The Dark House

By John Sedgwick

Book Overview

Meet Edward Rollins, scion of one of Boston's more notable families. A diligent but uninspired employee at one of the city's finest investment houses, he is a man of means -- and of secrets. Each... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060195606
• ISBN13: 9780060195601
• Release Date: July 2000
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

One of the best thrillers I've read in recent years

This is a highly original and unpredictable suspense novel, totally unlike anything I'd read before. Let's start with the premise: the protagonist has a peculiar hobby -- he follows people as they drive home. The plot flows very smoothly from there and drifts into an older murder in which the protagonist's family was intimately involved. Just excellent -- and it's his first book!

Romance, Family Dynamics, Mystery add up to real thrills

The Dark House takes you on the ride of your life. Starting out with the main character Edward Rollins, a damaged soul, riding in his car, following random people to their homes and ending with a building strength and catharsis of Rollins, this book is extremely well written. Rollins definitely has problems, but as the reader starts viewing him as psychologically damaged by his circumstances, he becomes less and less screwed up---and more of a classic protagonist. In The Dark House everything has a reason as well as a connection to the story. If I didn't enjoy it so much I would have been put off by some of the coincidences found in the plot (but NO LOOSE ENDS in this work). The writing was excellent, plot intense, while the scenes and individuals were interesting and stimulating.

Real pageturner

A great beach book that traces the unpeeling of a long-suppressed mystery locked within a flawed protagonist. Rare in most thrillers, the character development actually works and the character becomes more interesting as the book moves along.

Not just a who-done it.

This novel is such a surprise! Some readers will like the the suspense, the sex scenes, the plot as twisted as a country lane. I liked it most for the strange, complex characters, for what the story says about family and about love. And the suspense doesn't confine itself to murder and mayham, nor do the thrills occur only during high speed car chases or on a bed in a five-star hotel. What starts off this mystery? The simple fact that a man walks into a house in the evening and doesn't turn on the light. Just that. The light doesn't go on. It's a simple image that gains power throughout the story. Sedgwick can transform familiar, mundane events into something mysterious and portentious: the feeling of sitting in a car, or a faucet dripping in a bathtub. This novel is really about all sorts of heart-stopping questions: what if children can't trust their parents? How do they then learn to trust anyone? What if everything in our lives, from driving in traffic to turning on a light switch--if you look at it from just the right angle--presents or solves some mystery?

Must read

Both my wife and I loved this book. She never reads mystery novels (unless you count "Swan's Way") and I read lots of them. The Dark House reminded me of the novels of Robert Parker, James Patterson and John Sanford. It is very compelling and will hold your interest through the last page.