The book opens with an explosive beginning that you cannot stop reading even if you wanted to. This story had a little bit of everything in it, horror, crime, mystery, terror, romance and suspense throughout the story. This was a fast read since it was hard to put the book down and I couldn't wait to find out what would happen next. I thought I had the solved the (who and where was the killer?) mystery, but to my delight, my assumptions were wrong and how much better that the suspense had me on

The River is Dark opens to an explosively grim scene involving a child running from a monster. Immediately it's obvious the pace of Joe Hart's novel will move swiftly. Retired Detective Liam Dempsey goes to a Tallston, Minnesota after he receives news that his brother and sister in law have been brutally murdered. Their young son is in the hospital in critical condition fighting for his life.Liam initially comes off as the damaged detective many characters seem to be nowadays. It almost makes yo...

Liam Dempsey, a former detective, is called to his estranged brother's town after learning that his brother and sister in law were the second couple brutally murdered in a short period of time.Liam's own life is in turmoil after a work incident leaves him wishing that he could end his own life--but the guilt renders him unable to allow himself such an escape. Going back to bury his older brother (who had hated him all of his life), Liam finds himself being asked by the town's sheriff to help sol...

This was a fast and furious one from Joe Hart. Not overly high on the originality scale and scattered with horror clichés, this one still managed to grab me from the beginning and Joe’s storytelling pulled me thru the rest of the way. This would make one hell of a movie. Ex-Det. Liam Dempsey doesn't sleep well. His estranged brother Alan and his wife Suzie fall victim to a brutal home invasion murder. Now Liam must go back to the small town of Tallston to get his brothers affairs in order and tr...

Pretty standard thriller from Hart about a man who returns to his hometown to deal with his estranged brother and sister-in-law's murders. Not much original here and filled with the usual cliches for the genre, but the characters are likable and the story does move along at a nice pace. I went in with low expectations which probably helped. One of those stories you forget pretty much right after you finish. Literary Chinese food. 2.5 stars bumped to 3 because, well, it didn't annoy me.

This was a pretty good murder mystery. It involved a retired detective who had a whole lot of baggage when he got a call that his brother and sister-in-law had been murdered. So, now he had more problems, including his desire to use his service revolver on himself. I really wasn’t crazy about reading that. That makes me think our hero isn’t wrapped to tightly. But, when he got to the town where his brother had lived he ran into the girl that he’d danced with ten years before at his brother’s wed...

Liam is called to a small town on the Mississippi River when he learns that his brother and his wife have been killed. He learns that another couple had been found in similar circumstances. Although he is feeling very low at the moment he is leading the investigation into his estranged brothers murder.A little boy holds the only clue- he’d made a terrified call saying that the monster was killing his parents. He is in a coma in the hospital.This is a very fast paced thriller- will Liam become th...

THE RIVER IS DARK is a traditional murder mystery told from the point of view of Liam. His brother and sister-in-law have just been killed leaving his nephew hospitalized. Two weeks prior, their best friends were brutally murdered. Why is the killer singling these people out? Are the murders going to continue?When the town Sheriff gives Liam the go ahead to investigate on his own he finds out more than he ever expected about the small town doctor and his friends. Joe Hart keeps the secrets held

This book took me to heaven with its fresh and beautiful imagery. It does have plenty of explicit detail of the crimes as well so be prepared. The story is very fast paced and I had a hard time putting the book down. Swimming across the Mississippi river with a baby in a person's arms seemed a bit unrealistic, but it is fiction so not a big deal. Overall a good read.

Liam is an ex-detective who returns to his home town after his brother and his brothers wife are murdered in their home. Upon his arrival he and an old heartthrob, who has also come back to town for the funerals, start an investigation. The local sheriff enlists Liam's help to figure out who might be behind the murder of two separate couples in their homes, within a week of each other. The murders were of such a gruesome nature that they are immediately thought to be of a personal nature. The on...

I've agonized over this review for quite a while now and decided that it was time to bite the bullet. My decision was to go strictly with the Goodreads definition of rating and therefore this one gets one star from me; "did not like it" - this should be interpreted as " I did not like it" and says absolutely nothing (as always, but seems to merit pointing out sometimes) about how someone else might feel about it.(view spoiler)[The blurb tells about the main protagonist being dragged into the

I enjoyed this thriller. It was fast-paced and kept me interested. The main character, a former detective, managed to avoid the usual clichés of the role: he was haunted by his past without being practically dysfunctional because of it, and he retained a sense of humor rather than turning into an incurable brooder.A lot of times I have issues with the way male authors write female love interests (or just female characters in general), but in this case the author managed to do it in a way that wa...

3.5 stars"The monster is killing my parents". (Eek!)So Eric, a young boy hiding upstairs under a bed, tells the 911 operator while a horrific crime is committed in his home. Meanwhile, miles away, former police detective Liam Dempsey wakes up to another day where his first thought is whether or not to use the gun in his closet. He's interrupted by a phone call informing him his brother & sister in law have been murdered in their home outside a small town in Minnesota. He & Allen had a contentiou...

What a great read! The main protagonist, Liam Dempsey, is likeable, serious, realistic, and makes this a great book. All the characters are realistic. I plan to read book 2 in this series soon, and I know it will be engrossing and I will be unable to put it down, just like this one! Highly recommend.