Darkness First

A McCabe and Savage Thriller

By: James Hayman

Narrated by: Stephen Mendel

The mutilated body of a young woman. The town doctor lying comatose in the road. A hundred and fifty tablets of Canadian OxyContin. This is the havoc that a merciless killer has wreaked on a sleepy Maine seaport.

As detectives Maggie Savage and Michael McCabe investigate, they realize the man they are after does not exist. Nobody knows his real name. Nobody has seen his face. But everybody fears his blade.

The only one who may know the murderer's true identity is an eleven-year-old girl—who has vanished into thin air.

Taut, twisting, and starring two unforgettable heroes, Darkness First will thrill fans of John Sandford and C. J. Box.

He gets better and better...

I usually love debut novels. It is the novel the author has been dreaming of writing a great portion of their lives. Some authors get better as they go (i.e. John Hart) and I feel it is the same with James Hayman. After being on a mystery/police procedural binge, this series is among my favorites. Can't wait to move on to the next book, and that is a good judgement of how much a series/author is acclaimed.

excellent writer

This was a very good book as usual by an excellent writer. And good Audio

Held my attention

Tired ending! But... but... enough imagination tickling that it held me to last. This is the sort of average who daunt that I wish was the average. Meaning? Well I listen to these to be entertained... or seriously distracted... while ploughing through the minutia of life. You know, the mindless chores. So I look for books that will make me want to mow lawns, do dishes, drive through gridlock... like that. Do stuff that breaks away pieces of time to listen to an escapist mystery story.

James Hayman is the almost perfect writer of these things. He's a commercial writer who creates forgettable yet compelling little stories an d Darkness first is exactly one of those.McCabe and Savage are more like instruments than characters... Instruments that Hayman plays with the excellent collaboration of Stephen Mendel's reading.

I'm guessing that like me, you'll guess the bad guy's identity early on but so what? The dishes will still get clean with the least effort.

Darkness First

What did you love best about Darkness First?

The viciousness of the enemy. I know that sounds terrible but if you're going to have a good thriller, then you really shouldn't skimp on the "Gore!"

What did you like best about this story?

All of the different "side" stories going on. Plus I like the fact that he wrote this book and made Savage the main character.

What about Stephen Mendel’s performance did you like?

Soothing voice, not grating or irritating on the nerves.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Vicious!!!

Any additional comments?

Good book, was surprised. I didn't think I would really like it since it didn't concentrate on McCabe. However, I was wrong I enjoyed Savage's character a lot.

pronunciation

I really liked the story! Living in Maine made it even more enjoyable. The only issue I had was the pronunciation of Machias. It's actually pronounced like it's spelled. The ch is not like in Michael. Just saying...