It was good. ( )

Excellent debut novel... Intriguing and suspenseful enough to keep me reading way past bedtime. Character development was good, and it's evident a lot of research into the history and underside of Las Vegas went into the writing. I look forward to reading more from this author! ( )

Into the Dark is a psychological thriller which delves into the struggle of a tormented criminal who is intent on capturing his next prize. When he spots Emilie Davis, she intrigues him a way that few others ever have. He is determined to stop at nothing to bring her into his life.

After moving to Las Vegas, Emilie struggles to restart her life and move past the family secrets whose weight could crush her. She gets a quiet job at a local bank and a loyal cat to come home to. The pieces are finally starting to fall into place when a robbery at the bank shatters her carefully constructed peace of mind. Now, with her life on the line, she'll have to face both old demons and new ones in order to make it out alive.

Nathan Madigan, Las Vegas SWAT and hostage negotiator, risks his life to protect others. What starts out as a routine assignment quickly grows into something which will set his world off balance. While he knows it's against the rules to get personally involved with a victim in an open case, he feels a need to protect Emilie from imminent danger and a savvy criminal that keeps eluding police.

Into the Dark will take the reader on an intense journey through both the Las Vegas tunnels and the minds of several exceptionally well written characters. Stacy Green excels at writing characters with great depth. They are both believable in their strengths and struggles, and impossible to forget even long after the story is finished. Into the Dark is a captivating psychological thriller with just the right blend of mystery, romance, action and suspense to make it unforgettable! ( )

Three is a crowd, especially when all of them are sharing the spotlight in a suspenseful mystery keeping you holding your breath with each turn of the page.

At the top of the triangle is Emilie, our victim and heroine. A branch manager in a bank built on the foundation of one of Las Vegas, NV's original glorious hotels and attached to the infamous 200 mile stretch of storm drains. Emilie struggles daily with her role as an independent woman with a past of spousal and parental abuse. With a mother who never wanted or loved her and being driven into the arms of a student counselor whom she married and stayed with with for a decade despite the psychological abuse. She is just beginning to heal when the next two corners of this triangle enter her life. She must learn to accept and embrace herself while learning how to deal with being a victim and a treasured loved one all at once. After a lifetime of being treated like trash, just who is she going to accept the love from?

When she showed up for work that day the last thing she expected was to be caught in a violent siege with two masked men who attempt to rob the bank. Caught in a hostage situation she is singled out by one of the men who takes an unhealthy interest in her. Between whispers of familiarity and the threats of the other robber she begins to recognize the danger she truly is in, and it is not from a simple bank robbery, but from this man holding her a bit to close. Little did she know this man was stalking her because of his own dark and broken past. A love long lost, a childhood taken away to fast. But how would she deal with this and how will she be able to become free of another's broken past without losing her life?

While Emilie is dealing with her captor and trying to keep calm in the midst of the insanity of a bank robbery gone bad, the hostage negotiator, Nathan, does his best to keep everyone alive and safe. His own past failures still affecting how he deals with each situation. This time he is drawn a bit deeper than usual into the lives of the victims and becomes the one bright light in Emilie's terror laden darkness.

With three lives so broken, can she be saved? Can she save herself and will Nathan be able to put together the broken pieces of his own past in time to be the one who can rescue her. Emilie's stubborn streak and refusal to become another victim end up being the focus point in rescuing not only herself, but her stalker and Nathan.

This was a wonderful scripted and twisted tale. A trilogy of pasts brought together into the future with Stacy Green's 'Into the Dark'. Each of these individuals told us, the readers their own private stories which are driving points of the book. Each of them exposing more and more of their pain while the rest of the story unfolds around us. What started off seeming to be a basic crime mystery with a touch of romance ended up become a lesson in how darkness can swallow us up if we do not deal with our pasts. The tunnels themselves a metaphor of how hiding and covering up things does not make them go away, eventually they will end up being exposed to the light and becoming more painful to face.

Into the Darkness really took my breath away page by page. I am looking forward to reading more of Stacy Green's books (plus I now have a new blog to hop to on Thursdays with her Thriller Thursday posts!)

(I received a copy of this book when I signed up to review for a Partners In Crime are was given in exchange for an honest review.) ( )

Won an ecopy in a blog tour giveaway from My Fiction Nook.