INTO THE DARK

Karen Rose Loot.co.za (R396) HEADLINE

MICHAEL Rowland lives with his junkie mother, Stella, his younger brother Joshua and his abusive stepfather.

When he wakes one night to find his brother being rendered unconscious by his stepfather, Michael takes action and runs away with the boy in his arms.

And then (this is not a spoiler) he sees his stepfather being killed by a massive man with a bald head.

Enter Dr Dani Novak and Coach, who is in love with Dani from afar. She pushes him away and won’t allow herself to fall for him because she is HIV positive and has dark, unresolved emotions.

The boys are taken into Dani’s care as a temporary foster children, and from there, a band of colourful and likeable characters step up both within the police and on the fringe as journalists who are committed to exposing abusers.

There is a deadly killer out there who knows that a deaf teen boy has seen his face.

His dilemma is that most of the people he kills are people who have abused, trafficked or killed children.

There’s a lot of violence and sadness in the novel, but it raises trenchant observations about life.

Woven through the story are facts about being

HIV positive and yet having an undetectable viral load, which means it is physically safe for Dani to give in to Coach, or Diesel as many call him, who loves her. The reasons for her refusal have to do with selfworth and self-hatred.

The book’s about grown men who have gone through similar abuse, but chosen a different way from most to deal with it.

It’s about the sadness of children who hear that they are “temporary”, as Dani is an emergency foster parent.

A great read, that doesn’t sacrifice cautionary tales for pace and tension. |