that one.
The first is that the book reads like the third or fourth in a series. What happened to Anne in her early 20s is critical to understanding who she is, what she does (infiltrates offbeat religious groups that show signs of becoming dangerous), and why she does it, but because she's now in her forties, all of that backstory -- some 18-20 years of it -- has to basically be handed to the reader. Although it's fairly well done through a mix of memories, flashbacks, and third-person discussion, it's still a hell of a lot of tell with very little show. It wouldn't matter so much if these were just trifling little details invented to bring the character to life (they like jazz, they used to be a vegetarian, they don't understand modern art), but in this case the past events are truly core to who Anne is. I didn't want to be told what happened to Abby, or that Glen dragged Anne from the brink of suicide by getting her to work for him, I wanted to go through it with her so I could feel like I knew her. So I wish this book had been set years earlier and told the story of Anne's traumatic past and her first case for the FBI instead of her third or fourth. Or I wish this really had been a later book in a series, and we'd had two or three books to get to know her.
The second problem was that the two halves of the book, the first in Arizona and the second in England, didn't mesh well. OK, they didn't really mesh at all. The Change compound in Arizona runs a successful school for difficult kids and a shop in town, they're free to come and go as they wish, it's very open and friendly, and the leader Steven is pretty normal and non-threatening. Once Anne gets to England it all goes downhill really fast but since we haven't had time to get to know any of the England people or places, it's hard to get invested in it. As a result the tension feels artificial rather than organically generated. The people we did get invested in, back in Arizona, just disappear from the scene. (Except the two kids, and speaking of them wtf was up with her obsession with Jason?) So Arizona ended up feeling like nothing more than a mechanism for getting Anne to England, which is where the real action takes place. I think it would have been stronger if the whole thing had been set in England, and we'd had more time to experience Jonas' growing weirdness and obsession, the claustrophobia of the overgrown Change house, the latent menace of Jonas' sidekick, the mystery of the missing Samantha, etc. Or if the Arizona group had come back into the picture somehow. For example, I was half-expecting, based on the one phone conversation transcript, . That would have been a nice way of wrapping things up.
I have some other minor nits with it, but these were why I give it only two stars ("it was ok"). I will say that if the author ever does go back and write the story of Anne's first case, I would definitely read that one.
October 25, 2009
By the end of this stand-alone story I was so thoroughly disgruntled that I'd spent several hours of my life reading about characters unlikeable and un-engaging, that I tore the book in half and used it to level a tilting appliance in order for the door to swing open unimpeded.
This from a book-lover no less. I wanted to feel guilty: it was a very satisfying tear.
Although I enjoy Laurie King's other two mystery series (Russell/Holmes & Kate Martinelli), this dreary little book didn't ring my bell. I wondered several times if it hadn't been an early manuscript that may have pre-dated the other series, and therefore was from the pen of a more amateur writer? It was so disconnected in tone, interest, character development, story-line--that it felt as though written by an entirely different author.
I personally desire to engage with and enjoy at least some of the characters I'm reading about. Since I found none in A Darker Place, that may bias me against a fair read.
Unlike other reviewers, I didn't find the material too disturbing, troubling or sexually upsetting. In fact, the idea was interesting and could have lead to a gripping read. I just found it impossible to root for anyone and was in fact so turned off by several of the characters that I was hoping for a cataclysm to occur much sooner than it eventually did.
This from a book-lover no less. I wanted to feel guilty: it was a very satisfying tear.
Although I enjoy Laurie King's other two mystery series (Russell/Holmes & Kate Martinelli), this dreary little book didn't ring my bell. I wondered several times if it hadn't been an early manuscript that may have pre-dated the other series, and therefore was from the pen of a more amateur writer? It was so disconnected in tone, interest, character development, story-line--that it felt as though written by an entirely different author.
I personally desire to engage with and enjoy at least some of the characters I'm reading about. Since I found none in A Darker Place, that may bias me against a fair read.
Unlike other reviewers, I didn't find the material too disturbing, troubling or sexually upsetting. In fact, the idea was interesting and could have lead to a gripping read. I just found it impossible to root for anyone and was in fact so turned off by several of the characters that I was hoping for a cataclysm to occur much sooner than it eventually did.
December 14, 2020
A Darker Place, Laurie R. King. 588pp.
Surreal, ghastly.
Spoils /The Hunting of the Snark/, 1876, Lewis Carroll (If you're going to read /The Hunting of the Snark/, read it before A Darker Place). Online here: https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/The_...
If you liked Lewis Carroll's poems Jabberwocky and The Walrus and the Carpenter (both in Through the Looking Glass (1872), in chapters 1 & 4 respectively), you may want to read Snark.
A Darker Place folds insights into perspectives of members of actual cults, into a fictional story of infiltrating one.
Published 1999, six years after Bill Clinton's attorney general, Janet Reno, precipitated the horror at Waco. The deadly fires may have been started by grenades fired by federal agents. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_...
Laurie R. King's protagonist in this book, Anne Waverly, is an academic expert on religions, afflicted by guilt over the deaths of her family members. So is Mary Russell, heroine of King's 19-book Sherlock Holmes series. King herself is an academic expert on religions. We have to wonder if she lost family.
