Into the Darkest Cornerby Elizabeth Haynes
Summary: When young, pretty Catherine Bailey meets Lee Brightman, she can't believe her luck. Gorgeous, charismatic, and a bit mysterious, Lee seems almost too perfect to be true.
But what begins as flattering attention and spontaneous, passionate sex transforms into raging jealousy, and Catherine soon discovers that Lee's dazzling blue eyes and blond good looks hide a dark, violent nature. Disturbed by his increasingly erratic, controlling behavior, she tries to break it off; turning to her friends for support, she's stunned to find they don't believe her. Increasingly isolated and driven into the darkest corner of her world, a desperate Catherine plans a meticulous escape.
Four years later, Lee is behind bars and Catherine—now Cathy—is trying to build a new life in a new city. Though her body has healed, the trauma of the past still haunts her. Then Stuart Richardson, her attractive new neighbor, moves in. Encouraging her to confront her fears, he sparks unexpected hope and the possibility of love and a normal life.
Until the day the phone rings . .
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Source: I purchased a paperback from a used bookstore.
Review:
Into the Darkest Corner was absolutely spectacular! It was recommended to me by a friend who also enjoys a good screwed up contemporary mystery and it was definitely as good as she promised it would be.
I devoured the book in just over a day, as I couldn’t put it down for anything. Cathy’s story captured my interest immediately as the story flashed from the early 2000s to the late 2000s and there was a drastic difference in who Cathy was. The book opened with a court transcript during the case, so I knew that something terrible was going to happen regarding the handsome and mysterious man Cathy met. In the present, Cathy suffered from sever OCD, panic attacks, and generally didn’t venture out much except to go to work.
This book was so twisted and suspenseful. Lee was a complete psychopath, but he didn’t start out that way. Slowly, Cathy lost her position of power in the relationship and lost her ability to choose anything. He controlled everything, but in a way that didn’t seem like it when she tried to explain it to other people. Before she knew it, he had everyone she knew wrapped around his finger and she was the crazy one.
In the present, Cathy had a neighbor move into the flat above her. She liked that he remembered to lock the front door to the home because it was the number one thing she was most worried about and checked multiple times. They eventually formed a friendship and he ended up trying to help her work through her issues and referred her to leading OCD and PTSD doctors.
I was completely absorbed in this book. It was so screwed up and terrifying, it makes the characters in Gone Girl seem mostly sane (mostly, not completely). I loved how the book kept flashing back and forth because I didn’t know if it would come together, how it would end, and what would end up happening to Lee.
I highly recommend the book if you’re a fan of any kind of contemporary suspense like that of Gone Girl, The Girl on the Train, etc. It was well written and engaging. I’m surprised it’s not more popular!