I received an e-Galley ARC of Whitesands: A John Dark Case, authored by Johann Thorsson from Headshot Books, for review consideration. Cover art: Don Noble, Rooster Republic Press. Editor: Richard Thomas. What follows below is my honest review freely given.

I rated this debut novel 4.5 stars. The final draft was written during a Writer-In-Residence in Exeter, England, which sounds extremely fancy and delightful. I had never heard of that term previously, but as my Nannie loved to say, you learn something new every day, whether you plan to or not. She was a cheeky one, bless her.

If the world were kind, pets would live forever and parents would never outlive their children. Parents would never be left with the question of if their child was out there in the world dead, or alive with no way to contact them. I have binge watched Law and Order and the edgier Law and Order: SVU (dun dun!), I’ve seen a thing or two, so I know a thing or two about the darker side of the streets...from my couch and with commercial breaks. I was a pharmacy tech for five years, and I was low key shocked to learn that one of the night pharmacists’ sons was a hospital grade drug addict. He would call up there a lot trying to score from his dad and we all felt terrible for him having to go through it, he was the sweetest guy. Never did anything to enable his son, always tried to get him clean. I’m not one to post spoilers, but in this novel there is a character on the force that has a similar type of relationship with a child, and it just hit me how realistic that is; it happens, and it sucks. I thought it was well written and represented.

Speaking as the reader, you become invested in the MCs; they exist wholly, with their well being becoming important to you quickly. There is an event that shapes their actions in this novel that happens before our knowledge of them, and it will be referenced often, it is soaked through everything. I love that it’s just as relevant but the author doesn’t give us every detail, we are not to know yet, but it also not used as a cliffhanger or carrot and stick type device. I don’t know of there is an actual term for it, but it’s where you are aware that it is a story that has been going on before you were observing it, and it is continuing after stopping, and the author is trusting that you the reader is intelligent enough to grasp that with minimal to no hand holding. The otherness aspect of the novel gives some creepy scenes, one in particular had me feeling claustrophobic. It also made me twitchy because I see things move from the corner of my eyes sometimes and am constantly telling myself it’s just my cat, even if my cat is on my lap!

This novel is a celebration of love I think, and how that comes in many forms; so too does grief. Grief of a parent, a child, a spouse… but also how a parent, child or spouse handles their grief and how that affects the world around them. I wanted to message the author immediately after finishing this novel to ask when the next John Dark Case would be coming out, but I refrained, barely. I do look forward to anything Johann Thorsson writes next, you should too. ( )