Laurie R. King (through her alter-ego, Professor Anne Waverly) says this about cults:
Don't call it a cult. It's a charged, negative, meaningless word. The correct word is usually sect. (chapters 18, 20)
In a strong religious community, /there are no hostages wanting rescue./ Typically the men, women, and children of the community love and believe in what they are doing, and will die--willingly, freely, die--before submitting to the perceived enemy. (chapter 9)
It's not the government's business to sort true doctrine from heresy. But, people do have to obey the laws. (chapter 1) [This is me talking: note that the Supreme Court has recently been ruling profession of religion to exempt the person (or corporation!) professing religion from obedience to the law. This false interpretation of the Constitution will have to be overturned.]
Don't sever contacts between the community and outsiders, as federal agents did in Waco. (chapter 15) Isolation and pressure are the two deadliest enemies of any volatile situation. (chapter 25) If you interfere with (any) community's children, it will strike back, and the children and everyone else will get in the way. (chapter 24)
Former members of a religious movement were a valuable if dangerous source of information--valuable because they were usually as eager as ex-spouses to spill all the dark and misshapen beans of their former relationship, and a hazard because the negative was often the only information they were interested in giving. (chapter 4)
And, from one of Professor Waverly's final exams:
If Jesus were born today, how would he live and who would his followers be? (chapter 3)
Not specifically about cults:
It's God's true blessing that we cannot see our future. (chapter 8)
Sometimes the only difference between a cop and a criminal is the badge. (chapter 3)
Guilt is an insidious force. (chapter 4)
Surreal, ghastly.
Spoils /The Hunting of the Snark/, 1876, Lewis Carroll (If you're going to read /The Hunting of the Snark/, read it before A Darker Place). Online here: https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/The_...
If you liked Lewis Carroll's poems Jabberwocky and The Walrus and the Carpenter (both in Through the Looking Glass (1872), in chapters 1 & 4 respectively), you may want to read Snark.
A Darker Place folds insights into perspectives of members of actual cults, into a fictional story of infiltrating one.
Published 1999, six years after Bill Clinton's attorney general, Janet Reno, precipitated the horror at Waco. The deadly fires may have been started by grenades fired by federal agents. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_...
Laurie R. King's protagonist in this book, Anne Waverly, is an academic expert on religions, afflicted by guilt over the deaths of her family members. So is Mary Russell, heroine of King's 19-book Sherlock Holmes series. King herself is an academic expert on religions. We have to wonder if she lost family.
Laurie R. King (through her alter-ego, Professor Anne Waverly) says this about cults:
Don't call it a cult. It's a charged, negative, meaningless word. The correct word is usually sect. (chapters 18, 20)
In a strong religious community, /there are no hostages wanting rescue./ Typically the men, women, and children of the community love and believe in what they are doing, and will die--willingly, freely, die--before submitting to the perceived enemy. (chapter 9)
It's not the government's business to sort true doctrine from heresy. But, people do have to obey the laws. (chapter 1) [This is me talking: note that the Supreme Court has recently been ruling profession of religion to exempt the person (or corporation!) professing religion from obedience to the law. This false interpretation of the Constitution will have to be overturned.]
Don't sever contacts between the community and outsiders, as federal agents did in Waco. (chapter 15) Isolation and pressure are the two deadliest enemies of any volatile situation. (chapter 25) If you interfere with (any) community's children, it will strike back, and the children and everyone else will get in the way. (chapter 24)
Former members of a religious movement were a valuable if dangerous source of information--valuable because they were usually as eager as ex-spouses to spill all the dark and misshapen beans of their former relationship, and a hazard because the negative was often the only information they were interested in giving. (chapter 4)
And, from one of Professor Waverly's final exams:
If Jesus were born today, how would he live and who would his followers be? (chapter 3)
Not specifically about cults:
It's God's true blessing that we cannot see our future. (chapter 8)
Sometimes the only difference between a cop and a criminal is the badge. (chapter 3)
Guilt is an insidious force. (chapter 4)
February 3, 2012
Rarely have I read an author with the literary courage and skill of Laurie King. It’s easy to be reactionary when dealing with a controversial topic. It’s easy to be formulaic when writing in the mystery or thriller genre. She does neither. Instead, King tackles a polarizing topic with incredible sensitivity and creativity in a way that shatters stereotypes.
What A Darker Place is
A Darker Place is a book of journeys. It is the journey of Anne Waverly as an undercover agent entering a religious community called “Change” that is filled with children. It is a journey into her own regret-filled past. It is the journey of a troubled teen toward desired enlightenment and away from the unfairness of abusive guardians.
It is also, ultimately, a book of hope. King’s characters are ruthless in their self-exploration and by the book’s end we believe in the productivity of such an examination.
A Darker Place is an exploration of religious communities—what the popular media calls “cults.” King avoids that easy label and instead describes them in a much richer, complex depth.
What A Darker Place is not
A Darker Place is not a comfortable read. The protagonists do things that are decidedly unsympathetic. They do things that make us squirm. There are times while reading this novel that you shake your head at Anne and question why she is doing what she is doing. There is one scene between her and Glenn McCarthy, her FBI contact, that I am still undecided on. In order to prepare herself for entry into the religious community as her alternative identity, she insists on him having sex with her, and responds in a violent manner. With most other authors I would have called the scene gratuitous and unnecessary. Yet, King seems to be trying to accomplish something with it. It is what I would right now call the weak spot in the book.
