Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own! Book: The Darkness We Hide Author: Debra Webb Book Series: The Undertaker’s Daughter Book 3 Rating: 3/5 Publication Date: March 31, 2020 Genre: Thriller Recommended Age: Can’t recommend, DNF-ed Publisher: MIRA Pages: 352 Amazon Link Synopsis: Some secrets are worth dying for. For months, Doctor Rowan Dupont has been staring death in the face. It followed her back to her hometown of Winchester, Tennessee, ten months ago, cloaking the walls of her family’s Victorian funeral home like a shroud. In investigating the mysterious deaths of her loved ones, Rowan has unearthed enough family secrets to bury everything she’d previously thought true. But each shocking discovery has only led to more bodies and more questions; the rabbit hole is deeper than she ever imagined. Despite settling in to a comfortable life with Police Chief Billy Brannigan, Rowan knows dangerous serial killer Julian Addington is still out there. She can’t let her guard down now. Not when she’s this close to ending his torment once and for all. But with a storm brewing on the horizon, she’ll get only one shot before the impending darkness takes hold, threatening to wipe away every truth she’s uncovered—and everything she holds dear. Review: I had to DNF this book. It was very hard to keep everything straight with it being a third book and I’d rather wait to read the first two before I jump in. This isn’t a DNF because the book is bad, it’s a DNF for now because I need to make a book review for this and I don’t want to DNF a book with amazing writing and characters because I can’t understand what’s going on. Verdict: Read book 1 and 2 before this!

The Darkness We Hide is the finale of The Undertaker’s Daughter series featuring Dr. Rowan Dupont and the serial killer, Julian Addington who has been stalking her for most of her life. This a series that needs to be read in order, despite the author’s references to events from the previous instalments. Rowan has finally gotten the answers she sought. Answers that were horrific, shocking and difficult to wrap one’s head around them. Readers can relate to the variety of emotions she felt on learning the truth. Despite the horrific nature of the revelations she got the closure needed to move on. The author introduced a few new players who brought their own share of what the hell moments. These along with the existing characters would have the reader wondering who can and cannot be trusted. Almost everyone appeared suspect. Readers will enjoy how the storyline involving the serial killer developed. What was of most interest was the manner in which the author revealed his identity to Rowan and how he escaped capture all these years. However, one may find the showdown with the serial killer disappointing. The build-up leading to that moment was intense, but when the showdown occurred it did not deliver as one would hope. The romance between Rowan and Billy, which was served as a side dish, developed nicely and watching them finally get their happily ever after was a treat. Conclusion/Recommendation. Overall, The Darkness We Hide is an entertaining, suspenseful and captivating story. It depicts interesting yet gruesome points regarding the mind of a serial killer. Recommended for fans of suspense and thrillers.

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing, Netgalley, and Mira Books for this free copy. All quotes in this review are taken from the Advanced Reader Copy and may change in final publication. So I was lucky enough that I was able to understand what the series was about – at least the gist of it – without having read the other books, but I recommend reading the first two books and the novella first! I missed out on a lot of the story and background by not reading it prior to this one, but I plan on eventually reading the full series in the future. Ugh I’m so freaking glad that this terror that Doctor Rowan had to deal with ends up coming to an end because I couldn’t imagine having to go through what she did. It’s not enough that she’s surrounded by death on a regular basis because of the funeral home family business, but then to have a serial killer in the mix that is trying to punish her for whatever it is he feels like she did. I mean, when do they really need a reason to be cruel to people right? This got intense, it got gritty, it got insane. Seriously this was one of those mystery-thriller novels that kept you up at night with its plot and how psychological the situation was for Rowan. Honestly there were some parts that were a little hard to digest because of the content, but I think that it made sense for the story and it was written well. Webb did an amazing job with this trilogy.