Fear the Darkness: A Novel (Brigid Quinn Series)
Fear the Darkness: A Novel (Brigid Quinn Series) book cover

Fear the Darkness: A Novel (Brigid Quinn Series)

Hardcover – January 20, 2015

by
Price
$13.84
Format
Hardcover
Pages
336
Publisher
Minotaur Books
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0312622954
Dimensions
6.36 x 1.19 x 9.48 inches
Weight
1.15 pounds

Description

“Electrifying...another strong display of the author's ingenuity. Ms. Masterman once again shows herself to be an expert manipulator of readers' expectations.” ― Janet Maslin, The New York Times “Idiosyncratic and engaging. . .an action-filled finale that pulls the rug out from beneath expectations.” ― The Wall Street Journal “[A] superior series. . .The strong voice that Masterman established for Brigid in Rage Against the Dying excels in this sequel.” ― The Associated Press “Brigid Quinn is a vigorous narrator. . . with an arresting voice that keeps her audience close, without shying away at vulnerable moments. . . .Resourceful, direct, and determined--especially in the face of pure, murderous evil--in her second outing, Quinn remains a fun force to be reckoned with.” ― The Boston Globe “It's refreshing to spend time with Brigid. . . .She's flawed and stubborn, but you sure would want her on your side in any kind of battle. ” ― The Plain Dealer “Tough, cunning Brigid Quinn will certainly appeal to thriller readers who favor a female perspective, but her unwavering determination to fight for even the ugliest forms of justice will also draw in fans of Michael Connelly and Dennis Lehane.” ― Booklist “Pulse-quickening...scorching...invigorating.” ― Janet Maslin, The New York Times, on Rage Against the Dying “When the nominations are made for the best crime-novel debut of the year, we should be hearing [Masterman's] name again.” ― The Washington Post on Rage Against the Dying “One of the most memorable FBI agents since Clarice Starling.” ― Publishers Weekly (starred, Pick of the Week) on Rage Against the Dying “Wow. An absolute pleasure. Chilling, smart...and what a voice.” ― Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl, on Rage Against the Dying “Masterman lives up to her name in this masterly combination of compelling character and plot.” ― Library Journal (starred) on Rage Against the Dying BECKY MASTERMAN, who was an acquisitions editor for a press specializing in medical textbooks for forensic examiners and law enforcement, received her M.A. in creative writing from Florida Atlantic University. Her debut thriller, Rage Against the Dying , was a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, the CWA Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel of 2013, the ITV Thriller Award, as well as the Macavity, Barry, and Anthony awards. Becky lives in Tucson, Arizona, with her husband.

Features & Highlights

  • Finalist for the New Mexico/Arizona Book Award
  • It's hard to recognize the devil when his hand is on your shoulder. That's because a psychopath is just a person before he becomes a headline….Psychopaths have preferences for Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts coffee, denim or linen, Dickens or…well, you get the point.
  • Ex-FBI agent Brigid Quinn has seen more than her share of psychopaths. She is ready to put all that behind her, building a new life in Tucson with a husband, friends, and some nice quiet work as a private investigator. Sure, she could still kill a man half her age, but she now gets her martial arts practice by teaching self-defense at a women's shelter.
  • But sometimes it isn't that simple. When her sister-in-law dies, Brigid take in her seventeen-year-old niece, Gemma Kate. There has always been something unsettling about Gemma-Kate, but family is family. Which is fine, until Gemma-Kate starts taking an unhealthy interest in dissecting the local wildlife.
  • Meanwhile, Brigid agrees to help a local couple by investigating the death of their son―which also turns out not to be that simple. Her house isn't the sanctuary it used to be, and new dangers―including murder―seem to lurk everywhere. Brigid starts to wonder if there is anyone she can trust, or if the devil has simply moved closer to home.
  • Becky Masterman's
  • Fear the Darkness
  • is the masterful follow-up to the Edgar Award and CWA Gold Dagger finalist
  • Rage Against the Dying.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(165)
★★★★
25%
(137)
★★★
15%
(82)
★★
7%
(38)
★
23%
(127)