It is not bubble-gum reading. There are times I want a book to read that is merely mind candy—something nice to chew on that doesn’t require a lot of thought or attention. They’re fun reads and give my eyes something to do while I’m going to the bathroom, eating, or trying to get to sleep. This is not one of those books. It’s a book that requires the reader to be engaged, to be thinking, to be processing information, and to be challenging assumptions.
It is not a screenplay. While television and cinema has not replaced books, it has changed the way they are written. Often books are written with an eye to how they will appear on screen. A Darker Place is a thriller, but it is not one that would translate well to movies. The suspense is primarily in the character development and exploration of ideas.
It is not a book for the person who likes all of their conundrums to have black and white answers. The people in this book are, with one exception, fully drawn characters who have both admirable traits and character flaws. At the end of the book, we meet two of the community leaders of the English branch. Neither of them are drawn with any particular depth for the important role they play to the plot.
King shows us all the good that the religious community is doing, lest we think all cults are wacky or dangerous. She also examines communities such as David Koresh’s in Waco, Heaven’s Gate, and the Guyana tragedy.
The ending—no spoilers
I got to the ending during my lunch break and was reading it at Burger King. When I read the last sentence, I turned the page and exclaimed, “That’s it?!”
Once the shock wore off, I was thrilled at the courage of the ending. King managed to resist the author’s conceit of adding a chapter or two to tie up every loose end and beat the proverbial dead horse. Instead, she ended the story at the end, showing her dramatic craft. Also, I was able to go back through the book and see how King had very carefully built up to this ending, providing all of the answers to the would-be loose ends before the ending arrives. This book is incredibly well-crafted and the device she uses to provide catharsis is one that I cannot reveal here lest I take away the suspense of the book.
Engaging features
Just a few other things I liked about the book:
˜Each chapter begins with a drawing, letter, or journal entry from the FBI files on Anne Waverly. These are important to pay attention to.
˜There is an interesting theological discussion on cults and enlightenment throughout the book.
˜It is well-researched.
˜It is suspenseful.
˜I’ve formed an emotional attachment to several of the characters, especially little Dulcie.
In case the passion of this review thus far has not convinced you of my conviction about the quality of this book, let me close by saying this is by far the best book I’ve read this year.
What A Darker Place is
A Darker Place is a book of journeys. It is the journey of Anne Waverly as an undercover agent entering a religious community called “Change” that is filled with children. It is a journey into her own regret-filled past. It is the journey of a troubled teen toward desired enlightenment and away from the unfairness of abusive guardians.
It is also, ultimately, a book of hope. King’s characters are ruthless in their self-exploration and by the book’s end we believe in the productivity of such an examination.
A Darker Place is an exploration of religious communities—what the popular media calls “cults.” King avoids that easy label and instead describes them in a much richer, complex depth.
What A Darker Place is not
A Darker Place is not a comfortable read. The protagonists do things that are decidedly unsympathetic. They do things that make us squirm. There are times while reading this novel that you shake your head at Anne and question why she is doing what she is doing. There is one scene between her and Glenn McCarthy, her FBI contact, that I am still undecided on. In order to prepare herself for entry into the religious community as her alternative identity, she insists on him having sex with her, and responds in a violent manner. With most other authors I would have called the scene gratuitous and unnecessary. Yet, King seems to be trying to accomplish something with it. It is what I would right now call the weak spot in the book.
It is not bubble-gum reading. There are times I want a book to read that is merely mind candy—something nice to chew on that doesn’t require a lot of thought or attention. They’re fun reads and give my eyes something to do while I’m going to the bathroom, eating, or trying to get to sleep. This is not one of those books. It’s a book that requires the reader to be engaged, to be thinking, to be processing information, and to be challenging assumptions.
It is not a screenplay. While television and cinema has not replaced books, it has changed the way they are written. Often books are written with an eye to how they will appear on screen. A Darker Place is a thriller, but it is not one that would translate well to movies. The suspense is primarily in the character development and exploration of ideas.
It is not a book for the person who likes all of their conundrums to have black and white answers. The people in this book are, with one exception, fully drawn characters who have both admirable traits and character flaws. At the end of the book, we meet two of the community leaders of the English branch. Neither of them are drawn with any particular depth for the important role they play to the plot.
King shows us all the good that the religious community is doing, lest we think all cults are wacky or dangerous. She also examines communities such as David Koresh’s in Waco, Heaven’s Gate, and the Guyana tragedy.
The ending—no spoilers
I got to the ending during my lunch break and was reading it at Burger King. When I read the last sentence, I turned the page and exclaimed, “That’s it?!”
Once the shock wore off, I was thrilled at the courage of the ending. King managed to resist the author’s conceit of adding a chapter or two to tie up every loose end and beat the proverbial dead horse. Instead, she ended the story at the end, showing her dramatic craft. Also, I was able to go back through the book and see how King had very carefully built up to this ending, providing all of the answers to the would-be loose ends before the ending arrives. This book is incredibly well-crafted and the device she uses to provide catharsis is one that I cannot reveal here lest I take away the suspense of the book.
Engaging features
Just a few other things I liked about the book:
˜Each chapter begins with a drawing, letter, or journal entry from the FBI files on Anne Waverly. These are important to pay attention to.
˜There is an interesting theological discussion on cults and enlightenment throughout the book.
˜It is well-researched.
˜It is suspenseful.
˜I’ve formed an emotional attachment to several of the characters, especially little Dulcie.
In case the passion of this review thus far has not convinced you of my conviction about the quality of this book, let me close by saying this is by far the best book I’ve read this year.
