Audiobook Review: INTO THE DARKEST CORNER by Elizabeth Haynes

Title: Into the Darkest Corner

Author: Elizabeth Haynes
Read: September 2017

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

“You think you know now, don't you? But you have no idea what it was like.” 

Book Description (Goodreads):

When young, pretty Catherine Bailey meets Lee Brightman, she can't believe her luck. Gorgeous, charismatic, and a bit mysterious, Lee seems almost too perfect to be true.

But what begins as flattering attention and spontaneous, passionate sex transforms into raging jealousy, and Catherine soon discovers that Lee's dazzling blue eyes and blond good looks hide a dark, violent nature. Disturbed by his increasingly erratic, controlling behavior, she tries to break it off; turning to her friends for support, she's stunned to find they don't believe her. Increasingly isolated and driven into the darkest corner of her world, a desperate Catherine plans a meticulous escape.

Four years later, Lee is behind bars and Catherine—now Cathy—is trying to build a new life in a new city. Though her body has healed, the trauma of the past still haunts her. Then Stuart Richardson, her attractive new neighbor, moves in. Encouraging her to confront her fears, he sparks unexpected hope and the possibility of love and a normal life.

Until the day the phone rings . . .

My musings:

Rarely has a book ever made me so angry! At one stage, I almost experienced a murderous rage against one of the characters, wanting – needing – to see justice done. It says a lot about the author’s writing skills to be able to elicit such strong emotional responses in her readers. Whilst this is a slow-burning mystery, its tension relying more on the psychological states of mind of its characters rather than action, at times it was almost unbearable to follow their slow but inevitable fate as they walked head first into the abyss.

Catherine Bailey and Cathy Bailey may be one and the same woman, but they are like night and day. How can the carefree young Catherine have turned into a frightened, obsessive recluse, too afraid to get out of her house, and endlessly checking windows and doors to make sure they are secure? Don’t worry – you are about to find out. Told in a “now” and “then” format from the POV of Cathy as she reflects on her present life and her past, we get to follow her journey from first meeting the charismatic Lee to having to lock herself in her flat and fearing for her life. The experiences that turned Catherine into Cathy are as intense as they are terrifying – I listened to the audiobook, and some scenes left me shaking in horror as well as rage of the sheer “wrongness” of it all. Without giving anything away that has not already been mentioned in the blurb, Into the Darkest Corner is a tale of domestic abuse, psychological terror and of a relationship gone horribly wrong. The story is so well plotted that every time I questioned Catherine’s options, I realised just how limited they were, how omnipotent the evil that had taken over her life. I constantly asked myself: what would I do? And shuddered at the image of the dead-end corner Catherine had found herself in, with her back against the wall.  

Summary:

Into the Darkest Corner tells of one of the most chilling fictional relationships I have ever encountered in a psychological thriller, and it terrified me to the core. A brilliantly plotted, dark and sinister book that will stay with me for some time to come, and makes me want to check that my windows and doors are locked up tight. It would make for some brilliant bookclub discussions!

Credit must also go to Karen Cass, whose voice was perfect for narrating Cathy’s story – I loved listening to her and she gave life to all the characters in the book.