Kriss Morton - In the Loft of the Cabin Goddess

Three is a crowd, especially when all of them are sharing the spotlight in a suspenseful mystery keeping you holding your breath with each turn of the page.

At the top of the triangle is Emilie, our victim and heroine. A branch manager in a bank built on the foundation of one of Las Vegas, NV's original glorious hotels and attached to the infamous 200 mile stretch of storm drains. Emilie struggles daily with her role as an independent woman with a past of spousal and parental abuse. With a mother who never wanted or loved her and being driven into the arms of a student counselor whom she married and stayed with with for a decade despite the psychological abuse. She is just beginning to heal when the next two corners of this triangle enter her life. She must learn to accept and embrace herself while learning how to deal with being a victim and a treasured loved one all at once. After a lifetime of being treated like trash, just who is she going to accept the love from?

When she showed up for work that day the last thing she expected was to be caught in a violent siege with two masked men who attempt to rob the bank. Caught in a hostage situation she is singled out by one of the men who takes an unhealthy interest in her. Between whispers of familiarity and the threats of the other robber she begins to recognize the danger she truly is in, and it is not from a simple bank robbery, but from this man holding her a bit to close. Little did she know this man was stalking her because of his own dark and broken past. A love long lost, a childhood taken away to fast. But how would she deal with this and how will she be able to become free of another's broken past without losing her life?

While Emilie is dealing with her captor and trying to keep calm in the midst of the insanity of a bank robbery gone bad, the hostage negotiator, Nathan, does his best to keep everyone alive and safe. His own past failures still affecting how he deals with each situation. This time he is drawn a bit deeper than usual into the lives of the victims and becomes the one bright light in Emilie's terror laden darkness.

With three lives so broken, can she be saved? Can she save herself and will Nathan be able to put together the broken pieces of his own past in time to be the one who can rescue her. Emilie's stubborn streak and refusal to become another victim end up being the focus point in rescuing not only herself, but her stalker and Nathan.

This was a wonderful scripted and twisted tale. A trilogy of pasts brought together into the future with Stacy Green's 'Into the Dark'. Each of these individuals told us, the readers their own private stories which are driving points of the book. Each of them exposing more and more of their pain while the rest of the story unfolds around us. What started off seeming to be a basic crime mystery with a touch of romance ended up become a lesson in how darkness can swallow us up if we do not deal with our pasts. The tunnels themselves a metaphor of how hiding and covering up things does not make them go away, eventually they will end up being exposed to the light and becoming more painful to face.

Into the Darkness really took my breath away page by page. I am looking forward to reading more of Stacy Green's books (plus I now have a new blog to hop to on Thursdays with her Thriller Thursday posts!)

(I received a copy of this book when I signed up to review for a Partners In Crime are was given in exchange for an honest review.)