The Darling Killer
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Hi Friends,
Today I am going to share my thoughts about “The Darling Killer” by E.M. Jones.
Quick synopsis. The story follows three different POV’s. Greta, the elderly woman who was in a terrible accident 2 years prior where she lost her husband and her memories. Eli, the 12 year old kid who helps Greta out around the house from time to time and has a great imagination and a knack for storytelling to his little brother. Julie, the librarian with a secret past that she’s been running away from for the last 20 years, and it’s about to catch up to her. All three of their stories will tangle in just a matter of one day, revealing the dark shadows that lie within the small town of Darling.
Non-Spoiler Review:
When we first meet Greta she’s just this sweet old lady who is trying to remember her past. The memories only reveal themselves in pieces and in a haunted house inside her mind. She walks the halls and sees her memories displayed as museum pieces. Allowing herself to experience them all over again. Some memories are bright and vivid, others are dark and she can’t make out the faces. She remembers her husband Clive, and she knows they moved to Darling for a reason. She just can’t remember what. When she asks Eli to come over and help her around the house with chores, she also tells him stories about what she does remember. She explains that her therapist gave her some tactics to jog her memory by doing things you just can’t forget, like riding a bike for example. Greta knows that if she could just figure out what it is she’s supposed to be doing, she can remember everything.
Eli is a typical 12 year old boy with a wild imagination. He comes up with crazy stories to tell his little brother and builds these great worlds. Because Greta is this little old lady that lives down the way, he paints her to be this evil witch who Julie, the librarian, has to defeat. Julie is one of Eli’s favorite people. When Eli goes to the library, she is always there to help him when he needs it, but one day, she was the one to save him. Eli has two bullies that just won’t leave him alone, and things take a nasty turn later on in the story.
One night Greta remembers a part of her past that she believes is what will trigger the rest of her memories, and she drags Eli into the mess with her. Without giving any spoilers away, let’s just say that Eli will need to have therapy once a week for the rest of his life.
All the while Julie is dealing with a recent family problem and doesn’t know how to move on. Nor does she want the police coming after her…yet again. But she started to notice something dark in the shadows of her home and in the library where she works. Always the loner, Julie must decide whether she will stay and fight her past demons, or leave everything she’s come to love and start again.
Overall I loved this story. Jones makes it easy to empathize with the characters early on and really get you to understand them. I did really enjoy switching from different POV’s. And to be honest, I’ve never really been the biggest fan of that. Anytime I read one POV that ends on cliff hanger, I get annoyed when it bounces to another just to pick up from their story. But this time, Jones was able to keep the story moving along really well so I never felt that urge to skim.
BEWARE: Spoilers ahead:
When we find out that greta is actually one half of the country’s most notorious serial killer duo, I was actually shocked. The whole time I was thinking that Julie was just a young version of Greta. Julie just kept talking about how she had a past, she changed her name, moved far away, yada yada. I just thought it was a clever way to share where Greta came from. I mostly thought this because Eli and Greta’s stories crossed paths a lot in the beginning - leaving Julie out in a different one. Once a cell phone was mentioned in Julie’s POV, I let that idea go away. (Maybe a good idea for another story Mr. Jones?)
After Greta kills two teenagers in the local library, she starts to get her memories back. That’s when she realizes who she is, or was. She starts to remember that she and Clive were serial killers. None other than the Kentucky Duo. Greta then pulls Eli into her plan to clean up the bodies. Poor Eli. I felt bad for the kid. So young and so confused about what is going on. Having to clean up the traumatic scene of two kids not much older than he was, witnessing Greta kill 2 more people throughout the story, and now having to lie to his family about what was going on that whole day. To top it all off; Greta threatening to kill his whole family if he runs home, or tells anyone what happened.
Meanwhile, Julie is having to deal with her Aunt passing away in her home in the middle of the night. But Julie walks into the room to find it’s a mess and it appears that someone actually murdered her. No Greta didn’t kill her Aunt. I thought she did too. Turns out the woman died of a stroke. When Julie goes into the room to discover her aunt, there a shadow figure hovered over the body, looking like it’s taking whatever life force was left within her Aunt. Was I creeped out? Yes. Did I want more answers about the shadow creatures? Actually no. I liked how we barely knew what they were.
Jumping to the climax of the story, the shadows are all in the library. Every dark corner, every dark hall, shadow people. Again, we never really learn what these things are, only that they live off of death. Jones writes that the shadows creep into our minds and warps our thoughts into thinking we need to kill - or bring death into our world in some way. In the haunted mansion, inside Greta’s head, she explains there’s a door with the word “DEATH” on it. It’s rattling like it wants someone to open it. Not like something is trying to escape. This is also when we learn the biggest secret Greta and Julie both discover - I could go into more detail about that, but I’ll let you actually read the book. ;)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5 Stars