Six friends from High School meet up back in their home town after 15 years to bury one of their pack. The past comes back in flashbacks as each of them, in varying chapters, recalls the horror of their childhoods in this quite horrible small town. The six had promised a vow of silence on what happened one fateful night… now all is coming unraveled.
Given this description and since the book was labeled in the mystery category, I thought I was going to be reading a mystery. I had read and enjoyed Vera Kurian’s first book, Never Saw Me Coming, about a female psychopath who specifically gets into a college to kill someone she hates. But then someone is murdered and the psychopath heroine did not do it! I recommend that book as fun and engaging.
However, A Step Past Darkness is not a mystery. It is pure fantasy, and being a lover of mystery novels, I found the book entertaining, especially at first, until I understood that rational character thoughts and actions were not present in this Kurian outing. I won’t give it away but suffice it to say, there is no mystery. Rather fantasy world elements keep this hometown in turmoil, and our six (now five since the murder of one) act completely irrationally — because that is acceptable in fantasy novels.
My preference for mystery/thriller novels lays in my desire to read about real life problems solved by logic and cunning. Thus, I am not a fan of fantasy novels! The first half of A Step Past Darkness without the fantasy as Kurian sets up the novel’s plot line, made me think that the book was going to following up the problem with a rational solution and ending. That was not the case. I liked the first half of the book, as Kurian can write good prose, but I do not want to be fooled into reading a genre I do not like due to a mislabel.
My ranking for this book as a mystery: 2. My ranking as a novel: 3.
This ARC title was provided by Netgalley.com at no cost, and I am providing an unbiased review. A Step Past Darkness will be published on February 20, 2024.
Pam Did It 