As Darkness Falls by Bronwyn Parry

First line in the book: No, not this.

As Darkness Falls is the first book of a three-part series set in the north-west corner of New South Wales in a small town of Dungirri.  I was very excited to read this book as this book marked the first book that I have EVER read by an Australian author.  Bronwyn Parry lives on 100 acres of bushland in New South Wales with her husband and two border collies.  She loves to explore Australia's wild places.  Again, a special mention to the Global Reading Challenge would not go amiss here. 

Here is the blurb taken from the author's website:

Haunted by her failures, Detective Isabelle O’Connell is recalled to duty by DCI Alec Goddard to investigate the abduction of yet another child from her home town. They have only days to find the girl alive, with few clues, a town full of suspects, and a vast wilderness to search. It soon becomes a game of cat and mouse, with Bella firmly in the killer’s sights.

For Bella, this case is already personal; for Alec, his best intentions to keep it purely professional soon dissolve, and his anguish over Bella’s safety moves beyond the concern for a colleague.

Their mutual attraction leaves them both vulnerable to their private nightmares – nightmares the killer ruthlessly exploits.

This is a beautifully written romantic suspense novel which I devoured in two days.  I love this book.  It is written with much love, warmth, accurate insights into human relationships, their strengths and weaknesses and more appropriately, it is written in typical Australian flavour and dialogue.  The myriad characters are believable and realistic, the setting typically bushland and the story is well written and plotted.  The love story and mystery combination serve as a winner.  I have not come across a book series whereby the characters, primary or secondary, are each given a turn to shine so to speak.  In other words, this series does not focus on one main character only but all other characters are given a chance to develop and play a main role.  In this book, the spotlight is on Detective Isabelle O'Connell and DCI Alec Goddard.

I look forward to reading the second book of Parry's called Dark Country.  Rightly so, As Darkness Falls was awarded the 2007 Golden Heart Award by the Romance Writers of America. 

To find out more about the author and her books, do check out her website on http://www.bronwynparry.com/  She can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Rating: 4/5 (Excellent debut)