The Dark Hours

Julia Harte, retired from the Irish police, has effectively hidden herself away from her infamous past in a sleepy village. As a young Garda, she was instrumental in solving the most notorious serial-killer case of the day, with both emotional and physical scars to show for it. After her successful police career, she writes what is intended to be a textbook for police training, only to have it become a bestseller for true-crime aficionados. Thirty years later and days after Cox, the serial killer, dies of natural causes, there is another frighteningly identical killing, drawing Julia and her former mentor into the case as consultants. The author artfully intertwines the stories from the past and present, creating a palpable sense of dread and foreboding. While we know Julia solved the past crime, we don’t know how. The gradual revelation of the past informs the solutions of the present, and while the situation is similar, Julia is not the raw beginner she once was. The characters are well drawn, the landscape is integral to the telling, and while this is a debut novel, it doesn’t read like a practice run.