Don't Turn Out the Lights by Bernard Minier (thoughts)

Summary from Goodreads:

"You did nothing."

Christine Steinmeyer thought the suicide note she found in her mailbox on Christmas Eve wasn't meant for her. But the man calling in to her radio show seems convinced otherwise.

"You let her die..."

The note and the call are only the beginning. Bit by bit, her life is progressively turned upside down: someone is trying to destroy her. But who among her friends and family can hate her that much? And why?

Commandant Martin Servaz is on leave in a clinic for depressed cops, haunted by the latest crime committed by his nemesis, serial killer Julian Hirtmann. Then he receives a key card to a hotel room - the room where an artist committed suicide a year earlier. He soon realises that the key opens up a most intriguing mystery. Could someone really be cruelly, consciously driving women to kill themselves? Both he and Christine are about to find out...but it may already be too late."

My Thoughts:

What a thrilling beginning to my reading year thanks to this book!  Don't Turn Out the Lights was such an intense read.  I feel like after finishing this book that I might slightly overuse that description because this book was WAY more intense in comparison to others.  Actually it was also much darker than I expected it to be as well.  I should have known by the opening scene of this book as it really set the tone of the book.  I found this book to be slowly intriguing as the author built up everything that was happening to Christine.  All too soon though I found myself completely chilled by everything that she was going through.  It was at that point that I found the title of this book to be so completely appropriate!  There was no way that I was reading this one late at night- it was just too creepy!  The thing that really struck me though is that I can see something like this happening so it felt all the more horrifying because of that.  

This story was told in two parts: one was Martin Servaz's investigation and the other part was focused on everything that Christine was experiencing.  I loved how the author was able to pull these two threads together in a way that I didn't see coming.  It made my reading experience so much better as we were able to really get to know both of these characters.  While I really enjoyed this book overall, I have to warn readers that this isn't a book for everyone.  It should have trigger warnings galore as there is a TON of violence (as well as other things) in this book and it isn't always easy to read about.  There were times that I just had to set this book down as it was too much for me.  This book made me uncomfortable at times but especially towards the end.  That isn't to say don't read it as I still really enjoyed the book for the most part.  It was just something that I wanted to mention so that other readers are aware (maybe follow up reading this one with something lighter like I did).

Overall, I found this book to be a very compelling and chilling read!  I'm anxious to go back and read the other two books in this series as I've once again read out of order.  I'm hoping that in earlier books I will learn more about Martin's past and what happened to him.  I'm also already anticipating the next book to see what happens next as well.  I would recommend this one but with a few warnings to other readers as stated above.  Recommended!

Bottom Line:  A terrifying thriller- what a way to start off 2017!

Disclosure:  I received a copy of this book thanks to the publisher.