Hello, Darkness

Sandra Brown

9/18/2004

"Hello, Paris. This is Valentino." This is the phone call that shakes Paris Gibson out of her self imposed seclusion. She hosts a late night radio show in Austin, Texas. Her fiance had recently died after being in a coma for seven years. She always wears sunglasses. Despite the popularity of her radio program, she doesn't go out. Her picture is never shown. She doesn't do promotions for the radio station. She goes in every evening, hosts her call-in show of romantic songs through the years, and goes home again.

Valentino tells her a story Paris can't ignore. A few evenings earlier she had given advice to a girl to reject her possessive boyfriend. Valentino knows that was his girlfriend who called, and she was talking about him. He is now going to keep her kidnapped and will kill her in 72 hours. He follows with a threat to Paris. The next morning Paris is at the Austin Police Station with a taped copy of the phone call in her hand.

The homicide detective she approaches brings in the police department psychologist. Paris is surprised to see Dean Malloy, her fiance's best friend...and a man she never planned on seeing again. The search for Valentino and his victim lead them to the local teen group - the sex club. A new side of Austin teen-agers is revealed, along with the older men who preyed on them. Now they have to sift through the possible suspects before the girl is killed or before Valentino comes after Paris.

By the end of the book I was enthralled. Yes, the relationship between Paris and Dean was obvious from the beginning. But the weaving in and out of their history throughout the book kept my interest. I had inklings on the identity of Valentino about half way through the book, but author Brown threw in enough red herrings that I couldn't be certain. After dealing with the horror, by the end this is a feel good novel. And yes, there are elements of Play Misty for Me intertwined.

You can find more about this book at .

Notice: Somewhat explicit sexual situations