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Publication
Bantam (1999), Mass Market Paperback, 512 pages
Description
Fiction. Mystery. HTML:Called "one of the most original talents to emerge in the '90s" by Kirkus Reviews, award-winning author Laurie R. King delivers an intelligent, terrifying, engrossing drama of good and evil, unlike any she has written before.... A respected university professor, Anne Waverly has a past known to few: Years ago, her own unwitting act cost Anne her husband and daughter. Fewer still know that this history and her academic specialty--alternative religious movements--have made her a brilliant FBI operative. Four times she has infiltrated suspect communities, escaping her own memories of loss and carnage to find a measure of atonement. Now, as she begins to savor life once more, she has no intention of taking another assignment. Until she learns of more than one hundred children living in the Change movement's Arizona compound.... Anne soon realizes that Change is no ordinary community and hers is no ordinary mission. For, far from appeasing the demons of her past, this assignment is sweeping her back into their clutches...and to the razor's edge of danger. From the Paperback edition..… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member devenish
What the heck is going on here.The protagonist seems to me to be bonkers.After struggling through about 90 pages of drivel I had to give it up as just not worth the effort.
LibraryThing member Joycepa
Laurie King has a Master's Degree in theology from Union Theological Seminary; religion has been a life-long interest, not to say passion. The subject shows up in a number of her works, mainly the Mary Russell series, and in this, a stand-alone novel, although it makes an appearance in the Kate
The protagonist of A Darker Place is Anne Waverley, a middle-aged professor in an Oregon university. Anne's specialty--alternative religious movements--has involved her in FBI investigations of suspect religious communities, evaluating these for signs of incipient instability and potential degeneration into violence. Anne's background is one of horrendous loss of husband and daughter to such a scenario, and her work for the FBI is in part atonement for surviving--she had left the community to ponder whether to continue in it when the slaughter erupted.
But she has come to a certain acceptance if not peace, and she is reluctant to become involved in this latest investigation. She does, however--and it becomes for her an emotional trap as well as a deadly dangerous mission. The result is an enthralling thriller with a hair-raising climax.
What King does as well as tell a powerful story is to educate the reader on alternative religious communities. Nearly every chapter starts with either a page from one of Anne's lectures on the subject, either at the university or for an FBI seminar, and the fsascinating material adds immensely to the quality of the story. The title describes the theme of the book--a dark place into which the search for God and religious experience can lead.
While I am a devoted fan of Laurie King's Mary Russell series, A Darker Place remains my favorite of her works. It is well-written, tightly plotted and infused with power.
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Martinelli series as well.The protagonist of A Darker Place is Anne Waverley, a middle-aged professor in an Oregon university. Anne's specialty--alternative religious movements--has involved her in FBI investigations of suspect religious communities, evaluating these for signs of incipient instability and potential degeneration into violence. Anne's background is one of horrendous loss of husband and daughter to such a scenario, and her work for the FBI is in part atonement for surviving--she had left the community to ponder whether to continue in it when the slaughter erupted.
But she has come to a certain acceptance if not peace, and she is reluctant to become involved in this latest investigation. She does, however--and it becomes for her an emotional trap as well as a deadly dangerous mission. The result is an enthralling thriller with a hair-raising climax.
What King does as well as tell a powerful story is to educate the reader on alternative religious communities. Nearly every chapter starts with either a page from one of Anne's lectures on the subject, either at the university or for an FBI seminar, and the fsascinating material adds immensely to the quality of the story. The title describes the theme of the book--a dark place into which the search for God and religious experience can lead.
While I am a devoted fan of Laurie King's Mary Russell series, A Darker Place remains my favorite of her works. It is well-written, tightly plotted and infused with power.
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LibraryThing member Fullmoonblue
This is the first Laurie King book I've read, and I have to say it was pretty impressive. It definitely showed me what it means to call something a 'literary thriller'. I finished it in just under two days -- quite a page-turner! The main character is a university professor who goes undercover in a
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cult, and the book is scattered with excerpts from her notes and presentations and publications. I found the Arizona section of the book far more convincing than the portion that takes place in England, though, and was somewhat disappointed by the final thirty pages or so. After such build-up, I wanted something explosive. And there was an explosion, but it seemed relatively tame. King left the ending open for a sequel, though, so hopefully if Professor Waverly ever returns her next adventure will end with a bigger bang. Show Less
LibraryThing member melwil_2006
Anne Waverly is a religion professor, liked and respected by her interested students. What they don't know is that she has another life, helping the FBI by infiltrating religious cults. After declaring that she won't take on any more assignments she is convinced to become Ana - and enter the Change
This the the second non-Mary Russell Laurie R. King book I've read this year. This was was a quieter thriller than the Kate Martinelli book, with the threat always hanging around, but not becoming huge and overwhelming until crucial moments. Anne Waverly is an interesting character, prickly but kind, able to suspend herself when she needs to take on a new persona. Her past informs her actions in an entirely 'logical' way.
The other characters, from Glenn the FBI man, to Jason and Dulcie, the damaged children Ana befriends, are also interesting. One of Laurie R Kings greatest strengths is the richness of her language and this is no exception. An excellent read.