November 14, 2014
I had to wait a few weeks to write my review, I just could not rehash this book so soon after reading it, it was that disturbing for me. This was a powerful book grappling with the forces of good and evil within the context of religious community. Laurie King is a master of character development and I have never felt more empathy for her characters than I did in this book. The story develops as a sort of train wreck. You know something terribly bad is going to happen but you are praying it doesn't. I give this book 4.5 stars (I reserve 5 for classics) for amazing characters and sense of place (the desert scenes were beautiful in their rendering of this stark landscape) and the courage to deal with both the good and the bad of religious community. Gripping and powerful! I highly recommend it but don't look at it as escape reading!
December 7, 2008
Fascinating and engrossing thus far.
ADDENDUM: Marvelous; I especially love the snippets provided from Wakely's case notes and lectures which precede each chapter. Though I suspect I will never love or dissolve as easily into any book of hers as I did The Beekeeper's Apprentice (which world I found myself physically aching for after having finished it), I liked this quite a lot. Perhaps the only reason I haven't given it a full five stars is because the central working behind Change is one that doesn't intrigue me at all; I found myself skimming through the sections dealing with it.
ADDENDUM: Marvelous; I especially love the snippets provided from Wakely's case notes and lectures which precede each chapter. Though I suspect I will never love or dissolve as easily into any book of hers as I did The Beekeeper's Apprentice (which world I found myself physically aching for after having finished it), I liked this quite a lot. Perhaps the only reason I haven't given it a full five stars is because the central working behind Change is one that doesn't intrigue me at all; I found myself skimming through the sections dealing with it.
March 20, 2011
The leading character in this book is Anne Waverly, a professor of religion who occasionally serves as an undercover operative for the FBI infiltrating religious cults. Interesting premise for a novel and I rather liked this one. A little hard to get started, but after page 60 or so I was hooked. The last word on Anne Waverly is that she has a pulse in spite of taking part of a shotgun blast. I'm not sure if she didn't survive or if she did indeed live up to her vow never to infiltrate another cult. Too bad either way -- she's a good character.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 16, 2020
Laurie King’s A Darker Place is an exciting adventure, an absorbing mystery, a globe-trotting investigation, and a deeply thought-provoking exploration of faith, character, and cults. It manages to be all those things with equal vibrancy, drawing the reader in to a world of FBI undercover investigation, broken and tortured relationships, and the balance between caring for your neighbors and protecting them. The protagonist is a learned lecturer, as well as an FBI investigator. Passages from her writing start the chapters with intriguing hints of what might happen, what has happened in the past, and what thought processes go into analyzing what’s going on now. It’s all of it relevant to the book, and also to the present day and the world around us. The questions of what constitutes help, acceptance, mercy, protection and more are explored through the dynamics of very believable human relationships, and the whole is truly absorbing, fascinating, and ultimately terrifying. A really good read.
Disclosure: A friend thought I’d like it. She was right.
Disclosure: A friend thought I’d like it. She was right.
April 6, 2014
A Darker Place is the story of Anne Waverly, a college professor who goes undercover for the FBI to evaluate religious cults. I was fascinated for the first half of the book, not only by the unusual characters and their finely detailed development, but also by the in-depth information about cults and how they are evaluated by the government (much of it delivered in headnotes to each chapter).
But as the book progressed, it became less about these topics and more about the superficial resolution of the plot--what will happen to Anne? will the cult implode? (or explode?) I found this disappointing for two reasons. First of all because the plot resolution is fairly unsatisfying, providing the absolute bare minimum of information about what actually happens in the final few hours of the story. After following Anne's point of view for the vast majority of the book, suddenly we are pulled out of her mind right at the crucial scene. The final scene is told from another character's point of view. The book ends abruptly with no information about what happens to any of the other characters. It's both jarring and unsatisfying.
But secondly, the book failed in one way that interested me most at first, and that is in understanding the mindset of the cult members. What draws them to the group? What keeps them there? Many of us long for a feeling of intense connection with a group, but what drives the over-the-top loyalty of cult members? Anne is a former cult member, but we learn almost nothing about what drew her to that group, or why she left--we're just told that her departure unintentionally precipitated a disaster. Since A Darker Place concerns itself mainly with Anne's undercover experience, her FBI boss, and the leaders of the cult, we get very little insight into the minds of the followers, which felt to me like a hole in the book. Still, it was absorbing and kept me glued to it for several days. This is my fourth Laurie King book, and although it's my least favorite of the ones I've read so far, it's still better than most of the other books I've read in the past couple of months. I will be reading more by this author.
But as the book progressed, it became less about these topics and more about the superficial resolution of the plot--what will happen to Anne? will the cult implode? (or explode?) I found this disappointing for two reasons. First of all because the plot resolution is fairly unsatisfying, providing the absolute bare minimum of information about what actually happens in the final few hours of the story. After following Anne's point of view for the vast majority of the book, suddenly we are pulled out of her mind right at the crucial scene. The final scene is told from another character's point of view. The book ends abruptly with no information about what happens to any of the other characters. It's both jarring and unsatisfying.
