Title:  SUCH DARK THINGS

Author:  Courtney Evan Tate (Courtney Cole) 

Genre:  Psychological Thriller 

Publisher:  Mira (Harper Collins) 

Release Date:  March 20, 2018

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Summary:

I thought I knew him. He thought he knew me. We were both wrong…

Dr. Corinne Cabot is living the American dream. She’s a successful ER physician in Chicago who’s married to a handsome husband. Together they live in a charming house in the suburbs. But appearances can be deceiving—and what no one can see is Corinne’s dark past. Troubling gaps in her memory mean she recalls little about a haunting event in her life years ago that changed everything.

She remembers only being in the house the night two people were found murdered. Her father was there, too. Now her father is in prison; she hasn’t been in contact in years. Repressing that terrifying memory has caused Corinne moments of paranoia and panic. Sometimes she thinks she sees things that aren’t there, hears words that haven’t been spoken. Or have they? She fears she may be losing her mind, unable to determine what’s real and what’s not.

So when she senses her husband’s growing distance, she thinks she’s imagining things. She writes her suspicions off to fatigue, overwork, anything to explain what she can’t accept—that her life really isn’t what it seems.

Excerpt

I miss you. I hate this place.

The text is from my wife.

My head falls back on the pillows, my hand grazing the empty side of the bed. The sheets

there are cold. Corinne should be there next to me, her breath even and strong, her hair

splayed out on the pillow, her warmth leaching into my body.

But she’s not.

I don’t know how she got access to her phone.

I miss you, too, babe, I answer. Um. How do you have your phone? Isn’t that against the

rules?

They aren’t supposed to use their cellphones at Reflections since the devices are

considered a distraction from treatment. As a therapist myself, I can’t say I disagree with

that theory.

I had a bad night, so the day nurse is giving me 5 min to chat with you.

My gut contracts at that, at the notion that she has to get “permission” to talk with me, and

once again I wonder if we’re doing the right thing. If I’m doing the right thing. I pushed hard

for her to admit herself, so that I wouldn’t have to do it against her will.

But the idea of Corinne in a mental hospital kills me.

Are you ok now? I ask.

Her answer is immediate. Not really. I’m ready to come home.

She adds a smiley face, but I know she’s not feeling smiley. No one in her situation would.

It’ll be ok, I assure her again, as I have four thousand other times this week. I promise.

I’ll take your word for it, she replies, and if I concentrate, I can almost see the wry expression

on her face as she types. Her blue eyes will be wide, her brow furrowed. I smile.

I love you, Ju.

I love you, too.

I gotta go, she tells me. My five minutes are up. See you Saturday?

Yes! I answer. I’ll be there.

Who would’ve ever thought I’d have to schedule a visit to my wife within a two-hour

visiting window? Not me. Not her. In fact, not anyone who knows us.

But it’s our reality.

I burrow my head under my pillow, as though if I tunnel far enough into my bed, this new

reality will escape me. It doesn’t, though. The image of finding my wife the way I did,

in a pool of blood and insanity, will stay with me for the rest of my life.

I’ll never be able to un-see it.

My dog whines two minutes later, saving me from the memory, her bladder having shrunk

with her old age.

“Just a minute, girl,” I mumble. “Give me a few minutes.”

She can’t wait, though, and I eventually haul myself out of bed, trudging out into the

October cold, opening the back door.

Artie ambles out and relieves herself, taking her time. She sniffs at this and that, and I

know she can’t see what she’s doing. Her eyes are cloudy with cataracts, and she can’t

hear a thing.

“Come on, girl,” I call to her, loudly, shivering. “Get in here. It’s cold.”

When she’s good and ready, she returns to the house, and after I feed her breakfast,

I throw some clothes on. I go running every morning. It used to be for fitness reasons only,

but now it is also to relieve stress.

Lord knows, these days I’ve got an excess amount of that.

I run my normal route, through the running trails at the park, through the trees. I can see my

breath and my shoes crunch through the dead leaves drifted into piles on the ground. One foot

in front of the other, pounding down the path, because this is something I can control. I can run

and run and run, until all thoughts evade me, pushed out of my brain by the simple and basal

need for oxygen. The need to breathe.

The human body is interesting in that way. It will allow your mind to play its games, right up

to the point where the basic need to live overtakes all else. My lungs burn more and more. I

ignore it as long as I can.

It’s only when they feel about to burst that I finally stop, my hands on my knees as I pull air

into my lungs. It takes several long minutes of thinking about nothing but breathing before I

come back to the present.

Back to reality.

The Chicago traffic hums in the distance, as people race to work, but I’m removed from it here.

This park is secluded and quiet, tranquil and removed. It’s a nature reserve, and if you close

your

eyes, you truly feel like you’re alone in the middle of nowhere.

