Rating: 5 stars
Genre: Thriller and Suspense
ASIN: B084FJTLVN
File Size: 557 KB
ISBN-13: 978-8609251589
Pages: 310

I could not put down the gripping paranormal suspense Marked by Darkness by Dawn Merriman. Though I had figured out early on the mystery surrounding the killer, the story is so laden with suspense that I just had to keep on reading.

Maribeth, the protagonist, survives the serial killer’s murdering of her family, but was marked and almost died in the incident. With feelings of guilt for surviving and not protecting her family, Jesse Franklin states: “Living can be worse than death. Death requires no struggle. Death only requires giving in.”

Living as a recluse with only the ghost of her family to comfort her, Maribeth struggles to step above her grief and return to the living. And then she finds a body that resembles her dead daughter hanging from a tree on her 300-acre property and that bears the markings and slashing of the killer she thought was dead.

Will Maribeth succeed in her struggle to live a normal life? Will she succumb to Death’s promise of relief? Will she survive the killer that is stalking her? The story is intensely gripping.

Though there are a few grammar issues the writing is good. The internal struggles are riveting, the descriptions are vivid, and the conversations are natural. Ms. Merriman is a good writer.

If you like psychological suspense, you must read this Marked by Darkness.