But secondly, the book failed in one way that interested me most at first, and that is in understanding the mindset of the cult members. What draws them to the group? What keeps them there? Many of us long for a feeling of intense connection with a group, but what drives the over-the-top loyalty of cult members? Anne is a former cult member, but we learn almost nothing about what drew her to that group, or why she left--we're just told that her departure unintentionally precipitated a disaster. Since A Darker Place concerns itself mainly with Anne's undercover experience, her FBI boss, and the leaders of the cult, we get very little insight into the minds of the followers, which felt to me like a hole in the book. Still, it was absorbing and kept me glued to it for several days. This is my fourth Laurie King book, and although it's my least favorite of the ones I've read so far, it's still better than most of the other books I've read in the past couple of months. I will be reading more by this author.
February 21, 2013
The only reason I stuck with this book was because I have enjoyed other books by Laurie R. King and basically thought she was a very good writer. Initially, I liked the premiss of the book -- an academic who specializes in religion and cults has functioned as a police consultant and is called again to duty -- a fourth. Anne Waverly, the professor, is always haunted by an 18 year experience with a cult in which she lost her husband and daughter. She is supposed to infiltrate the cult known as the Change and becomes emotionally attached to 2 children, the sister reminding her of her lost daughter.
I found the setting, the cults 2 different locations, confusing and not plausible. Plus, I found it hard to relate to Waverly, understand the children's background and involvement, etc. For me, this was a big disappointment.
I found the setting, the cults 2 different locations, confusing and not plausible. Plus, I found it hard to relate to Waverly, understand the children's background and involvement, etc. For me, this was a big disappointment.
July 14, 2017
The first two-thirds of A Darker Place is an exciting, fast-paced whirlwind with plenty of suspense. Anne Waverly is an excellent protagonist - smart, gritty, and fueled by strong emotions. She is an extraordinary woman who allows herself to be put in extraordinary situations as an expert/field operative on cults for the FBI.
Anne agrees to help on one last assignment and infiltrate an international cult called Change. The Change movement challenges Anne and forces her to face decades old memories while trying to save two children being fostered by the movement.
The bulk of the action is in the excellent first two-thirds. What should have been an ending with a bang, fizzled.
I rated A Darker Place 3.5 stars. The weak last third of the book kept it from being a 4 star book.
Anne agrees to help on one last assignment and infiltrate an international cult called Change. The Change movement challenges Anne and forces her to face decades old memories while trying to save two children being fostered by the movement.
The bulk of the action is in the excellent first two-thirds. What should have been an ending with a bang, fizzled.
I rated A Darker Place 3.5 stars. The weak last third of the book kept it from being a 4 star book.
April 11, 2015
It's been a long time since a book has captured me as thoroughly as this one. The development of the main character was bumpy at first, then settled into a gentle swell. Her backstory evolved in a unique way, deepening as the plot grew more compelling, simultaneously enriching the plot.
At times the raw foreboding was too much to endure; I would put the book down in order to get my bearings. It was the perfect book for my recovery from surgery-- just enough intellectual punch to tantalize, just the right kind and number of well-crafted sentences. I'm very happy to have read this.
At times the raw foreboding was too much to endure; I would put the book down in order to get my bearings. It was the perfect book for my recovery from surgery-- just enough intellectual punch to tantalize, just the right kind and number of well-crafted sentences. I'm very happy to have read this.
July 8, 2021
I loved this all the way to until the very end, when I got a little confused and felt like it ended way too abruptly. What happened? Or, what was GOING to happen? I agree with some other reviewers that the Arizona Change contingent faded away too quickly. Overall, I thought this was good, a little rough with some areas that could have been improved, but I really liked how intense it was and appreciated the complex characters. I don't know why this took me so long to read; it was a long book, but I just took my time, I guess!
January 28, 2009
This is the novel I started to read after reading the Mary Russell series.(Which I loved) YIKES! This will be on my would-not-recommend-to-anyone list. I coudn't get very far into the book before it became disgustingly, sexually graphic. BIG ick! Wouldn't recommend any of Laurie's other books if they are like this.
December 23, 2020
Laurie R. King really is a superb writer. This probably deserves at least 4.25. Tale of a damaged woman who takes on special investigations for the FBI involving cults, religious communities and similar. She infiltrates and assesses. Unfortunately this time, one of the community’s children is a ringer for her dead daughter which leads to emotional attachment and questioning on many levels. It’s a puzzle to the last sentence.
May 22, 2024
Well that took me a bit to finish and I didn't know if I would. I think I'm just going to give up on non-Mary Russell Laurie King books. Why all the sex? Why so dark (tbh I should have seen that coming)? Why does everything relate to cults? This had interesting characters and setups but was very uncomfortable
November 9, 2021
This book was a very engaging read, kept my interest from the first page, and none of the reveals felt cheap. I liked the characters and cared about what happened to them. I like the way the author called back to previous episodes in the protagonist's past in a way that made those events feel substantial without leaving me feeling like I missed reading a earlier book in the series (this isn't a series). The writing was evocative and the pacing was good.
But oh! If I've ever met a book that needed one more chapter or an epilogue, this was it. The ending was so abrupt. I'm okay with endings that don't spell out every detail for us. I don't mind wondering whether , but I am baffled by the lack of closure regarding
Well, I guess that wasn't so hard to imagine for myself. I AM reading on a beach though - I feel like someone else should have done that work for me.
Still. For all that, I really enjoyed this read, and intend to scope out some of her other not-Mary-Russell books some day soon.
But oh! If I've ever met a book that needed one more chapter or an epilogue, this was it. The ending was so abrupt. I'm okay with endings that don't spell out every detail for us. I don't mind wondering whether , but I am baffled by the lack of closure regarding
Well, I guess that wasn't so hard to imagine for myself. I AM reading on a beach though - I feel like someone else should have done that work for me.