Most Helpful Reviews

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MORE PLEASE

Only a few writers grab you in the first couple of lines and tighten their grip on your attention until you and the book they've created cannot be separated. That is Becky Masterman's gift. Her creation of Brigid Quinn makes for compulsive reading. Finding a book like Fear the Darkness brings out the greedy reader in me who is never far from the surface but who is rarely satisfied. Masterman has a wonderful gift for characterization and for believable dialogue, two of the vital elements of great fiction. Even before I'd finished this book I had ordered the first book of the series. Now I am wishing there were many more available to read, because I love Brigid and her mean-mouthed, deeply felt anger and wicked sense of humor. This character is a complete original, and a welcome addition to my list of must-read writers. Just wait! She'll be on your list too. MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
12 people found this helpful
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Super Excellent Page Turner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First of all I would give this book ten stars if I could. Secondly it was so good and so engrossing and exciting I read it in a day and a half.
Brigid Quinn is a retired FBI agent. She is 59 years old and married to Carlo DiForenza a former Catholic Priest turned a philosophy professor. The two live happily in Tucson, Arizona with their two pugs.
Brigid is notified that her sister-in-law Marylin Quinn had passed away. Marylin had requested before her death that Brigid and her husband would take in her daughter Gemma-Kate for a few months so that she could qualify in in-state tuition at the University of Arizona. Shortly after Gemma-Kate arrives one of the pugs eats part of a poisonous toad and nearly dies. Brigid soon wonders if she made a mistake taking in GK. Then soon too Brigid is feeling sick, having hallucinations and odd weaknesses in her hands. Is it possible Gemma-Kate is behind this?
At the same time Brigid is hired by Jacquie Neilsen to find out if her son who supposedly drowned in their pool was murdered or a suicide.
The book is written in the first person and has tons of droll humor which I enjoy. All of it takes place in Tucson, Arizona a town I am very familiar with. The action is nonstop and the book is almost impossible to put down. I will look forward to the next book Becky Masterman writes. I love her writing style. EXCELLENT EXCELLENT EXCELLENT BOOK!!!!
11 people found this helpful
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Slow, Dull, And Boring

I had pretty high expectations for Fear the Darkness and the Brigid Quinn character, but this book fell flat for me. It opens as much more of a literary drama than a mystery/thriller, and perhaps it is just in the wrong category. I found the story moved excruciatingly slowly and had way too much setup for the second installment in a series. I know that I am an outlier among the reviewers of this book, but I just found it slow, dull, and boring. If you are looking for a fast paced mystery/thriller, this is not the book for you. I would not recommend it unless you are having trouble sleeping.
7 people found this helpful
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I know some folks, like me, can't stomach cruelty to animals so it may be a toughie when one of Brigid's dogs is poisoned.

#2 in the series of the 59 year old ex FBI profiler. Fans of Michael Connolly, Patterson, Grafton, Grisham & Baldacci should give this author a try.

Multiple story lines and made this a terrific weekend read that was more mystery than thriller, I would love to say more but I don't want to spoil it. This isn't the gritty debut that was a finalist for 6 awards but I enjoyed the character driven story very much.

Want a bit more? the web site "speakingofmysteries" has a 30 minute podcast I enjoyed - search "episode 14 becky masterman" to find it.

For a bit of a lead-in here is the summary of the first novel featuring Brigid Quinn:

Rage Against the Dying (Brigid Quinn #1) A gutsy, gory, startlingly original serial killer thriller with a heroine who'll blow a hole in the American crime landscape. In her hey-day, ex FBI agent Brigid Quinn not only worked serial killer cases but became their prize. Small and blond, from a distance she looked vulnerable and slight. . . the perfect bait to catch a killer. But as Quinn got older, she realised she needed to find a protegee, a younger field agent to take her place. So Quinn trains a twenty-two year old and lets her loose in the field. The plan works. Until the Route 66 killer not only takes the bait, but kills the bait too. Years on, Quinn is trying to move past the fact that she has a young woman's death on her conscience. She's now the perfect Stepford Wife - until she gets a knock on her door. The girl's body has finally been discovered. Quinn is pulled back into the case and the more she learns about the killer the more she comes to believe, despite the overwhelming forensic evidence to hand, that they have the wrong man.
3 people found this helpful
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Disappointed at end wrapup.

