Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

Unavailable
Darkness, My Old Friend: A Novel
Unavailable
Darkness, My Old Friend: A Novel
Unavailable
Darkness, My Old Friend: A Novel
Audiobook12 hours

Darkness, My Old Friend: A Novel

Written by Lisa Unger

Narrated by Nancy Linari

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

()

Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

The New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Lies and Fragile returns to The Hollows, delivering a thriller that explores matters of faith, memory, and sacrifice.

After giving up his post at the Hollows Police Department, Jones Cooper is at loose ends. He is having trouble facing a horrible event from his past and finding a second act. He's in therapy. Then, on a brisk October morning, he has a visitor. Eloise Montgomery, the psychic who plays a key role in Fragile, comes to him with predictions about his future, some of them dire.

Michael Holt, a young man who grew up in The Hollows, has returned looking for answers about his mother, who went missing many years earlier. He has hired local PI Ray Muldune and psychic Eloise Montgomery to help him solve the mystery that has haunted him. What he finds might be his undoing.

Fifteen-year-old Willow Graves is exiled to The Hollows from Manhattan when six months earlier she moved to the quiet town with her novelist mother after a bitter divorce.  Willow is acting out, spending time with kids that bring out the worst in her. And when things get hard, she has a tendency to run away-a predilection that might lead her to dark places.

Set in The Hollows, the backdrop for Fragile, this is the riveting story of lives set on a collision course with devastating consequences. The result is Lisa Unger's most compelling fiction to date.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateAug 9, 2011
ISBN9780307917645
Unavailable
Darkness, My Old Friend: A Novel
Author

Lisa Unger

Lisa Unger is a NYT and internationally bestselling author. Her books are published in 32 languages, with millions of copies sold worldwide. In 2019, she received two Edgar Award nominations, an honor held by only a few writers including Agatha Christie. Her work has been named on "Best Book" lists from Today, People, GMA, EW, Amazon, IndieBound and many others. She has written for the NYT, WSJ, NPR, and Travel+Leisure. She lives in Florida with her family.