Still. For all that, I really enjoyed this read, and intend to scope out some of her other not-Mary-Russell books some day soon.
October 25, 2010
I found this paperback sitting on my shelf so I wonder if I read it before, but I don't I remember doing so. And I should have remembered because it is very well written and gave me so much to think about. The main character is an older women, a professor of religion who has built "a persona on the wreckage of her former life. She had paved over the rubble, sealed up the debris of catastrophe with the clear, hard shell of academic discipline." Each chapter begins with extracts from her lessons or letters or books or journals that shed light on the basic situation of the novel--understanding and communicating with cults. Very interesting. Anne Waverly is also a sometimes FBI undercover agent, who infiltrates communities and brings out essential information to help the authorities deal with the group without an explosion of violence like at Jonestown or Waco. And Dr. Waverly is perfectly suited to blend into these kinds of groups because she belonged to a cult years before, only narrowly missing the mass suicide that took the lives of her daughter and husband and left Anne emotionally scarred.
I was intrigued with the idea of pressure and heat bringing about change in people, which is the underlying philosophy in the Change movement in Arizona. There seems much to agree with and applaud in the community, but the pressure and fear mounts as Anne discovers secret, inner beliefs and practices. I had a few issues that kept me from giving this book a five-star rating. One, I didn't like the one-night stands that Anne Waverly seemed to feel necessary to help her morph from a professor to a cult member. Perhaps it explains the odd hate/love bond she has with her FBI handler. Two, I also felt an odd lack in the Arizona Change community that kept talking about how pressure changes a person into something harder and stronger, but they don't say what you change into, what you should be focusing on. Just enduring without a goal seems unproductive. And last, the climax seemed not quite realized, a bit of a cop-out, the ritual of change not explained in enough detail to make me believe the leader reaching for ultimate change would really think it would work. Admittedly he is a bit crazy but he is also supposedly brilliant. So the ending didn't work for me. But I sure have been thinking a lot about the book since I finished it.
I was intrigued with the idea of pressure and heat bringing about change in people, which is the underlying philosophy in the Change movement in Arizona. There seems much to agree with and applaud in the community, but the pressure and fear mounts as Anne discovers secret, inner beliefs and practices. I had a few issues that kept me from giving this book a five-star rating. One, I didn't like the one-night stands that Anne Waverly seemed to feel necessary to help her morph from a professor to a cult member. Perhaps it explains the odd hate/love bond she has with her FBI handler. Two, I also felt an odd lack in the Arizona Change community that kept talking about how pressure changes a person into something harder and stronger, but they don't say what you change into, what you should be focusing on. Just enduring without a goal seems unproductive. And last, the climax seemed not quite realized, a bit of a cop-out, the ritual of change not explained in enough detail to make me believe the leader reaching for ultimate change would really think it would work. Admittedly he is a bit crazy but he is also supposedly brilliant. So the ending didn't work for me. But I sure have been thinking a lot about the book since I finished it.
October 4, 2023
More of a 3.75. I really like this author's writing style, and I was definitely intrigued by this book. I look forward to reading more from Laurie King. That being said, there were definitely some disturbing aspects to this novel that didn't work for me. First, the protagonist herself, Anne Waverly/Ana Wakefield would admit to being a disturbed woman and is clearly suffering from PTSD and self-imposed guilt for the loss of her family. It is in, again, a self-imposed penance as well as a desire to help others avoid her fate that she willingly goes into cults as an undercover (unpaid) operative to try to take them down before anyone else gets hurt (because doesn't someone always get hurt in a cult?!). I found this whole premise fascinating. Anne's knowledge and experience as a religion professor also provided ample background and facts for her to figure out what makes these cults tick. This was all working for me.
The disturbing parts:
1. I get it that each time she goes into a cult, she has to "get into character." Why this involves sex with her FBI handler (and she insists upon it, even though she herself doesn't know if she loves or hates him), I did not understand.
2. Anne's bizarre attraction to the 14-year-old boy, Jason. She herself says it isn't sexual, yet she also admits to feeling like she has a teenage crush. This whole weird fascination is mentioned numerous times. If this were a 48-year-old man fantasizing about a 14-year-old girl, we would be horrified. With the gender role-reversal it just seems weird and cringey. That in itself is troubling to me.
3. The climax, which happens at the very end (spoiler alert), seemed over the top. I get it that Jonas is trying to gain immortality and make himself into the Philosopher's Stone (requiring Ana's "participation"). I get it that he needs an alembic--but WHY in the world would he burn down his entire little "empire" in this process? Nowhere in the buildup to this is there any indication that two innocents will need to be sacrificed--I feel like that just got thrown in there to tie Jason and Dulce into the "finale," so to speak, and to allow Anne the heroism of saving them. The ending just felt a little too far-fetched to me, despite already having to suspend disbelief to try to follow the cult's philosophy to begin with.
The disturbing parts:
1. I get it that each time she goes into a cult, she has to "get into character." Why this involves sex with her FBI handler (and she insists upon it, even though she herself doesn't know if she loves or hates him), I did not understand.
