The Darkness Knows by Cheryl Honigford

The Darkness Knows
by Cheryl Honigford
Pages: 352
Date: August 2 2016
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Series: Viv and Charlie Mystery (1st in series)

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: July 28 to 29 2016

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley, and Sourcebooks Landmark in exchange for an honest review

A quick addition to the book for those coming across my review through a feed or other means - this book is: Historical Fiction Mystery, and any and all romance is M/F.

As I noted in a status update, I initially was made aware of this book when I happened to notice it being recommended to me by GoodReads when I was on the GoodReads page for Strivers’ Row Spy. This book, out of all the ones being recommended to me, looked interesting enough to examine closer. For it reminded me, at first glance, of a show I had watched long ago which also involved a radio station slightly before then during the second world war. That one, though, was set in Pittsburgh (‘Remember WENN’), while this one is set in Chicago.

This book specifically follows a woman named Vivian Witchell (‘I prefer Viv) as she attempts to advance in her career as an actress on the radio. Certain things get in her way of being successful, or at least get in the way of her ability to concentrate, like finding dead bodies in lounges. For you see, Vivian stumbled across the dead body of Marjorie Fox – much beloved radio star (and much hated coworker by everyone who knew her).

A letter is found along with Vivian’s body. A letter implying that Vivian’s life might be in danger as well. So, since she happens to work on a show, The Darkness Knows, that has a private detective as a consultant, that detective is hired to work as Vivian’s bodyguard. So, private detective Charlie ‘don’t call me Chick’ Haverman appears on the scene.

Vivian and a somewhat reluctant Charlie then attempt to solve this specific murder.

I was surprised when I happened to look at the author’s page on GoodReads and saw that this book had started life as a Nanowrimo novel – for it is quite well written, very interesting, fun little book. It’s not that I can’t imagine such a book coming from Nanowrimo, I just imagine that forcing yourself to cram a full book length work into a month of writing somewhat diminishes an author’s ability to massage the work into a readable lovely work. Which this one is, a quite, as noted, well written book.

I have/had certain issues with some of the characters, but then I remind myself that it is the late 1930s, and a character that literally faints, is something of an odd mix of weak and strong, and who keeps almost collapsing because her knees grow weak in certain situations, might just be period accurate.

My knowledge of P.I.’s come from before (mostly the 1920s) and after the war (with the exception of one German P.I. who operated pre-WWII, during, then post WWII), and so I cannot say anything, really, about how the P.I. in this book is depicted. Though he does seem to be something of a cold, smug, smirking dick.

Regardless, despite saying what I say about the characters, I, for the most part, liked them well enough.

I do, though have two major issues with the book that adversely impacted on my enjoyment of the book. (1) the book includes some tense moments involving Charles and Vivian that are defused by the simple fact that this book is listed as being the first in a Viv and Charlie mystery series (two-fold issue – I know that they have to have some form of relationship, friend, other, something, for this book to be the first in said series and there’s this moment wherein Vivian begins questioning Charles motives and the possibility that he might be the killer; before I even reached that specific scene I had some issues with Charles – specifically the part wherein he is supposed to be acting as a bodyguard, yet he kept disappearing on Viv – several (numerous?) scenes during which Viv is frantically searching for Charles and can’t find him – making him both not that great at being a body-guard, and something of a suspect; (2) I do not particularly like Charles and his smirking attitude (Vivian has some troubles at work, in a ‘I might have been fired’ way, and Charles just laughs at her and says she deserved it; which leads directly to – Charles has been acting like a dick to Viv and the only reason I can imagine her rushing to his side at one point is because he ended up in a hospital bed. ).

Despite the preceding paragraph, I again note that I enjoyed this book. And look forward to future books by this author.

July 29 2016