A Dark and Secret Place by Jen Williams

Crooked Lane Books | 8 June 2021 | 304 pgs

Source: Publisher via Edelweiss 

Heather Evans returns to her old home after her mother's baffling suicide. While clearing the stuff she's discovered something alarming about her late mother and the things she'd kept - stacks of letters from the notorious serial killer, Michael Reave (a.k.a. The "Red Wolf"). Reave has been in prison for over twenty years and it seems that her late mother had been secretly corresponding with him for decades. Reave is known of his gruesome and ritualistic murders of several women although he's always protested his innocence. 

When a young woman's body is found and the modus operandi is similar to Reave's, Heather decided that she needs to find out about her mother's past and her communications with Reave. Her info sharing of her mother's correspondence with Reave with the police lands her a visit to the prison as everyone hopes that Reave will talk and hopefully shed some light on the recent murder. While Reave remains vague about his past and doesn't seem to offer anything useful relevant to the recent case, he does speak in riddles about some Grimm's fairy tales, in particularly the Red Riding Hood. As Heather communicates more with Reave, she learns that her late mother and Reave do know each other way back when they were living in Fiddler's Mill, a hippy commune in the 70s. Now Heather's biggest question is: what is the relationship between her late mother and Reave and what's her role in all these mayhem?

This story was incredibly dark and broody in some ways which suits the serial killer theme. There was a part about animal cruelty which I quickly skimmed over; and the rest was quite an atmospheric read especially some references to the Red Riding Hood and Reave's past as a boy and his relationship with a mysterious man. Despite an intriguing opening, the story was a slow burn and Heather sometimes made poor, dubious decisions that frustrate the reader. I also feel some characters are not fleshed out enough but the portrayal of Reave as a boy and how he tells his story to Heather in a mythological way was rather fascinating. I may have dived into this book with a high expectation so I was a bit disappointed with the execution and some of the characterisations which I feel would make a better read should they are more well elaborated. That said, if you're into atmospheric books then this one may be of interest to you. 

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