Find You in the Dark

By Nathan Ripley

In this chilling debut thriller, in the vein of Dexter and The Talented Mr. Ripley, a family man obsessed with digging up the undiscovered remains of serial killer victims catches the attention of a murderer prowling the streets of Seattle.

Martin Reese is obsessed with murder.

For years, he has been illegally buying police files on serial killers and studying them in depth, using them as guides to find missing bodies. He doesn’t take any souvenirs, just photos that he stores in an old laptop, and then he turns in the results to the police anonymously. Martin sees his work as a public service, a righting of wrongs that cops have continuously failed to do.

Detective Sandra Whittal sees it differently. On a meteoric rise in police ranks due to her case-closing efficiency, Whittal is suspicious of the mysterious caller—the Finder, she names him—leading the police to the bodies. Even if the Finder isn’t the one leaving bodies behind, who’s to say that he won’t start soon?

On his latest dig, Martin searches for the first kill of Jason Shurn, the early 1990s murderer who may have been responsible for the disappearance of his sister-in-law, whom he never met. But when he arrives at the site, he finds a freshly killed body—a young and recently disappeared Seattle woman—lying among remains that were left there decades ago. Someone else knew where Jason Shurn buried his victims . . . and that someone isn’t happy that Martin has been going around digging up his work.

When a crooked cop with a tenuous tie to Martin vanishes, Whittal begins to zero in on the Finder. Hunted by a real killer and by Whittal, Martin realizes that in order to escape the killer’s trap, he may have to go deeper into the world of murder than he ever thought.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Release date: Mar 6, 2018
• ISBN: 9781501179075

Nathan Ripley

Nathan Ripley is the pseudonym of Toronto resident and Journey Prize winner Naben Ruthnum. Find You in the Dark, Ripley’s first thriller, was an instant bestseller and an Arthur Ellis Awards finalist for Best First Novel. As Naben Ruthnum, he is the author of Curry: Eating, Reading, and Race. Follow him on Twitter @NabenRuthnum.

Reviews for Find You in the Dark

[heather_brock-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Thank you to Goodreads and Atria books for the opportunity to read and review Find You in the Dark by Nathan Ripley.
While not exactly a page-turner, this book was entertaining enough and fairly middle-of-the-road for me. It reads part thriller, part procedural, part whodunnit. I found myself disliking the main character a great deal. I appreciate his moral ambiguity and the fact that he was not written as a black/white character. He has numerous faults and makes many selfish, poor decisions. I found that you had to suspend much disbelief with this novel, as certain events or problems happened "just so" and in a way that made the whole thing feel a bit too contrived at times. Things would work out a little too perfectly for the characters and there's only so much you can give a pass to before becoming frustrated by it all. Mild spoiler: You never do find out exactly where Tinsley ended up and that unsatisfied me. I enjoy ruminating on where Martin may have ended up if the events of this story never transpired. Would he have reached a point of murder himself? Or would he have managed to remain satisfied in the role of the "Finder"? The writing style was a little on the dry side in my opinion, but the story managed to hold my attention. I wanted to see it through. All in all, not quite a slam-dunk but definitely worthwhile if you're unsure what to read next.

[carole888fort · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for an e-ARC of Find You in the Dark by Nathan Ripley in exchange for an honest review. If you like your mystery fiction dark and foreboding, this is the book for you. Dread seems to be around every corner. Martin Reese, a dot.com retiree, has a strange hobby. He secretly buys serial killer files from an unscrupulous policeman and then intensely studies them until he finds the location of the hidden bodies of the victims. After digging to verify that he is correct, he leaves the remains where he found them and then reports his findings to the police, always anonymously. Detective Sandra Whittal soon becomes suspicious that the person finding these bodies may himself be a killer. And someone is watching Martin and his family! This is a first novel for Nathan Ripley and hopefully there will be more to follow. Well done.

