Pitch Black Review

Alec Lambert was a profiler for the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit until he put his trust in the wrong person during a take down of a serial killer. This resulted in his partner being killed and himself being shot. Wyatt Blackstone, head of the Black CATs aka the Cyber Action Team, has put his trust in Alec and hired him as the newest member of his team. The CATs are an elite group of FBI agents who solve internet related murders.

Alec’s first case is of a serial killer dubbed The Professor who doesn’t exactly murder his victims. He leads them down a path that will result in them either dying or somehow saving themselves. He uses the internet as his tool to entice people to meet him. The first set of victims that comes to the CAT’s attention is of two teenage boys who received an email from a man. The man said he needed their help accessing his money and promised the one boy millions of dollars for his assistance. Even though this is a well known scam, the boys somehow fell for it and now are dead. Without any way of finding this unknown email sender, Alec slowly puts the clues together.

Samantha Dalton is a published author and blogger who teaches people how to avoid internet scams. Sam’s grandmother was a victim of an internet scam and ever since, Sam has been determined to stop this from happening to more unsuspecting victims. When Alec Lambert shows up at her door, the last thing she wants is to talk to him. He is a man after all and she is divorced and done with men.

But Alec needs her help as one of the teenage victims of The Professor emailed and instant messaged Sam the night of their murders. Hoping that somehow she could help enlighten him on who the scam artist is and how to find him, Alec enlists Sam’s help in solving the case. But when Sam ends up being The Professor’s latest conquest, the case becomes deadly and no one is safe. Will The Professor take Sam as his final victim in his quest to make the world a better place or will Alec solve the case and put an end to this sadistic killing spree?

Pitch Black is the second book in a romantic suspense trilogy featuring members of the Black CATs team who investigate serial killers that find their victims on the internet. While the first book featured Dean and Stacey, this book features two new people Agent Lambert and Samantha Dalton. The other members of the Black CATs are back and further developed in this new installment. The story starts off with the murder of the teenage boys and the suspense never lets up as Alec is hot on the trail of this serial killer.

The serial killer was evil to the core and my favorite part of Pitch Black. There were so many suspects that once again I was wrong every time I thought I knew the outcome. I commend Leslie Parrish on a job well done for twisting the story in such a way that the reader doesn’t see the killer coming but at the same time it’s not pulled out of left field.

I loved everything about Pitch Black, from the characters to the mystery, to the non stop suspense! Please note, this trilogy MUST be read in order or you will spoil the previous book for yourself. The killer from Fade to Black is clearly named and mentioned in Pitch Black so please read these books in order. Overall, Pitch Black is breath taking, high adrenaline suspense at it’s finest and I am immensely satisfied.


Reviewed for Night Owl Romance