Monday, May 05, 2008

The Darkest Hour

Australian crime writer and former paramedic, Katherine Howell has just published her second novel, The Darkest Hour


Her previous novel Frantic was published last year.

Her books involve a reoccurring police detective, Ella Marconi, and a female paramedic (who will change from book to book) caught up in a suspenseful situation. While primarily crime thrillers, there is quite a bit of EMS background and scene calls that are all convincingly written.

Both novels are hard to put down thrillers that make great ambulance reading (except for getting angry at your dispatcher for giving you another call before you can find out what happens next to the characters).

While her books haven't yet been published in the United States, her first novel is available for preorder from Amazon Canada.

Both books can be purchased today from her publisher Pan Macmillian Australia.

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Darkest Hour - Synopsis

Paramedic Lauren Yates stumbles into a world of trouble the night she discovers a dead man in an inner city alley, for the killer still lurks nearby. When the murderer threatens to make her life hell if she tells the police, she believes him – he's Miles Werner, her sister's ex and father to Lauren's niece... and a very bad man indeed.

But when a stabbing victim tells her with his dying breath that Werner attacked him too, she finds herself with blood on her hands and Detective Ella Marconi on her back.

Keen to cement her temporary position in the homicide squad, Ella knows Lauren is the perfect witness for the murder since she can testify to the victim's last words. But when Lauren tries to change her statement, Ella realises that Lauren is hiding something big, and, while her colleagues label her suspicion an obsession, she begins her own investigation. The harder she digs into Lauren's past, however, the more Lauren resists, and the worse the threat from Werner becomes.

Will Ella's investigation put her career on the line, just when she's finally got her foot in the door? And as trouble deepens, can Lauren keep her family safe before Werner makes good on his promise, or will they all – Ella included – pay the ultimate price?