Candice Fox is at the Top of her Game with Gathering Dark

From Australia’s most exciting and original crime writer comes another electrifying thriller, set in Los Angeles, introducing a new – and decidedly unconventional – team of ‘detectives’.

A convicted killer. A gifted thief. A vicious crime boss. A disillusioned cop.
Together they’re a missing girl’s only hope.

Dr Blair Harbour was once a wealthy, respected surgeon in Los Angeles, but is now an ex-con down on her luck. She’s determined to keep her nose clean to win back custody of her son. But when her former cellmate, Sneak Lawlor, begs for help to find her missing daughter, Blair is compelled to put her new-found freedom on the line. Joined by LA’s most feared underworld figure, Ada Maverick, the crew of criminals bring outlaw tactics to the search for Dayly.

Detective Jessica Sanchez has always had a difficult relationship with the LAPD. And her inheritance of a $7 million mansion as a reward for catching a killer has just made her police enemy number one. It’s been ten years since Jessica arrested Blair for the cold-blooded murder of her neighbour. So when Jessica opens the door to the disgraced doctor and her friends late one night she expects abuse, maybe even violence.

What comes instead is a plea for help.

Candice Fox really is the Queen of Australian crime. She’s written over a dozen bestsellers now, some under her own name and some in partnership with publishing superstar James Patterson. Each time she delivers a thrilling, compulsively addictive page-turner and here is no different.

Tight plot, polished writing, snappy dialogue and a great dose of dark humour already makes this excellent crime, but then Candice adds a cast of complex, interesting, extremely compelling female characters, and Gathering Dark immediately soars to the top of a genre normally inhabited by complicated men. Blair and Jessica, through who’s alternating voices the story is told, are particularly great, but Candice is a master of characterisation, so every single one of them is interesting.

Gathering Dark is set in LA and the setting literally drips from the page. And so it should. Candice spent 12-months living in the city she says is the ultimate crime novel location, for this purpose – to know what she writes. Listen to our podcast with Candice where she talks about her experiences living in Los Angeles. It’s one of our most entertaining podcasts ever, and an excellent example of how Candice is the ultimate storyteller both on and off the page. In Gathering Dark, her real-life research shows, with the city richly drawn and vivid, the perfect backdrop for this story.

Gathering Dark is a thrilling and highly entertaining read. Candice is an author at the top of her game. Don’t miss this.