‘No Other Darkness’ concerns the finding of the bodies of two small boys in a bunker under the garden of a housing estate and the events that ensue when DI Marnie Rose attempts to discover their identity and how they met their deaths.

Although one or two of the plot devices feel slightly contrived, this is still a crackingly good read and the plot races along. I’m not a great reader of crime fiction, but I definitely will be reading Sarah Hilary’s first novel in the Marnie Rose series, ‘Someone Else’s Skin’ so that I can appreciate fully the cross references in this book. However, you don’t need to have read the first novel to thoroughly enjoy and be gripped by ‘No Other Darkness’.

Sarah Hilary creates really well rounded characters with whom the reader can identify and her dialogue is convincing and realistic. I found some of the setting writing really beautiful and effective with sentences like ‘The house was holding its breath, silence packed solidly up the stairs’ adding to the atmosphere.

‘No Other Darkness’ reminded me of a firework. It began relatively slowly and then fizzed and crackled until its finale when there is peace and silence.