Dark psychological thriller that follows a serial killer and his connection to an LA detective. This book had a fast pace and didn't pull any punches with the horrors of the subject matter. ( )

In the mountains near Los Angeles some murders have occurred with no pattern to them.
Gabriel McRay is assigned to the murders but he must battle his own demons to remember the past and catch the killer ( )

Gabriel McRay hat eine Wut im Bauch, die immer öfter raus muss. Ihm droht der Rauswurf, dabei galt er einst als der beste Detective des Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. Dass er auch Blackouts hat, verheimlicht er, auch wenn ihn das ängstigt. Dann geschehen brutale Morde in den Hügeln von Santa Monica. Erst ersticht der „Malibu-Canyon-Killer“ sein Opfer, sorgt dafür, dass die Wagen abbrennen und hinterlässt seltsame Nachrichten an Gabriel McRay. Daher wird McRay wieder ins Team geholt. Der Mörder schlägt weiter zu. Bald gerät auch McRay unter Verdacht. Seltsamerweise scheint der Täter zu wissen, wann McRay seine Blackouts hat und nutzt genau diese Zeit für seine Taten.
Die Geschichte ist einerseits spannend, aber sie wirkt auch etwas konstruiert.
Die Charaktere sind gut dargestellt, auch wenn mir keiner richtig nah gekommen ist. McRay s Verhalten macht ihn natürlich nicht sonderlich sympathisch. Aber er bemüht sich, aus dieser Situation herauszukommen, indem er sich – wenn auch widerwillig - in Therapie begibt. Er kann froh sein, dass die Pathologin Ming zu ihm steht. Auch sein Therapeut bemerkt schnell, dass die Ausbrüche mit seiner Kindheit zu tun haben. Eine Hypnose soll Klarheit bringen.
Der Schreibstil ist locker und gut zu lesen. McRay gilt als Verdächtiger und muss erst seine eigenen Baustellen aufarbeiten, bis er dem Täter näher kommt. Daher stellt sich erst recht spät heraus, wer der Mörder ist.
Ein spannender Krimi mit einem ungewöhnlichen Ermittler. ( )

"The Dark Before Dawn," by Laurie Stevens, follows both the serial killer, without revealing who it is, and Gabriel McRay, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department detective trying to figure out who that killer is. Detective McRay has his own demons to figure out, as well as this case. He is about to be fired for his anger issues, when he is linked to this case. We follow Gabriel into the depths where those demons lie, and simultaneously figure out why the serial killer seems to have focused on him.

I started reading this yesterday while commuting. On the Metro train on the way home from downtown LA, I didn't even realize I'd missed my connection to the next train until I was 3 stops past it. The story is that riveting. ( )

“The Dark Before Dawn” by Laurie Stevens
Gabriel McRay is a good cop, but when you have anger issues sometimes that is not enough to keep you on the job. After several incidents had been made public in the local newspaper, McRay had to seek the assistance of a psychologist and even then his superiors where ready to suspend him, until the serial killer they were tracking suddenly linked the reasons for the murders to an alleged past history between McRay and himself.
Like it or not, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is suddenly dependent upon McRay looking into his past to figure out who is the killer. Unfortunately, the past is the last place McRay wants to go and it is only with the help of Dr. Berkowitz that he is able to dredge up recollections and visit the dark places he has blocked since his less than stellar childhood.
The killer is striking fast and furiously using the seven chakras, a bodies energy centers, as the clue to his mindless bloody disfigurements and the disposal of the bodies. Not for the faint of heart, this blood-curdling thriller kept me up at night. With so many potential suspects, including the protagonist himself, we are left grasping at straws to the final pages to discover the final clue that brings it all home for McRay as he is forced to confront the evil done to him as a child in order to discover the true murderer.
Stevens nicely weaves together a troubled mind of the protagonist, the tentative beginnings of a relationship between him and the medical examiner Dr. Ming Li, and the start to a new police procedural series.
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