2. Anne's bizarre attraction to the 14-year-old boy, Jason. She herself says it isn't sexual, yet she also admits to feeling like she has a teenage crush. This whole weird fascination is mentioned numerous times. If this were a 48-year-old man fantasizing about a 14-year-old girl, we would be horrified. With the gender role-reversal it just seems weird and cringey. That in itself is troubling to me.
3. The climax, which happens at the very end (spoiler alert), seemed over the top. I get it that Jonas is trying to gain immortality and make himself into the Philosopher's Stone (requiring Ana's "participation"). I get it that he needs an alembic--but WHY in the world would he burn down his entire little "empire" in this process? Nowhere in the buildup to this is there any indication that two innocents will need to be sacrificed--I feel like that just got thrown in there to tie Jason and Dulce into the "finale," so to speak, and to allow Anne the heroism of saving them. The ending just felt a little too far-fetched to me, despite already having to suspend disbelief to try to follow the cult's philosophy to begin with.
March 8, 2015
In King's Mary Russell novels, I have come to expect the writing of Laurie R. King to be intelligent, well researched, and exciting, with consistent characters and well thought out plot lines. Unfortunately, a Darker Place, my first excursion into one of King's non-Sherlock worlds, left me frustrated and hugely disappointed. I found the novel fraught with inconsistent reasoning, and confusing, unexplained choices repeatedly made by the protagonist. Worse, the entire premise of the story is unsubstantiated. In short, a college professor is recruited by the FBI to enter undercover into a separatist cult-like group to determine whether their behavior is dangerous to the children in their care. I kept wondering why the FBI, who had obviously turned to this individual several times in the past, would ever do so to begin with. And why now? Nothing in the background information presented on the group seems specifically alarming, the only motivation cited is the "instinct" of the agent overseeing the case. I also could not discern her specific goal in infiltrating this group; while generalizations were made, her exact intentions or instructions remain unclear the entire time. The FBI seems to be sending her in ... on a hunch? for a good story? She is supposedly well-trained, and has obviously given talks to FBI officers on the subject of children and cults but I have no idea where these come from or where her expertise comes from. In fact, despite her professed desire to walk lightly and buy time for this community and it's children, her actions repeatedly drive cult leaders in the precise opposite direction, precipitating the dangerous situation she fears. The ending was as unsatisfying as could be. The entire experience left me wondering if this novel was not one of King's earlier writings. For me, it was certainly nowhere near the level of excellence I have come to expect, and if not for Laurie R. King's name on the cover, I would never attempt another novel by this author. I had hoped to find that her other novels lived up to the standard set by her Mary Russell series, but if this is the standard to judge them by, I'd give them a miss. I'll try one other out of sheer curiosity and stubbornness. I know she can deliver better!
August 10, 2009
This is one of Laurie R. King's, my favorite contemporary writer, stand alone books, or not part of her spectacular Mary Russell series, or her riveting and diametrically opposed Kate Martinelli series. Anne Waverly. I find it interesting in this age of ageism, that the heroine or main character is a 48 year old woman, going gray, perhaps on the verge of going all pear shaped, and yet...she can not be kept down, aggressively sexual, not afraid to get what she needs to maintain her delicate mental balance. She's a good sketch of someone who can be strong as a bullet when she has to be, but still walk a fine line of going to pieces at any minute. She has good reason to be both those things. The book involves, what would be called a cult in most corners...a religious group by their definition, and goes pretty deeply into the ins and outs of and the fine distinction between religious freedom/separation of church and state and when and how to deal with the leader/situation when things invariably come to a head, and go south very quickly. Impossible to read Birth Of A New Moon, and not think about Jonestown or the Branch Dividians. Jonestown is one of those things like knowing where you were when Kennedy died. I'd been taken flying that day it was a date with someone I met while he was shopping where I worked. It was a spectacular day. I stopped at the corner store before I went home to my apt and there were the headlines and it just seemed so impossible, like it couldn't possibly be true and how do people allow their minds to be so taken over. I understand historically, people finding it preferable to kill themselves than to be taken, and be killed or made a slave of...but to blindly follow someone to that point...freaks me out. The book is about a lot of things, children's safety, thier coping mechanisms and their endurance. Loss, cults, alchemy....and what it takes to keep yourself together when really you believe if you died tomorrow, how bad would that be? Anne Waverly, a college professor, who aids the FBI when red flags go up about a religious sect in the desert. She stayed with me when the book was over. I really liked it.
November 12, 2015
I regularly re-read King's Mary Russell stories and I enjoyed her Kate Martinelli books, but I hadn't read this one before for some reason.Glad I read it now.
Anything I have read before involving alchemy has always centred on the transformation of metals, changing lead into gold. It is always lead and I wonder if that is because of the con Ana mentions involving melting wax. The idea that people can be transformed into an eternally living being is not discussed in most books so it was interesting to see it dealt with here.
Ana or Anne is a survivor of a mass murder/suicide in a commune of which she, her husband, and her young daughter were members. Anne feels her leaving was the trigger that brought on the devastation so she is vulnerable to FBI requests that she go under cover into religious communes about which they are concerned. She is able to set aside her "real" self as a professor of religion and completely assume a persona similar to herself when she and her husband were members of that early group.
The difficulties Anne faces in trying to maintain a hold on her Ana persona are well described and the tensions build up several times to quite high levels, culminating in the last chapter which contains a number of quite disturbing events.
In contrast to the emotional tensions are some superb descriptions of early morning, both in Arizona and in England, descriptions complete with colour, small creatures, and the sound of birds.
