Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Aug 2012
352 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
At the house next door, respectability can hide all manner of sins.
When her neighbor’s fifteen-year-old nephew goes missing, Sonia is the last person that anyone would suspect. At forty-three, she is a strikingly attractive wife and mother. And like the River House, her lovely home overlooking the Thames, Sonia’s life is a picture of perfection and normalcy - until she meets Jez. From the moment he shows up on Sonia’s doorstep, the gorgeous teenage boy awakens a torrent of memories that threaten to reveal a terrifying truth. Drawn to Jez by a compulsion that she scarcely understands, Sonia takes him captive - prepared to sacrifice everything to keep him.
"Starred Review. Stunning...Despite Sonia’s twisted actions and her sensual feelings about Jez, Hancock is careful to show that she’s not a sexual predator. Descriptions of the putrid waters of the Thames add to the gothic atmosphere." - Publishers Weekly
"This invites comparison to John Fowles' The Collector, but Hancock gives her narrator, Sonia, a more complex motive, crafting a narrative that grows darker as its level of tension builds. An accomplished first novel that lingers in memory." - Booklist
"An impressive debut from a writer we're certain to hear more about…There are hints of a young Daphne du Maurier in Hancock's cool, evocative prose as she reveals the terrifying extent of Sonia’s obsession…Beautifully worked and with a sharp eye for the menace in the commonplace, it lingers in the memory like a Schubert melody, and casts a distinctive spell." - The Daily Mail (UK)
"This creepy, well-written debut is reminiscent of John Fowles's The Collector…with Sonia, Hancock pulls off the considerable feat of 'writing mad.'" - The Guardian (UK)
"A sparklingly creepy debut thriller with the most brilliant premise. When 15-year-old Jez pops round to voice coach Sonia's to borrow some music, she can't help herself - and she doesn’t let him leave." - Mirror, 4-star review (UK)
"A clever, creepy thriller about misplaced affection and abduction...in clear, chilling prose." - Marie Claire (UK)
"A gripping account of a woman on the edge, who commits appalling crimes and offers them up in a tone of quietly rational domesticity." - Natasha Cooper, author of the Trish Maguire Mysteries
This information about Kept in the Dark was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Penny Hancock lives in Cambridge, England, with her husband and three children. She is a part-time primary-school teacher at a speech and language school and has traveled extensively as a language teacher. Kept in the Dark is her first novel.
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