More audiobooks from Lisa Unger

Related to Darkness, My Old Friend

Related audiobooks

Mystery For You

View More

Related articles

Reviews for Darkness, My Old Friend

Rating: 3.587591226277372 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

137 ratings20 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was an excellent book.It is a dark type of novel about a child that has a difficult past and some killings over time of multiple people.It is a very interesting thriller type of novel that ends in a way you will not expect. It definetely keeps you going,It is one of my favorites.I do not want to give away the story line.So read it .If you like this style of writing it be be one you like.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book has it all! Family drama, mystery and intrigue, supernatural going-ons and more. I quite enjoyed this book and received this for an early review, so I don't have the knowledge of Jones Cooper from book one, but will be on the lookout for the first book and more. It kept my interest to the end. 3.5 stars
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    If you like any of these books you won't be disappointed.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Nicely done mystery about a retired police officer with a "history" who is drawn into investigating a local mystery. Well written, nice character development.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Interesting characters, but the plot was way too predictable. Readable when you're desperate for something new to read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. With like-able characters, great plot, pacing, timing and setting I know I am going to read more of Unger.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Very Good!!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    What is it with me reading Lisa Unger books in pairs? Here we go again. Two books (Fragile and Darkness, My Old Friend) with separate main plots, but connected by character, location and circumstances of the past. I felt the second novel was more disconnected and less compelling than the first. It features much the same type of mystery and long-held secrets, but it was looser and I didn’t turn the pages quite as fast. I think its because the danger is in the present in the first book; a girl goes missing and it’s not the first time that’s happened. In Darkness, the woman who goes missing has been long absent and the danger to Willow is peripheral, really. As a result, it wasn’t quite as thrilling as the first book, but definitely interesting and worth the time it takes to read it.A lot of that has to do with the characters and their interwoven lives. The Hollows (a model on Sleepy Hollow, also found in upstate New York?) has a vibe all its own. Sinister, but open. Everyone knows everyone and there’s history, backstory and baggage galore. It’s a wonder there aren’t more murders. The problem is that sometimes the detail surrounding the characters gets to be a bit much. Like in Darkness, Maggie comes off like a controlling jerk, constantly pouting, sighing and frowning in her disapproval of the way Jones is dealing with his trauma and loss of his job. Oy it got old. Sure, there’s underlying love and devotion and I don’t want to see all sunshine and rainbows, but she got really annoying in this book. She was only mildly annoying in the first (she’s pretty judgmental, yet self-centered and always questioning her own motives and actions).Also the central mystery of what happened to Marla Holt wasn’t too hard to figure out. I had it pegged early and had to watch the rag-tag investigators play catch-up. There are some decent tangential plots and most of the threads come together in the end. At first you don’t see quite how, but as the books progress they do and it’s fun to watch. In the second one the young people in the book seemed to be illustrating a minor theme about lying, which I could totally relate to. I was a bit of a compulsive liar when I was a kid and into my teens. Low self-esteem seems to be at the root of it. I didn’t really dare to do much and so had to lie about myself to make other people think I was worthwhile. Willow and Cole fall into the same trap. It was believable and I felt Willow’s struggle to stop. The writing is basically strong and there are some nice devices to throw suspicion and illustrate emotional concepts. I especially liked the worm metaphor to illustrate Eloise’s anger, frustration and hatred. I suppose in future installments we might see some progress between her and her estranged daughter, Amanda. Ditto with Jones and how he handles his reluctant new career. He’s kind of a bozo though, so I expect he’ll still have a lower emotional IQ than his kid’s.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Hollows, a small New York town, once again takes center stage in a story that delves into the life of Jones Cooper, who, having stepped down from his police detective job, finds himself at loose ends and frustrated by the therapy sessions he unwillingly attends. After the local psychic, Eloise Montgomery, pays him a visit, the retired detective finds it difficult to dismiss her predictions when events begin to unfold just as she has foretold.As Jones finds himself becoming the “go-to” person for folks in the neighborhood in need of a pet sitter or a mail gatherer or whatever, Willow Graves is finding it difficult to settle into her new home in The Hollow where her mother has moved them following the mother’s divorce. Several mysteries are affecting the teens in The Hollows: Cole wants to find his mother; Willow wonders what the man she saw in the woods was actually digging up. At the same time, Michael Holt is searching for his mother, Paula Carr is dealing with an abusive relationship, and Eloise is issuing dire predictions.Readers will find the strong atmospheric elements and the twisting plot are enough to keep the pages turning until the final reveal.Recommended.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I do not read a large amount of fiction, mostly non-fiction historical material…so I tend to have a strong tolerance for slower-developing material. I had read favorable reviews of this book so I thought it would be a good one for the few fictional pieces I read. Big mistake. It was very difficult to follow where the author was going with this novel. Too disjointed. There were several times when I almost threw it onto the donation pile on the bookshelf and started something else. However, not being the kind of person that does not complete something I start, I stuck with it. Even though the past 30-40 pages finally started getting interesting enough to encourage sticking it through to find out the conclusion, it did not make up for the earlier parts of the book. I would not recommend this book for others.