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cult.This the the second non-Mary Russell Laurie R. King book I've read this year. This was was a quieter thriller than the Kate Martinelli book, with the threat always hanging around, but not becoming huge and overwhelming until crucial moments. Anne Waverly is an interesting character, prickly but kind, able to suspend herself when she needs to take on a new persona. Her past informs her actions in an entirely 'logical' way.
The other characters, from Glenn the FBI man, to Jason and Dulcie, the damaged children Ana befriends, are also interesting. One of Laurie R Kings greatest strengths is the richness of her language and this is no exception. An excellent read.
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LibraryThing member MrsLee
This had more eroticism than I like, but I think it was necessary to the plot and story. Being a Laurie King novel, it was thought-provoking, instructional and very hard to put down. Good story, but not one I can recommend to my daughter or keep on my shelves.
LibraryThing member cmparkhurst
I really liked this book. This is the first of Laurie King's work that I have read and I will look for more of her books. I enjoyed the subject matter, the conflict and the outcome.
LibraryThing member iluvvideo
A strong potboiler from author Laurie R. King.
A college professor who is an expert in 'cult' religious organizations and their operation, gets 'selected' by the FBI for undercover work in an Arizona based religious group. She has done this job before, sometimes not so successfully. Her own past is
The assignment turns much more personal when the first person she meets in Arizona is a young girl that strongly resembles her own lost daughter! Can she separate the personal issues from the job she was sent to do?
I found myself very engaged in the characters and the plot. What exactly makes a religious group a cult? What is just acceptable fervor and what crosses the line? I especially liked how the story took us inside the group, adding a human face to a subject too often publicly reported in glaring horrific headlines. These and other provoking questions are raised as the story moves forward. I hope the author plots another story with the same main characters.
A college professor who is an expert in 'cult' religious organizations and their operation, gets 'selected' by the FBI for undercover work in an Arizona based religious group. She has done this job before, sometimes not so successfully. Her own past is
Show More
muddied with unresolved conflicts over events that took her family (husband and young daughter) from her. The assignment turns much more personal when the first person she meets in Arizona is a young girl that strongly resembles her own lost daughter! Can she separate the personal issues from the job she was sent to do?
I found myself very engaged in the characters and the plot. What exactly makes a religious group a cult? What is just acceptable fervor and what crosses the line? I especially liked how the story took us inside the group, adding a human face to a subject too often publicly reported in glaring horrific headlines. These and other provoking questions are raised as the story moves forward. I hope the author plots another story with the same main characters.
Show Less
LibraryThing member JeanneMarkert
An respected university professor, Anne Waverly is also an FBI operative wo goes undercover into a cult.
LibraryThing member pinkozcat
Laurie R King has a gift for painting her characters in three dimensions so that the reader becomes totally immersed in the story.
I found the book hard to put down and remained totally involved with the story right to the last page. This is a thriller which has an unpredictable ending which keeps
I found the book hard to put down and remained totally involved with the story right to the last page. This is a thriller which has an unpredictable ending which keeps
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the tension high and the reader guessing to the last paragraph. Show Less
LibraryThing member bsquaredinoz
A thoroughly engaging story.
LibraryThing member jsalmeron
Not nearly as good as the Mary Russell series. I was really drawn into the protagonist's role in infiltrating a religious cult and was expecting a lot more out of the experience. I thought the book wrapped up too soon and too abruptly without resolution for the two children that Anne became
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attached to. Perhaps this opens the door to a series for Anne Waverly? I'd give it a chance if so. Show Less
LibraryThing member sharoncville3579
Exciting, tense and a fascinating look into the workings of cults.
LibraryThing member melsbks
Intriguing premie but not memorable.
LibraryThing member laytonwoman3rd
Anne Waverly is a professor of religion who occasionally goes undercover for the FBI within communities suspected of developing into dangerous cults. Her background as a member of one such commune with a disastrous end makes her particularly useful; her guilt and grief over the deaths of her own
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husband and daughter at the hands of a zealot pushes her to continue accepting these assignments even once she has begun to settle into a new life of comparative emotional stability. The novel takes us with Anne as she assumes a new identity to investigate a group calling themselves Change, with a compound in the Arizona desert. Change seems to have nothing to hide; they comply with government regulations and educational standards for the children, welcome routine inspections by Children and Youth and other social welfare agencies, allow members to come and go with relative freedom, and operate a gift shop in the nearby town. The group also takes in, through appropriate channels, "troubled" youth whose needs the beaucratic system has so far failed. Nevertheless, Anne's FBI contact, Agent Glen McCarthy, has heard some disturbing reports about the group's other outposts, and needs an inside source of information. Glen and Anne have a "history" of their own, and it's not an especially healthy one. This novel has the feel of a Daphne DuMaurier story, although with the suspense rendered in a lower key. Not a true "gothic" story, but some of the elements are definitely there---a woman in unfamiliar surroundings trying to sort out what the secrets are, and whom to trust; charismatic men in authority; innocents in need of rescue; a slam-bam ending where the reader can't be certain of anything until the very last word. Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original publication date
1999-02 (Bantam Hardcover)
Physical description
512 p.; 6.89 inches
ISBN
0553578243 / 9780553578249
Local notes
OCLC = 1448
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