I hope you are ready, Curious One, because today I ventured into the world of The Dark Room, created by English writer, Minette Walters. What can I say? It’s a classic, semi-convoluted crime novel that makes your brain work overtime! It was wonderful, if a bit too much on occasion.
There’s a multitude of mixed messages hidden in these pages, but I did my best to keep them straight. There were so many people involved in this book, detectives from a handful of different locations, a few families, some neighbors and a handful of coworkers that were all recurring characters throughout the 300+ pages. Honestly? It was a mess of names and backgrounds and motives and I was overwhelmed for the first third of the book. Hahahah!
About The Dark Room
The Dark Room is a twist of psychological prowess that had to have taken a long while to get straightened out in terms of plot and ideas. Walter’s truly can be considered genius, because the complex maze of information and half-truths that eventually led to what really happened is overwhelming.
The books begins with a short prologue, which is fine, but it involved a 12-year-old having sex with an older boy where she proceeds to tell him he in inadequate which causes him to get super angry and makes her scared enough to run screaming for her dog to save her from him. She then falls and lands face to face with a dead body – the boy catches up to her and then it cuts to the start of the book. I’m a bit confused as to why it was a 12-year-old and 18-year-old dynamic here. I get that the boy is brought in because he stole the bodies credit cards and was using them which he got caught doing and hauled off, but then you are supposed to be led to believe that he was the one who bludgeoned them and killed them? Not to mention the 12-year-old girl ended up coming in to the police station only because she was having nightmares and her mother forced her to reveal what happened. And her coming in is the catalyst in clearing Jinx (the main protagonist) from being the suspect? Really? I’m not sure I fully comprehended the importance of all that….
The Struggle with Amnesia for Jinx
Anyways, it continues with the main story as Jinx is revealed through a series of news clippings and police reports. She failed an attempt at suicide and is now residing in an exclusive rehab clinic paid for by her millionaire father. She has amnesia and cannot remember anything leading up to and after the accident. She attempted suicide by driving at a high speed head-on into a pillar while completely intoxicated in a deserted location. However, at the last minute she bailed and survived with a massive concussion and damage to an eye. I found that an odd collection of circumstances and therefore never thought she actually did it herself. I figured at the very least, she had help in trying to commit suicide or she was set-up to make it look like she tried OR someone tried to kill her and she was able to thwart their plans. Even from the start.
Her amnesia was immense and every visit from a friend, family member, the police or her psychologist, it was like she would have a 3 second memory surface, only to not understand anything that she was remembering. She honestly was only remembering bits and pieces and it was mostly thoughts of her friend being a whore and not understanding why her fiancé would want to marry her.
The bodies discovered in the very beginning were FINALLY, after what seemed like forever, revealed and confirmed to be her fiancé and her best friend.
Possible Cultural Disconnect
That was another thing. I honestly have no idea how the police and justice systems work in England, but I felt like it was a little ridiculous that it would take them so many days to figure out who the female body was after getting confirmation on who the male body was. And how were they unable to find her relatives? I mean, it was so unrealistic and hard to follow that it took you away from the psychological-ness of the plotline.
I really did like how you had so many different perspectives to see through, but it was written in a way that just…wasn’t very good I guess. It was too difficult to keep the multitude of detectives straight and the names of the family members – it was just a bit much and too forced.
Jinx was absolutely annoying. She would go from a stout supporter of someone to flip a switch and feel nothing but disdain or hate towards someone. Like her drunk stepmother and half-brothers. She was increasingly rude and mean towards them, but then bailed them out without a second though about it. Or her father? SUPER supportive in the beginning, then full of hate and disgust and then accepting. I mean, come on. Right? Even the happiest of families can have some relationship issues, but really, this was way too forced and extreme. Maybe if her feelings weren’t so opposingly severe it would have been better, but Jinx was simply unrealistically annoying.
They all were to be honest. There wasn’t a single character that was solid and really realistic except perhaps the cat. And Jinx’s neighbor. He seemed pretty legitimate.
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Normalcy in The Dark Room
Everyone else though, the detectives, the police, neighbors, friends, coworker, family – they were all extremely extreme in their personalities. There is just no way that all of these people were connected and not a single one of them were “normal.” And I use the word “normal” in the most mundane kind of way. Most people are both good and bad, kind and rude, selfish and giving. But these characters that Walters created are all sitting prettily in one category and refuse to budge. I just found them all too forced and like I said earlier, much too unrealistic to put together in a solid book.
I loved the story, however I’m not sure I would read it again. Maybe if I were bored or if I wanted to get my brain firing and I have forgotten who the villain is I would give it a second read, but it was still worth being curious about.
Something I did learn from it though, is that even if you are mistreated and walked all over by your family, you can still love them and there is no shame in that. On occasion, everyone has some sort of struggle with their family in one way or another and this book addresses some of those feelings. Especially resentment and pride.
You loved to kinda-sorta dislike the main character, yet you were rooting for her the entire time too. I would have preferred the romantic angle to be left out completely. There was already so much going on in the 300+ pages and it was a bit annoying. Leaving their feelings as intrigue or fascination with each other instead of morphing it into deeper, romantic feelings that never were acted on until the last page.
You’ll Have to Read The Dark Room to See Who the Killer Is
And what was up with her father? Good guy? Bad guy? Evil man? Killer by association? Saint? I mean… you don’t even get to hear one word from his mouth until again, the last page, so can you really understand who he is? And it is obvious that he wasn’t the killer to me. Granted, I only felt that way because the book was trying to sway you in his direction almost every time a different perspective was being revealed. It was obvious he was abusive towards his children, but I mean, his two sons did seem a bit off. Even before you are revealed their pasts when at so young an age they were stealing.
It just left me a bit curious is all.
And I’m not going to talk about the revelation of who the killer is. I mean, seriously. Just….yeah….not going there.
I enjoyed the constant back and forth between points of view, clued into by the headlines that gave you a time and location. It was a relief to not have to guess who was talking and figure that out on top of everything going on, because let’s face it, there was a LOT going on!
Newspapers, a Movie, and other Things
The newspaper clippings and police articles were both revealing and repetitive. I could easily see someone getting annoyed by that method of disclosure because half the time it just reiterated what you had already pieced together from the points of view.
It was creative and unique though, so I am personally on the fence about how I feel about including them in crime and suspense novels.
The Dark Room is the fourth book in Walters name (written in 1995) and was also adapted into a TV movie in 1999, I think. I would watch the movie if I found it, but I would go in with a different set of expectations. It seems like a good basis for a good psychological thriller though, so if you check it out, let me know what you think!
Her last book came out in 2019, so with my feelings towards The Dark Room, I would have to admit that I would normally not look into her as an author in the future, but 27 years is a long time to potentially hone and improve skill. I would give her more recent books a shot, just because I love reading so much and am not too happy with leaving on such a bad note.
I really think she has some good writing skills, Curious One, just maybe not quite such a twisted and convoluted storyline that is so difficult to follow that it takes three times the amount of normal time to read.
Concluding The Dark Room
Walters’ work is far from traditional and I think that is why I so desperately want to give her another shot! I will have to do some research and figure out if she has any books that are more popular or won an award or two. I could also have just not quite gotten into The Dark Room as deeply as I normally would have, which left me a bit sad and disappointed, resulting in my conflicting portrayal of her plotline.
As always, I hope you and yours and exceptionally happy and comfortable this week and enjoying the break in weather from such a hot summer! Have an amazing weekend and don’t let your curiosity dwindle! Strive for more, always!
As for me?! I think it’s time for another book…
Check out Minette Walters at the following links:
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