Things We Do in the Dark

by Jennifer Hillier

Publisher: Minotaur Books
Ginasbookreport Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Mystery / Thriller
Read This If You Love: Jar of Hearts

“She can kill with a smile, she can wound with her eyes.”—Billy Joel

Paris Peralta comes to in a bloody bathroom with her famous husband dead beside her. Did she murder her husband? She can’t remember. Secrets are nothing new to Paris and she can’t afford to have any of them uncovered. Murdering her husband is the least of her worries. Ruby Reyes, known as the “Ice Queen,” is being released from prison and she knows all of Paris’s secrets. They are on a collision course and the podcast host of Things We Do in the Dark is digging into it all, as well.

The book is divided into a few different parts to isolate the individual stories until they combine. I found the Paris sections to be riveting and the podcast/Ruby sections dropped my interest level. While I understand the structure, perhaps having more shorter sections would have maintained the suspense a bit better for my taste.

Okay…let’s chat about podcasts in books. It has become a sub genre in mysteries/thrillers to have a podcast angle. Sometimes the podcaster is solving a case or investigating a wrongful conviction. Sometimes the podcaster is a part of the story. Sometimes the podcast itself is the story. I LOVE podcasts and listen to them almost daily, so I understand the draw to include them to mystery authors. However, it does feel like we are watching first-hand the development of a trope. My hope is that authors find a way to keep podcasts in novels fresh.