I don’t know how or when it happened, but sometime during my internship year my fellow physicians saddled me with the nickname “Groundhog”. Maybe it had to do with my strange behavior. But, then, all interns exhibited strange behavior born of sleepless nights, high levels of continual stress, and the molding and breaking of a human being with an M.D. into a doctor.

Speaking of groundhogs and strange behavior, it is time to review “Darkness Follows” by Mike Dellosso. This novel had a little bit of everything. Strange behavior, mysterious historical figures, conspiracies, cold blooded murders, an endangered child, and, yes, groundhogs. And, as odd as this combination seems, it fit nicely together in a book that moved at such a rapid pace, I could not read it fast enough!

I will break down my review of “Darkness Follows” into three days. On day one, let me talk about the characters. I love character driven fiction. One of my favorite writers, Michael Crichton, was unsurpassed in writing fast driven, engaging plots but to say his characters were two dimensional was a compliment! Mike Dellosso, on the other hand, has created believable, complex characters with great chemistry. The main character, Sam Travis is an enigma wrapped up in a mystery at first. But, it is the dissection of the tragedy that plagues him from his past that defines his struggle with recent brain damage. As the reader struggles to understand the strange behavior that befalls Sam, we learn more and more about a tragic event in the past that defines who he has become. Sam awakens one morning to the sound of voices and gunfire and a bullet crashes through the window in his living room, shattering it into a million shards of glass. His wife and the policeman who arrives are having trouble believing his story of gunfire and begin to wonder if the brain damage he has suffered has now moved into acting out bizarre and dangerous behavior.

Sam also struggles with doubts about his own sanity when he awakens from naps and finds the writings of a Union soldier with the name Samuel recounting the events of the battle at Gettysburg. The writing is in Sam’s own handwriting and he does not remember penning those words. When he spies the groundhog in his back yard and digs his old rifle out of the closet, the reader realizes we are in for a rough roller coaster ride of suspense. I found myself talking to the book, telling Sam to put the gun away, to ignore the letters, to stop listening to the voices that are telling him carry out a horrific and terrible deed. Mike Dellosso has indeed created a character I began to care about very much and I wanted to grab him by the shoulders, shake some sense into him and help him avoid the dangerous trap into which he is falling. But, as he relives a distant memory from his past; a defining moment in his life we learn of his troubled brother whose behavior became so bizarre he was locked in the basement in a cage made of two by fours, thus the disturbing images on the cover. But, I do not want to spill any more information and ruin the reader’s enjoyment of the unfolding suspense. Sam is truly a complex and believable character and I found myself rooting for his redemption.

His wife, Molly is a wonderful creation by the author. She conveys the real conflict between her desperate desire to help and encourage her husband with the real need of protecting their daughter. As Sam’s behavior grows more erratic and she finds the dead groundhog, the tension in her mind and heart is so real, you can feel it emanating from the page.

And, the daughter, Eva is a delight. Precocious, lovable, and devoted to her “imaginary” friend Joshua tries her best to plead with her father to listen to God. Her admonitions of love are almost heart breaking as she also tries to keep her father from his descent into darkness.

And, that is just the beginning of the story for soon we meet a very dark man, Symon, with an easy smile, a reassuring demeanor and a quick trigger finger. Soon, the bodies begin to pile up and this man is just as puzzled about his behavior as we are. Who is he? What is his role in Sam’s strange behavior? And, most disturbingly, why does he want to abduct the little girl?

Now, I must admit here that at this moment in the narrative, I became very disturbed. But, Mike Dellosso had created characters I simply could not turn my back on. I cared about them. I wanted to know why they were acting this way. I wanted to see Molly and Eva triumph over evil with their love for Sam. I couldn’t possibly abandon them in the midst of this heinous story for darkness indeed was falling. And, tomorrow, I will tell you why!

 In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.