The sections are headed with quotations from alchemical writings and drawings from "Ana"'s journal.
The whole thing is completely realised and I found it an enthralling read. An interesting thing was that when Ana was analyzing the situation I could hear echoes of Mary Russell's reasoning. That's not surprising but it was interesting to notice.
Anything I have read before involving alchemy has always centred on the transformation of metals, changing lead into gold. It is always lead and I wonder if that is because of the con Ana mentions involving melting wax. The idea that people can be transformed into an eternally living being is not discussed in most books so it was interesting to see it dealt with here.
Ana or Anne is a survivor of a mass murder/suicide in a commune of which she, her husband, and her young daughter were members. Anne feels her leaving was the trigger that brought on the devastation so she is vulnerable to FBI requests that she go under cover into religious communes about which they are concerned. She is able to set aside her "real" self as a professor of religion and completely assume a persona similar to herself when she and her husband were members of that early group.
The difficulties Anne faces in trying to maintain a hold on her Ana persona are well described and the tensions build up several times to quite high levels, culminating in the last chapter which contains a number of quite disturbing events.
In contrast to the emotional tensions are some superb descriptions of early morning, both in Arizona and in England, descriptions complete with colour, small creatures, and the sound of birds.
The sections are headed with quotations from alchemical writings and drawings from "Ana"'s journal.
The whole thing is completely realised and I found it an enthralling read. An interesting thing was that when Ana was analyzing the situation I could hear echoes of Mary Russell's reasoning. That's not surprising but it was interesting to notice.
Read
March 27, 2011King has a least two 'series' sets going, one following Mary Russel--the one-time protege of Sherlock Holmes, who now appears as her husband--and one following an SFPD cop from the 1990s, who happens to be a dyke and who happens to be hilarious.
Now, in A Darker Place, she introduces a new protagonist (Anne Waverly), but does so in a way that makes it seem as if she's already written at least three books about her. The references to this character's past are so elaborate, so detailed, and yet their brevity suggests the author assumes that, well, if we haven't already read those books, we just might as well.
This trope--of nods towards shared knowledge--appears as a plot point as well. Early on, Anne speaks with Steven Change, the leader of a religious community ('not a cult') who plays some of the "oh, look how holy I am" games. King describes Waverly's response as: "To give the impression of omniscience, a person had only to pick up some small clue (a slight limp or a wariness toward the community) and present it casually as a known fact with long-understood implications."
Of course, this being a mystery thriller, the issues of who-knows-what and how-they-come-to-know-that come to hold the bulk of the dynamic tension. The manner in which King both highlights these issues, with the elaborate backstories, and holds them up to the light to show how fragile they are, with the slight derision of one character's pompousness, is something I've never seen before now.
Now, in A Darker Place, she introduces a new protagonist (Anne Waverly), but does so in a way that makes it seem as if she's already written at least three books about her. The references to this character's past are so elaborate, so detailed, and yet their brevity suggests the author assumes that, well, if we haven't already read those books, we just might as well.
This trope--of nods towards shared knowledge--appears as a plot point as well. Early on, Anne speaks with Steven Change, the leader of a religious community ('not a cult') who plays some of the "oh, look how holy I am" games. King describes Waverly's response as: "To give the impression of omniscience, a person had only to pick up some small clue (a slight limp or a wariness toward the community) and present it casually as a known fact with long-understood implications."
Of course, this being a mystery thriller, the issues of who-knows-what and how-they-come-to-know-that come to hold the bulk of the dynamic tension. The manner in which King both highlights these issues, with the elaborate backstories, and holds them up to the light to show how fragile they are, with the slight derision of one character's pompousness, is something I've never seen before now.
March 8, 2011
A slow moving but psychologically intense look at cults, this novel refuses to be defined. It is a sometimes bleak but rewarding look at Alchemy - the concespt that people change when put under pressure is one that has made me think of this book over and over.
At the time much of Kings other works were a bit lighter in tone, even the sometimes grim Kate Martinelli series, so this novel was a bit of a shock for those wanting to cozy up to Russell and Holmes. Not for those who are uncomfortable with the suggestion of child-endangerment, this book never screams 'we don't like cults'. Instead, it's a believable portrait of the type of person who starts one - and how easily one can get drawn in.
At the time much of Kings other works were a bit lighter in tone, even the sometimes grim Kate Martinelli series, so this novel was a bit of a shock for those wanting to cozy up to Russell and Holmes. Not for those who are uncomfortable with the suggestion of child-endangerment, this book never screams 'we don't like cults'. Instead, it's a believable portrait of the type of person who starts one - and how easily one can get drawn in.
July 3, 2008
One of the great joys of reading Laurie R. King's books is that she does not stick to one series. She hops, skips and jumps from Victorian England, to contemporary San Francisco and other locations without missing a beat. This is one of her off the beaten path books, a thriller about a strong, independent woman struggling to come to grips with her past. This is a chilling story: very fast-paced, with believable dilemmas cropping up around every corner. I don't know how Laurie King learned so much about cults, but after reading this one, I joined the cult of her admirers.
December 8, 2019
Set in Sedona AZ, it felt familiar, I am almost positive that I have read it before but even its ending was a surprise. The cult theme of the book was somewhat upsetting.
October 25, 2018
Intense with complicated characters. Perhaps not quite gothic, but the main character Anne/Ana and the world full of unknowns reminds me of the gothic stories by Barbara Michaels.
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