[twink_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Find You in the Dark is Nathan Ripley's debut novel - and if you like suspense fiction, its one you're going to want to pick up!The premise is deliciously dark....... Martin Reese is obsessed with serial killers, specifically with the victims not found. He's been buying up police reports for many years and has managed to locate (and dig up) the bodies they couldn't find. But, he's doing all of it anonymously and taunts the cops with a tip off of each new body located. Oh, and he takes only photos as souvenirs. Uh huh. He's been branded as The Finder by the cops. And it's all going along as it has for many years until.....you got it - a serial killer figures out who Martin is and what he's doing - and......I know, I couldn't wait to start reading either! Martin knew something would happen eventually with his 'hobby', but "I didn't know yet that I'd made deeper mistakes I wouldn't ever be able to put all the way right." Martin didn't engage me as a person, rather I found myself observing him, somewhat dispassionately.Now, someone else is after The Finder as well. Detective Sandra Whittal. I loved this description of her...."She was thirty-two and lacked the penis that functioned as a skeleton key to acceptance, but she had the competence and could properly talk shit, which went a long way." Whittal is clever, dogged and determined. This is the character I really liked.Find You in the Dark is a delicious cat and mouse game. It is a plot driven novel, with numerous twists and turns and some great foreshadowing. Now, yes there are some moments in the plot that I thought were a bit of a stretch, but I quickly let them go and kept turning page after page. For this reader, Find You in the Dark was definitely an entertaining read. I look forward to Ripley's next book. (And you know, I think this book would make a great movie.)

[jenn88-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Martin Reese is a family man, but he has a dark secret - he's obsessed with murder and has been for years. He's been illegally buying police files on serial killers. He studies these files in depth and uses them as guides to find the missing bodies. He never takes anything except pictures that he stores on an old laptop. He calls the police and tells them where to look and he does it anonymously. When a crooked cop goes missing Detective Sandra Whittal zeroes in on the mysterious caller. She doesn't see the caller as helpful. She knows he isn't the killer, but she believes he'll start killing sooner rather than later. While on his latest dig, Martin digs himself into a hole that he may not be able to get himself out of.

I love the cover. This book gripped me from the very first page and didn't let go until the very end. The concept is interesting - a husband and father leaves home for a bit every now and then to dig up bodies of missing women that the cops never found. Isn't that dangerous? How does he not get caught? Why is he doing it? This whole story was crazy but it also felt very real. Martin believed he was doing a good thing and he just got in way too deep. I was worried about him more than once. This was so well-written and such an intense page-turner that I felt like I was a part of it and not just sitting on the couch reading a book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for an ARC.

[kathl33n-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm a bit on the fence with this one. The story itself was really a very good one - a man who digs up the victims of serial killers - come on, how good does that sound?! But something about the writing just didn't pull me into the story and wondered if I would finish. I found the main detective character entirely too crass. I get that she was supposed to be bristly and independent but I thought the author took her to an unpleasant mean/rude, bitchy place. I also had some trouble with the transitions from the current action of the story into the memories of the characters. I guess my problem was that I missed them and ended up confused. But again, let me emphasize the originality of the story and the twists in the path. They were phenomenally original and really got me thinking about how well we know people and what monsters really lay within. I was given an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

[tuusannuuska-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A man with serial killer tendencies channels his urges by finding the kills of actual serial killers. A serial killer takes offence.

I was initially pretty unsure what I thought about this book, but I did end up enjoying it. The point of view is pretty interesting in this one. Usually you read the story from the hero's point of view, and on occasion even from the villain's. In this one, you really aren't sure which side of the coin the main character actually falls on (and really, it's all about the perspective, isn't it?)

I think the narrative was what sold me on this, because the story would have been a lot different from any other character's point of view. The story itself was a decent thriller, though not really mind blowing. The ending was a little too neat for my tastes, but on the other hand, I have no idea how I would have wanted this to end.

[girlwellread · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A special thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.Martin Reese digs up murder victims from cold case files he buys from the police. He calls in his findings anonymously to the police but Detective Sandra Whittal is suspicious of her caller and his motives. As she moves in on discovering who her 'Finder' is, Martin is being hunted by someone who is not happy with his discoveries. With his family's safety on the line, Martin must go even deeper into the dark realm of murder. Hailed as a cross between Dexter and The Talented Mr. Ripley, I thought this book was going to be a mesmerizing study in character development. Well...some comparisons just shouldn't be made. I got completely lost in the story, and I don't mean that in a good way, I literally mean that I couldn't flesh out the actual story from the messy plot. I really had to push myself to finish and this was because I didn't connect with the characters—they weren't believable. Nathan Ripley's Martin Reese lacks the depth and likability factor of Dexter Morgan, or the creepy brilliance of Highsmith's Tom Ripley.

[vesper1931 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Martin Reese, wealthy retired tech man, has a stange hooby. He researches and then digs up the lost bodies from convicted serial killers. All goes well until his activities bring him to the attention of a killer. Then no-one is safe. Not him, not his family.
An interesting mystery with the mix of serial killers. An enjoyable read.
A NetGalley Book