Out of the Dark is the debut novel from Marshall Hughes and for a first-up effort, he's produced a really good story, delving inside the mind of a serial killer.
Jayden Scott is just your average over-achiever, but he holds a chilling secret inside. He has killed and more importantly, he has killed multiple times. He is a serial killer.
The story is told principally through Jayden's eyes, in the first person, although on a few occasions we do see the perspective move to other characters, also in the first person. If I was to make just a small constructive criticism of Hughes' writing style, it would be in these transition points to new characters' perspectives. The transition wasn't as clear as it probably should be, but as with all new novelists, I am happy to acknowledge it is a learning curve and it will improve as time goes on. A minor grumble in a well-told story.
Jayden and his Mother were abused and beaten by his father. as a young man and quite naturally it seemed, his father would be his first victim.
I enjoyed the twists and turns of the investigations into the murder(s) and especially how close the Detective actually came to pinning them on Jayden.
Despite the nature of Jayden's clearly deranged mind, it was easy to feel some connection and empathy with the character and given this was a serial killer, that is a large kudos to the author.
The introduction of the love interest into Jayden's world spiced up the whole story. Hughes was able to use the character of Kristina to delve deeper into the makeup of the sociopathic and psychopathic mind that is a serial killer. Again, this was a clever tool used by the author.
All in all, this is a sound and solid entry into the writing world by Hughes and I definitely did enjoy the book enough to be looking for Book Two when it is available.
I'd give this book four and a half stars if I could, but given we are only allowed whole stars, I'll round that up to the full five.
An excellent start to what I'm sure will be a fine author career from Hughes.
Jayden Scott is just your average over-achiever, but he holds a chilling secret inside. He has killed and more importantly, he has killed multiple times. He is a serial killer.
The story is told principally through Jayden's eyes, in the first person, although on a few occasions we do see the perspective move to other characters, also in the first person. If I was to make just a small constructive criticism of Hughes' writing style, it would be in these transition points to new characters' perspectives. The transition wasn't as clear as it probably should be, but as with all new novelists, I am happy to acknowledge it is a learning curve and it will improve as time goes on. A minor grumble in a well-told story.
Jayden and his Mother were abused and beaten by his father. as a young man and quite naturally it seemed, his father would be his first victim.
I enjoyed the twists and turns of the investigations into the murder(s) and especially how close the Detective actually came to pinning them on Jayden.
Despite the nature of Jayden's clearly deranged mind, it was easy to feel some connection and empathy with the character and given this was a serial killer, that is a large kudos to the author.
The introduction of the love interest into Jayden's world spiced up the whole story. Hughes was able to use the character of Kristina to delve deeper into the makeup of the sociopathic and psychopathic mind that is a serial killer. Again, this was a clever tool used by the author.
All in all, this is a sound and solid entry into the writing world by Hughes and I definitely did enjoy the book enough to be looking for Book Two when it is available.
I'd give this book four and a half stars if I could, but given we are only allowed whole stars, I'll round that up to the full five.
An excellent start to what I'm sure will be a fine author career from Hughes.
Do check out, Out of the Dark on Amazon. It's well worth a read.
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