So you get through the plot and at the end we don't know what happened to the poor black labador dog who got adopted and is never found. I hate it when there are things hanging with no wrapup. Even if it is a dog in a book, I care about it. Would not read another one of Becky Masterman's if she can't wrap it up tight.
2 people found this helpful
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Not a thriller

Becky Masterman’s main character is a retired FBI agent. This character, a woman, has an ego bigger than Texas. In the opening pages, Masterman describes a gangster buying pet toys of whom she said “it’s a stretch to picture him selling Guatemalan women to Las Vegas casinos”. Does she really think people like Steve Wynne, Sheldon Adelson of the Sands Corporation; or a corporation like MGM buy women for their casinos? That should have tipped me off that I wouldn’t like this book, and I didn’t. It was touted as a thriller. But the story was slow moving and predictable. Her first novel received several awards, but I think I’ll just skip that one.
2 people found this helpful
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Hampered by a slow start

I was expecting this to be one of those books that grabbed me from the front page, given the description. Unfortunately, I found that it moved too slowly throughout the first half of the book with most of the excitement coming only near the end.

Brigid Quinn is an interesting protagonist, even for someone like me who admittedly has a hard time getting into books with female action leads. I like that there's more to her than being some kind of female Mitch Rapp, and her relationships with friends and family are what really made this book more than passable for me. It's not a page-turner like some other thrillers I've read, and the writing is often too overdone for my liking.

An enjoyable enough book, but it just didn't do it for me.
2 people found this helpful
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Second in this series is as good as the first!

I love this writer’s work. Her protagonist, Brigid Quinn, is fully rounded and totally believable. She’s old (in her fifties!), tough, seasoned and capable, and she hates to rely on anybody but herself. She’s a retired FBI agent who spent much of her career working undercover assignments, now occupied as a part-time private investigator. And she’s still learning how to be married, having tied the knot for the first time only a few years before this book begins. In Fear the Darkness, the second in Masterman’s series, Brigid takes in a niece, Gemma-Kate, so the girl can establish residence in Tucson for purposes of paying in-state tuition when she starts college in the fall.

But when Gemma-Kate arrives, bad things begin to happen. The girl is smart and doesn’t trust adults much. (Know anybody like that?) When she’s left alone with Brigid’s two pug dogs, one of them ends up poisoned. And when Brigid, unsettled by the nagging feeling that Gemma-Kate may have poisoned her dog on purpose, takes on a case involving the drowning death of a teen, events spiral to a climax I didn’t see coming.

I could hardly put this book down. Sometimes second books in the series don’t hold up as well as the first, but I liked this book as much as Rage Against the Dying, which, if you haven’t read it yet, I would also recommend. If you like thrillers, especially thrillers with female protagonists, this series is for you!
1 people found this helpful
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One dimensional characters, most of the action at the end of the book

The story jumps around at the beginning making it a bit confusing at the start.
The best chapter of the whole book is probably the very first chapter, it pretty much goes downhill from there.
There was just some essential spark missing from the book that made reading it more of a chore than a joy.
The characters were on the one dimensional side, the plot twists were fairly good, and most of the action was at the end of the book

Not recommended
1 people found this helpful
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Retirement age but still tough as nails

Even though tough as nails Brigid Quinn is retirement age now and starting to have a few health issues, she still remembers enough of her FBI martial arts training to take down a much bigger, younger, stronger man in a hand to hand scuffle so this is no cozy mystery. Brigid did a lot of undercover work when she was an FBI agent which isn’t conducive to forming close personal relationships, but she’s slowly getting the knack for human connection and in this second book of the series she’s added a best female friend and a teenage niece to the husband and dogs she acquired late in her life.

Then as soon as Brigid is asked to investigate the drowning death of a boy from her church one of her dogs gets poisoned and her health problems start to escalate, filling her with suspicions and making her doubt everything about the new life she’s built for herself. The story gives interesting insights into Brigid’s relationship with her family, and while the plot is slightly more disturbing than I prefer because I lean towards the cozy side of the genre, I love having an older main character who’s sharp, tenacious and capable.
1 people found this helpful

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