– A Sam Dryden Series, Book 3 –
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Author:Â Patrick Lee
Publisher: Minotaur Books (May 28, 2019)
Genre:Â Mystery/Thriller
- Hardcover: 400 pages
- Kindle: 359 pages
Description
From the author of Runner, Sam Dryden comes under attack from unknown forces as an unremembered episode from his past threatens more than just his life.
On an otherwise normal morning, former Special Forces operative Sam Dryden is the target of an unsuccessful attempted abduction. Using his attacker’s cellphone, he learns that another person, a woman named Danica Ellis, is also being targeted. Dryden arrives just in time to save Danica from the assault team sent after her. But neither of them recognize the other, or have any idea why they are being targeted. The only clue is a heavily redacted, official-looking document given to Danica by her stepfather before he was killed.
Dryden immediately recognizes it as a “scrub file.” A scrub file is a record of what a subject knew before their memories were chemically destroyed. The redacted document refers to witnesses to a secret military site in Ashland, Iowa in 1989. Both Dryden and Danica Ellis lived in Ashland in 1989, when they were both twelve years old, though neither of them has any memory of the other.
Switching back and forth between the present day, when Dryden and Danica try to elude the forces that are after them, and the past in Ashland, Iowa, when both were twelve, making a discovery that forever changed their lives, this latest Sam Dryden novel proves yet again that Patrick Lee is one of the most original, compelling thriller writers today.
My thanks to #NetGalley and #MinotaurBooks for this ARC of #DarkSite
My Review:
The story caught my attention fairly quickly with the attempted kidnappings and the fact that Sam Dryden and Danica soon become entwined in a fairly complex mystery. As it unfolds and the chapters begin to go back and forth between the present and 1989, the connection between the two becomes more and more clear. But the two can only remember parts of their past. Will they work fast enough to solve this mystery before someone attempts to kidnap them again? Or worse.
In time I started to wonder if this unique and well-thought-out story was going to cross over into another genre. What I’m referring to contributes to making this review a little harder to write, since I don’t want to give too much of the plot away. But it remained true to the genre I love!
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What Concerned Me:Â
After while the jumping back and forth of the chapters and revealing one thing at a time began to slow the book down. At times the chapters felt a bit too detailed and the book too long.
I also felt that the 1989 chapters didn’t really reflect the actions of twelve-year-olds. Perhaps they do, but it felt like the characters were acting older.
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What I liked Best:Â
Dark Site was without a doubt unique and kept me reading. The characters were interesting and the story, though not a nail-biter for me, was one that was hard to put down.
About The Author
Patrick was born in West Michigan in 1976. His accomplishments over the next eighteen years included waiting for Nintendo to be invented and then playing lots of Nintendo. In his twenties, he sold two screenplays to movie studios in Los Angeles, but neither was produced. Patrick blames Hollywood’s prejudice against rugged, Brad Pitt-aged protagonists. On the other 
hand, even Patrick’s limited success in the movie business was a great way to avoid doing any actual work for the entirety of his twenties.
In his early thirties, he started writing novels and managed to sign with the coolest agent in the business: Janet Reid at FinePrint, who promptly sold the first two books of the Travis Chase series to HarperCollins. Patrick’s relatives expressed relief that he probably wouldn’t end up sleeping on their couches.
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