DARKNESS FALLS

A Crown Prosecutor descends into hell, as does the family awaiting her return.

Dropped off at the schoolyard early by a mum in a great hurry to get to court and start her day prosecuting minor felons before devoting time to the Crown’s case against drug czar Ray Casavettes, young Pippa becomes the sole witness to something unimaginable: the abduction of her mum Clara by a man wearing a red ski mask and a blue anorak and driving a white van. Five days later, Pippa is still in shock, her dad Hugo is near breaking point, and Clara is terrorized, near starvation, half-mad, and chained to a cellar wall by a man who seems to loathe her. Will the police find her before she becomes a fatality? Unfortunately, the ghoul they suspect is not the right ghoul, although he has a record of raping and destroying young girls and has crossed paths with Clara in court. Casavettes offers help in finding Clara in exchange for bail, but DI Steve Lawson and his superiors resist until routine detective work puts them, Casavettes and his thugs, and Clara’s tormentor on a collision path that ends with death, pain, and the anguish of second-guessing.

Alternating segments of dogged police work, despite the personality conflicts at the Diva Street Station, with the excruciating degradation of Clara, Murphy (Goodnight My Angel, not reviewed, etc.) turns personal responsibility into an unassailable rallying cry.