Tuesday Trilogies & Series: Oak Knoll, Book 3: Down the Darkest Road by Tami Hoag

 

Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons!

  Tami Hoag is one of the best suspense writers in the business. She has brought a brand of macabre, terrifying thrillers to the bookshelf that is unique to each novel. Just recently I read and reviewed the first two volumes in the Oak Knoll Trilogy, Deeper Than the Dead and Secrets to the Grave. Set in California in a small town near Santa Barbara, I was introduced to a new cast of amazing characters that I rooted for over nine hundred pages. Once I finished book two I immediately began book three. And this one was the ending to the trilogy that did not disappoint.

  Down the Darkest Road is published by Penguin Random House under their Signet imprint. In it, we are out of the 1980s and into the 1990s. Law enforcement technology is squeaking along just past its infancy. And favorite characters have returned for another dip in the lake of terror that is their town. But a new face has arrived in Oak Knoll, Lauren Lawton. With her fifteen-year-old daughter, Leah, in tow, Lauren has relocated to the small town to escape her troubled past. Four years ago her oldest daughter was abducted; never to be seen again. She knows who did it and the police have agreed with her assessment. But no evidence has ever been found to arrest known sex offender Roland Ballencoa for the kidnapping of Leslie Lawton. With her husband dead and paranoia so strong that she sees Ballencoa around every corner, Lauren needs some sanity.

  Enter Wendy Morgan and Anne Leone. Wendy is friends with Leah and introduces the girl and her mother to Anne Leone. Working still as a child advocate, Anne has since gone on to become a child psychologist and aid to women at the Jane Thomas foundation. She and Vince are still married and have been Haley Fordham's foster parents for four years. They also have a three-year-old son, Antony, and are expecting their second child. Lauren is quick to keep the walls that she has erected around her intact. Her only mission is to find Leslie and remove her from the clutches of Ballencoa. She is not ready to sit down and let Anne help her. 

  Detective Tony Mendez and Cal Dixon's sheriff's department are disturbed to find that a sexual predator has moved into their jurisdiction. As the officers of other counties have learned, Roland Ballencoa is slick and loves to play games with law enforcement. But did he really abduct Leslie Lawton, or is Lauren Lawton accusing him due to his past as a sexual predator? 

  Down the Darkest Road is an often heartbreaking tale of devastating loss and the strength needed to overcome the pain. She ventured into the deepest recesses of the psychology of what it means to not only be a survivor but also a human. Roland Bellancoa was a villain through and through. Hoag never once let me believe otherwise, giving me a view into the character's warped reality. Even with a proven villain, she managed to offer up a surprise ending that dramatically changed the danger, elevating it more. I was floored by the twist at the end. 

  I read Down the Darkest Road with the return of Kirsten Potter as narrator for the audiobook. Her reading of Lauren Lawton's tragic story was devastating to hear. The raw emotion that she read with made me feel that Potter was the victim telling her story. I was amazed that even after hearing her narrate many books, she managed to surprise me yet again. I was in love with her work on this book.

  Having read the entire Oak Knoll Trilogy in a two-week period, I have to say that this is a bittersweet goodbye to Hoag's characters. I hope that she writes another book utilizing this cast in the future.  It was hard to close this novel, knowing that there may not be a continuation. I gave Down the Darkest Road five out of five stars. This was an amazing close to an incredible series. And I highly recommend all three books.  

  

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