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Lisa Unger’s second Hollows novel is stronger than the firstReaders first met Jones Cooper in Lisa Unger’s previous “Hollows” novel, Fragile. He was the police officer married to that novel’s protagonist, who resigned in disgrace over deeds from his past. When I reviewed Fragile, I had commented at the time that Maggie Cooper wasn’t a strong enough character to rest a novel upon. Jones, however, is. As the novel opens, this man, still in the prime of his life, is at loose ends. He’s puttering around the house and seeing a therapist—mostly to appease his therapist wife. When he runs out of things to fix around his home, he starts doing odd jobs for friends and neighbors, just to keep occupied. However, it isn’t a handyman’s job that psychic Eloise Montgomery warns him about. No, former cop that he is, Jones has been lured into a mystery. A woman’s seemingly simple request for help locating her husband’s ex-wife spiderwebs in directions that will touch many lives and will put Jones in direct jeopardy.There are many other characters involved in what is a fairly complex plot. This is one of those novels where you see the ends of the different threads, you just can’t figure out how they’ll all fit together. But Unger does an excellent job creating suspense and intrigue as her plot unravels. Additionally, readers are getting to know the denizens of The Hollows better. They’re in intriguing bunch. They seem to keep a lot of secrets, and I suspect the Ms. Unger is going to unearth a few more in the next few years. The first two “Hollows” novels are essentially stand alones, but the recurring characters and shared universe of these books makes the Hollows a place I will look forward to hopefully visiting again soon.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I saw this available for a digital checkout at my library and decided to give it a chance. I'm glad a did, because it's a thoroughly decent story. With all the different viewpoints, I was confused at first, but once I got everybody's story straight in my head, I had no further problems.Darkness, My Old Friend isn't the sort of thriller mystery that is quite popular with mystery readers. It's a slow read and takes awhile to build up, but the pay off is worth it. In the end, I was so invested in the characters that the lack of action was made up for in my emotional connection to the story and the characters' lives. I liked the multiple viewpoints, because it gives a fuller view of all that is going on in the small town of The Hollows and it helped me to fully understand all the characters' actions and reactions.While I thought that the story itself was interesting and enjoyable, the way it is written bothered me. I thought that it was trying to hard to be literary. Because of this, the pacing seemed off, and I was annoyed at some parts because I wanted to get into the story and the mystery instead of reading about the characters' "deep" thoughts on life and love. Despite that, however, I thought it was a good read and would recommend you to give it a try.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I rated Darkness, My Old Friend, at a four instead of a 5 because the first half was very slow. You spend a lot of time getting to know the main characters, but even so, the 15-year old Willow was the only one I really bonded with as a reader. Her mother, Bethany, made me want to shake her more than a few times.The mystery revolves around Michael Holt and the disappearance of his mother, many years before. I'm afraid that I never really bonded with Michael and while mildly interested in his mother's disappearance, it didn't grip me as much as I hoped.I do like Lisa's writing. It's clean and not overwrought (so many books use very overwrought prose these days) which I appreciated. The second half of the book does pick up the pace, though and it keeps you enthralled, making you want to buy the next one. Which is a good thing. It's just that I kept remembering the first half, which didn't work all that well for me as a reader.The one thing that really stands out to me about the first half is that it seemed more like it was going to be a more literary novel about a group of different characters, what their lives were like, and how they viewed the world around them. NOrmally, this would make you sink into the various characters, but as I mentioned, the only one I truly bonded with was Willow. The others felt more like casual acquaintances.For readers who enjoy character studies with a bit of a mystery thrown in, this may be just the book for you!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Lisa Unger's books are fast paced and exciting. Her characters are so well defined they seem real to me. This book is set in the Hollows and has several main characters. There is Jones Cooper who has left the PD and doesn't really know what to do with himself. Willow is an unhappy teenage misfit and Eloise is the trajic psychic. Then there is Michael Holt whose mother left their family when he was a child. She left under mysterious circumstances and he has come back after his father's death to try to unravel the mystery. All of these characters get entwined to form a fantastic story.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Lisa Unger is great at developing multilayered characters the reader can easily care for and yet sometimes fault. There are several story lines here, all of them weaving together as the book goes on. Did Michael Holt's Mother abandon him some thirty years ago? It is his mission to find out and the answer is complex and it's unfolding is believable. Willow, a teen forced to move from Manhattan to The Hollows with her writer mom, Bethany, is depressed and acting out. Mom is loving and very close to and supportive of Willow. Jones Cooper, (forced) retired P.I. is pulled in to Micheal's search for answers. He and psychiatrist wife Maggie have a solid marriage that gives this thriller some satisfying breaks from time to time. Eloise, a psychic, is also pulled in to help solve the mystery. Her gift costs her dearly in energy and health. I had to keep a lot of notes and family trees to keep track of all the characters in this book or I would probably have given it five stars. I will definitely read more from Lisa Unger.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    One of the most important things this author does in my opinion, is tocreate characters that you care about. They are real and compelling andwell rounded. May authors can create a good story, which Unger does as well,but not all of them can give us good characters.This is a story that takes place in one of those small towns, where everyoneknows everyone else as well as their family histories. An author, Bethany Graves,moves to town with her young daughter Willow. Willow is a young girl with a troubledpast. Her father died when she was small, and the man she had come to love like a fatherleft both Willow and her mother, moving on to another woman. He never really looked back.Eloise is a psychic who came into her abilities after a disastrous car crash that killedone of her daughters as well as her husband. After coming out of a coma that she sufferedin the accident, she came to realize that she had been left with this gift. Eloise playsan important and intriguing part in this story.This is a mystery that is just dark enough, just hopeful enough and just chilling enough.Nothing is over done. Once again I found myself enjoying a book by this author. It is a lightweight,but an enjoyable one.