Undercover and under threat

Since I began to read the novels of Laurie R King (see my first review of her novels here) I have been working through everything she has published and you will have seen my reviews pop up here from time to time. A Darker Place is a stand-alone novel although it contains many of the things that we expect from one of her novels including clear storytelling, a dry wit and a plot that has a base in religion/spirituality. I actually read an old copy of this book when the title of the story was The Birth of a New Moon which I prefer.

Anne Waverley is an academic specialising in cults and alternative spirituality. Occasionally she undertakes missions with the FBI to infiltrate emerging organisations/communities and gain intelligence allowing the authorities to assess the risk, if any, to the members and innocent bystanders. These previous missions have mostly been successful and without much incident, although Anne still bears the scars of one mission which went badly wrong.

Anne thinks that she has retired from the FBI’s task force but she is unable to resist an appeal to enter a new organisation called Change in Arizona. She finds the appeal to be involved compelling because there are a large number of children living in the community and Anne’s past means that she is always trying to atone for the loss of her own daughter. Although the mission seems simple enough it soon becomes more complicated and Anne finds herself emotionally attached to some members of the community and isolated from help.

This is an absolutely gripping thriller. Anne is a reluctant heroine but also a knowledgeable one and as part of the story we learn about what makes and defines cults and alternative communities, and how they can become a threat to others. I found Anne very realistic and the cult is nowhere as extreme as some you read about in our newspapers. I was never sure what was going to happen next and the tension was high because the reader doesn’t know when Anne’s duplicity might be uncovered.

This is not a perfect novel – I thought that the ending was too abrupt and there is an FBI character at the beginning who is not used enough. Nevertheless it is a very good one and I found it absolutely compelling reading.

If you do have a passing interest in cults then see my brief review here of a book about Rev Jimmy Jones and the Jamestown massacre in Guyana – that story is true but is less believable than this novel !