Swimming in a New Pond: HelenKay Dimon/Darby Kane

HelenKay Dimon has been a favorite of mine for a number of years now. I’ve really enjoyed her gay romantic suspense – oh, heck, I’ve enjoyed every book I’ve read by her so far, which is quite a few. She’s one of those authors who pulls you in by giving you characters you know you’re going to love from the first page. Then she whacks you over the head with a great plot, and you’re hooked.

So imagine my first thought when I discovered she began to write domestic thrillers under a pseudonym. Sometimes you just hesitate when that happens – what do you do if those new books just don’t work for you like all the ones you’ve come to love for so long? Hopefully you never have to find out and you now have a new author to add to your auto-buy list,  even if she’s one who’s been known to you for a while now.

So meet Darby Kane. And you have to read her first thriller, Pretty Little Wife…

…Because you will be kept on the edge of your seat and surprised at every turn through the entire story. I’ve known for a time now that Ms. Dimon does a great job at plotting, but I never knew the diabolical mind she has hidden, an evilly twisty mind she probably takes great glee in showing to the world now.

Lila Ridgefield lives in an idyllic college town, but not everything is what it seems. Lila isn’t what she seems.
A student vanished months ago. Now, Lila’s husband, Aaron, is also missing. At first these cases are treated as horrible coincidences until it’s discovered the student is really the third of three unexplained disappearances over the last few years. The police are desperate to find the connection, if there even is one. Little do they know they might be stumbling over only part of the truth….

With the small town in an uproar, everyone is worried about the whereabouts of their beloved high school teacher. Everyone except Lila, his wife. She’s definitely confused about her missing husband but only because she was the last person to see his body, and now it’s gone.

I devoured this book in no time flat. And then I hoped Ms. Dimon/Kane would give me more thrillers in the future. Happy dance time, because The Replacement Wife will hit the shelves December 28. And you got it, I can’t wait. Now, of course, I have to worry if this coming book will be as good – as thrilling and diabolical – as the first. Or was PLW a fluke? I’ve learned not to doubt my favorite authors over the years, so I’m giving Darby Kane the benefit of the doubt at this point. She’s earned it.

Elisa Wright is a mom and wife, living a nice, quiet life in a nice, quiet town. She’s also convinced her brother-in-law is a murderer. Josh has one dead wife and one missing fiancée, and though he grieved for them he starts dating someone new. Elisa fears for that woman’s safety, and she desperately wants to know what happened to her friend, Josh’s missing fiancée.

Searching for clues means investigating her own family. And she doesn’t like what she finds. A laptop filled with incriminating information. Other women.

But when Elisa becomes friends with Josh’s new girlfriend and starts to question things she thinks are true, Elisa wonders if the memories of a horrible incident a year ago have finally pushed her over the edge and Josh is really innocent. With so much at stake, Elisa fights off panic attacks and a strange illness. Is it a breakdown or something more? The race is on to get to the truth before another disappearance because there’s a killer in the family…or is there?

See my review of Pretty Little Wife here.

I dare you not to get so engrossed you lose track of time. And then anxiously await December.