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I like Lisa Unger's writing style, the flow of her sentences and the way she takes readers into the characters' heads, but I had problems with this book. First, I would not call this a stand-alone read. Darkness, My Old Friend is the follow-up to Fragile, which I did not read. And while many series books can be read as stand-alones, this is not one of them. The first half of the book in particular was frustrating for me because characters kept dwelling on issues and traumatic events in their past but those events were never specifically mentioned. Unger relied on readers to remember these characters and the events from Fragile. Eventually, some of these characters' issues were clarified so the story made more sense, though not all.This book has several different plotlines running at once, with tenuous threads holding all of the characters and subplots together. Because of this, and possibly because I had not read the first book, I didn't feel a strong connection to any specific characters. The suspense aspect was more psychological than mystery, which requires a better understanding of the characters' background than Unger offered. Overall, this is a good read that could be made much better by clarifying the background stories. I highly suggest reading Fragile first.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I've long been a fan of Lisa Unger. When I read and reviewed Fragile last year, I said it was my favourite of her books so far. I was thrilled to find out that her latest book - Darkness, My Old Friend - reprises the town and characters from Fragile.Jones Cooper, a former detective in the town of The Hollows, has retired and in now keeping himself busy by pet watching for vacationing homeowners, small home repairs and the like - a far cry from his former occupation.He is visited one day by Eloise - the psychic from Fragile. She has come to tell him she has seen a vision of Jones - diving in the river after someone and that it would be too much for him. Eloise works with local PI Ray Muldane as well. Muldane has been hired by Michael Holt. Michael was born in The Hollows and has recently moved back after the death of his father. His mother had disappeared when he was young. Bethany Graves and her daughter Willow have just moved to The Hollows to help Willow start fresh. One of Willow's first encounters in The Hollows? Michael - in the woods - digging..." She thought him the dutiful son, sitting at his father's deathbed. But he wasn't that. He was a grave robber, waiting for the night watchman to drift off once and for all. Then, and only then, could he dig his fingers into the earth and exhume the truth."At the end of Fragile, I thought there were more stories to be told with these characters and I was right. Jones Cooper is a great protagonist, conflicted with his past and what his role should be now. His wife Maggie, a psychologist in town, still has not won me over, but her clinical take on events and emotions provide a needed element. Eloise is explored more fully in this book, letting us know her back story. I appreciated this 'fleshing out' as she is the character I enjoy the most, besides Jones. There are many other players, all with their own stories.There is a secondary plot line that eventually intersected with the primary case Jones is working on. I was able to foresee what was coming and the outcome of the mystery fairly easily. But, the real strength of Unger's writing seems to be the exploration of relationships, problems and emotions of her characters. Unger skillfully weaves together all the threads she's created into one compelling read."If you're looking, you can find trouble anywhere. It's waiting - not just on city street corners, in subways, in nightclubs, but on quiet country roads, in a peaceful stand of trees."Those looking for a hardcore murder mystery won't find it here. But if you enjoy a good story, this one's for you.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Jones Cooper has walked away from his job as a police officer and is struggling with his past when a psychic shows up at his door with a chilling prediction. Eloise Montgomery has been seeing things psychically for years, ever since the car accident that killed her husband and daughter and left her comatose for several days. Eloise and local PI Ray Muldune are teaming up to try to uncover the mystery surrounding a local woman’s disappearance many years earlier. The woman’s son, Michael Holt, is now an adult and wants to find the answers to what happened to his mother – his memory of her last day is full of blank spots that he seems unable to shed any light upon. Fifteen year old Willow Graves and her mystery writer mother, Bethany, have recently moved from New York City, looking for safety and peace in small town life. Willow is angry and confused about her parent’s bitter divorce, and has a tendency to run when things get uncomfortable. All these characters’ lives cross in The Hollows, a tiny town with dark woods and even darker secrets.Darkness, My Old Friend is Lisa Unger’s latest thriller and a follow up to her last novel, Fragile. Unger assumes some knowledge of her characters, so if you are like me and have not read the prequel to Darkness, My Old Friend, it takes a few pages to be brought up to speed. Even still, I found myself quickly drawn into the lives of the characters. Jones Cooper is clearly the primary character around whom the plot turns. Struggling with his marriage and not sure what to do with his life, he becomes embroiled in the town’s most talked about mystery – that of the disappearance of Marla Holt. Tough, smart and skeptical of anything that cannot be proved, Jones is a likable character. The other characters are carefully fleshed out as Unger writes from multiple points of view in order to reveal their histories and motivations.I enjoyed Unger’s writing style which reminded me of some of Laura Lippman’s later novels. The plot is drawn from the complexities of the characters’ lives and is actually not really much of a whodunnit (I figured out the “mystery” long before I got to the end of the book) – but, more of an exploration into motivation and the dark side of human nature. Thematically, Unger explores the mother-child relationship, self image, and identity. All the characters are faced with re-examining their pasts in order to find a balance between personal fulfillment and obligation.Strengths of the novel include sharp dialogue, believable characters and an interesting psychological study of human behavior. If there is a weakness in the book it is a tendency to wrap the plot up a little too neatly.Overall, a good read which will appeal to those who enjoy psychological thrillers.Recommended.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Four threads tie together in this psychological susapense novel. Elois the psychic from Unger's previous novel Fragile. plays a prominent role in this one and she is a character that I find very interesting. Also Jones Cooper attempts to find a new phase in his life after leaving the police dept. and is of course embroiled in these story lines. Secrets, how the past affects the future and a young girl attmepting to come to terms with her new home and life are the main basis of this book.