Until a twig behind me snaps.

Startled, I whirl around.

I scan the tree line and the moving limbs, and there’s not another human soul here. The wind

blows

and bites at my face, and there’s nothing out there but the sun rising in the distance.

I’m alone, as I always am on this trail at this hour.

No one is here, and Corinne’s paranoia has affected me.

I wasn’t alone, Jude! she’d told me, babbling until she lost consciousness in the ambulance.

I wasn’t alone.

But everyone knows she was. The alarm hadn’t been tripped. No one had broken in. It’s

understandable why she’s paranoid, after living through what she did so long ago, but the fact

remains, she has grown paranoid.

She had been alone that night.

Just as I’m alone now.

Jesus, Jude, I mutter to myself, and I take long steps, jogging toward home, even now fighting

the urge to glance over my shoulder. I’m being a dumbass. I take the porch steps two at a time.

My house is a mausoleum without my wife, enormous and quiet, and I hate it. I didn’t

get married

for this.

I’m resentful of my own thoughts as I shower and shave, the fog steaming up the bathroom

mirrors. Corinne isn’t here to remind me to turn on the exhaust fan, so I don’t.

With her gone, I do everything as I always would. Something in my head tells me not to

change anything, because to change things while she’s gone might set her back.

I don’t know if it’s true, but I’m not going to chance it.

I let the bathroom steam up.

None of this is Corinne’s fault. The very fleeting resentful thought that I had just means I’m a

selfish bastard. I’m in a beautiful home in the suburbs, and my wife is in a psych ward. Even

worse, I pray every day that she won’t remember everything that put her there.

Because I’m a prick.

I feel like even more of a prick when my phone dings a second later and the woman who sent

the text is not my wife.

You doing ok? I miss you.

Guilt billows through me like storm clouds, through my gut into my chest. So much of this

is her

fault, this woman who isn’t my wife, and while I should stay far, far away from her,

I can’t.

For so many complicated reasons, I can’t.

I sigh as I head out the door to start my day.

Blogs Review

Amazing read after your head stops spinning (in a good way) with this dark psychological suspense story we get from this author. This is the first book writing as this author (Courtney Tate Evans); however, if you are a fan of her other writing under Courtney Cole you will enjoy this story. Never read any of the books and this is your first read, you are in for the ride of your life.

This story is told in dual POV from the past to the present to give us the background to how it led up to the current events. There is one topic that might be a turn off for some, cheating; however, that’s a dilemma cause it was cheating, but not physically so if you put that aside it’s an awesome topic to discuss cause you get to see how easy it is to steer away from your marriage when put in this situation. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to smack the device against Jude head a few times, but I can see and relate to him on some of his actions. Talk about Fatal Attraction times two and they didn’t even sleep together. Wowzer, that chick was crazy!

Speaking of crazy, this story is woven with twists and then more twists that weave together and are left with your mouth hanging open at the end. This has a movie thriller written all over it. Corrine and Jude are happily married for over ten years. She’s an ER doc and he’s a therapist. Lately she’s more focused on work, no fault really if she wanted a job than being at home. With her absence, Jude is starting to feel left out and missing their marriage. This is where his actions stir him in the wrong direction. While he always put the breaks on it to a point, you still are left wanting to smack him cause while he may feel alone with his wife not being home (absent from work) and then placed in a mental facility you are wanting to know what led her to this place. Corrine had a tragic past that she is still haunted by and Halloween triggers this. To this day she still doesn’t know what happened fully and her dad is still in jail over this event. All she continues to see is blood. How and where did it come from? Holy smokes, talk about your past coming full frontal with your future. Is she really suicidal when all is happy on her side with the exception of the events that are still blurry? Well you aren’t finding out from me. You will have to read Such Dark Things to find out. Dark it is and psychological suspense at best. You feel the pain, you feel the love and you just hope that in the end it works out for the best for Corrine’s marriage and career. Jude’s twin brother, Michel may be his twin, but they are completely night and day. He’s a priest so confession time is always fun. Oh my, do people really confess that. I would be embarrassed to say this to a priest. Nope, not saying. He definitely met his calling though. This priest helps Corrine not only as a brother in law, but as guidance as a priest while in the facility.

This story may not be for all, but please give it a chance cause once all is played out I truly feel that you will love this story. Don’t judge a book until you read it in full and see how it came full circle! This just goes to show that with actions come consequences and that you have to fight to make a marriage work. Oh, my heart spun a few times and made me tear up at the end (happy and sad). There is so much you think you see coming and some you may be able to figure out, but the spins it reveals leaves you breathless cause you don’t see that coming. This is the best way I can put it without giving away details that I would love to speak about. Go in blind (hence the dark read) and with an open mind to truly feel the book and enjoy it the way I did! I hope that we see more from Courtney in this genre.