A Deeper Darkness

Apr 02, 2012 Louisa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Oh, I loved this book! It was heartbreaking what Sam lost, but she grew as a character because of her loss and her pain, and the mystery was so great! Can't wait to see what's going to happen next, and I hope we get to see some of these characters some more!

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Apr 11, 2012 Amy Lignor rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The intrigue begins from the word ‘go’ in this novel as an ex-Army Ranger, Eddie Donovan, begins his day by having a joyous time with his wife and two daughters on ‘The Mall’ in Washington. Unfortunately, he is called away by his employer and ends up dead: a victim of a vicious carjacking. Now Eddie’s mother doesn’t believe that what the police report says is true. She is completely convinced that the ‘carjacking’ was simply an excuse that his employers had given to the public.

Calling on an old...more The intrigue begins from the word ‘go’ in this novel as an ex-Army Ranger, Eddie Donovan, begins his day by having a joyous time with his wife and two daughters on ‘The Mall’ in Washington. Unfortunately, he is called away by his employer and ends up dead: a victim of a vicious carjacking. Now Eddie’s mother doesn’t believe that what the police report says is true. She is completely convinced that the ‘carjacking’ was simply an excuse that his employers had given to the public.

Calling on an old girlfriend of her son’s, Samantha Owens, Eddie’s mother begs her to solve her son’s mysterious death. Samantha is the Head Medical Examiner for the State of Tennessee, and Eddie’s mother wants nothing more than for her to come to D.C. and perform a second autopsy to make sure that nothing was missed.

Samantha has her own problems. She lost her husband and children to the Tennessee floods and has since turned into a workaholic. However, this one phone call from the past puts her on the road to recovery, as she heads to Washington to help her former friends.
Sam is a very sharp doctor, and although the carjacking story was the one ‘bought’ by the public, her autopsy tells a whole different story: Eddie definitely was murdered, but not for his car.

Soon Sam finds herself confronting another death of a person that once meant a great deal to her, and discovers notes that lead her to Xander, an ex-soldier who’s returned from Afghanistan with information that could bring the ‘situations’ that happened in that country home to America.

This book is a definite one-day read that covers some truly horrendous facts that happened in the past. But following Samantha and Xander, along with Xander’s dog, Thor, is one of the best ways to spend a Sunday afternoon. The writing in this book is ‘A-one,’ and hopefully this author is planning to gift the world with other Samantha Owens’ stories for a long time to come.

*Reviewed by Amy Lignor - Author of Until Next Time - for Suspense Magazine(less)

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Mar 25, 2012 Deb rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, mystery-thriller, reading-for-review

A Deeper Darkness is a spinoff of Ellison's Lt. Taylor Jackson series. Dr. Samantha Owens, Medical Examiner is Taylor's best friend. Since she lost her husband and twins in the Nashville floods two years ago, not long after losing her unborn child at the hands of a psychotic killer who was after Taylor, she is barely living and suffering from overwhelming grief. When the mother of her first love calls her with the news of his death and asking for her help in doing a second autopsy to prove it wa...more

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Mar 13, 2012 Wendy Hines rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Samantha Owens is a medical examiner and she's very good at her job. But since she lost her husband and her children to the Nashville floods, her heart isn't in it anymore. She just goes through the motions. She's been grieving for over two years now and when it gets to be too much for her, she cleans herself. It could be just her hands with sanitizer or a full body shower. She counts to herself, One Mississippi, two Mississippi... She isn't sure what do anymore. She doesn't want to live and she...more

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Jan 18, 2013 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars

Medical examiner Samantha Owens is having having a hard time finding peace. Having recently gone through the trauma of losing her husband and children to flooding Sam struggles from day to day. Little does she know her struggles will continue when a call from an old flames mother sees her caught up in what at the start seems a simple murder but then decends into a military secret that threatens to tear a bunch of mates and there wifes apart.

Sam is informed that an old boyfriend Eddie Donovan' a...more

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Feb 16, 2012 Debbie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Dr. Samantha Owens has lived the last two years of her life in a fog of tragedy, only surviving by focusing on her work as the Chief Medical Examiner for Nashville, but not really living since the waters of a cataclysmic flood stole her entire family from her. Sam gets a call from the mother of a former love Eddie Donovan, a love that is now also lost to tragedy but his mother is not convinced of the circumstances of his death and calls Sam to perform a second autopsy to be sure. Needing an excu...more Dr. Samantha Owens has lived the last two years of her life in a fog of tragedy, only surviving by focusing on her work as the Chief Medical Examiner for Nashville, but not really living since the waters of a cataclysmic flood stole her entire family from her. Sam gets a call from the mother of a former love Eddie Donovan, a love that is now also lost to tragedy but his mother is not convinced of the circumstances of his death and calls Sam to perform a second autopsy to be sure. Needing an excuse to escape from her self imposed prison for awhile Sam answers the call to help even though she hasn’t heard from Eddie since they broke up after his decision to join the service. When she arrives in DC she’s not welcomed by everyone, Eddie’s wife isn’t at all happy to be hosting a former girlfriend and the detective on his case sees her as a distraction at best and a hindrance at worst. This does not deter Sam as she goes about her business letting the dead tell their secrets and this death is no different it also has secrets to tell, secrets that are pointing in the direction of murder especially as further evidence comes to light and another murder is committed that has ties to Eddie and his time as an Army Ranger serving in Afghanistan. The more Sam digs the more questions arise and with the help of detective Darren Fletcher who’s come to welcome her help they start putting pieces together, but the answers are still just out of reach and the terrain is getting very hazardous as the body count is piling up. But being here a part of something bigger than her, Sam realizes that a partial healing is taking place and is realizing that the human heart is much more than mere valves and blood flow and much more resilient than she first thought. The question is will she survive this new threat long enough to find out what else her heart is telling her or will she become just another victim of a different kind of flood.
JT Ellison has once again gone above and beyond what I expect and done it beautifully. She’s taken fact and fiction and together she’s woven an intricate patterned drama filled mystery. She uses the very real Tennessee flood of 2010, some call it the thousand year flood where very real lives were lost and some of those exactly as was depicted here. She also brings light to life after combat for our homebound men and the real healing they must also go through. Her storyline is imaginative, it’s illusive, it’s brilliantly filled with twists and turns and kept me from closing the pages until I either found out what happened or fell asleep trying to. Her narrative is that of the profession shown, the cop-speak and doc-speak fluently mixed with the everyday dialogue of everyday people. Her characters are all so well defined that I knew them intimately by the end of the novel, some I came to care for and some I hoped to stand under a large falling tree. Is this a mystery, very definitely but it’s so much more, it’s a love story, past present and future, it’s a drama with an edge and it’s a story about one woman’s weakness, her strength and her will to live on.
If you’re lucky enough to have read JT’s Taylor Jackson series then you already know Sam, if this is your first foray into the vivid mind of Ms. Ellison you will learn all you need to know and yet at the end you might be itching to find out what else this talented author has written while you’ll also get to know Sam a little better as well.
JT it’s as always my immense pleasure to be an early reader for you and I look forward not only to your next story but the fact that you’ll be sharing yourself with my B&N.com book club later on in the year.
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Nov 11, 2012 Janebbooks rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you like your murder mysteries with less violence and gore... but enjoy high suspense with a hint of romance...J. T. Ellison is the gal for you!

A DEEPER DARKNESS is the first Samantha Owens, Tennessee medical examiner, thriller by Ellison (who has written a bunch of mysteries featuring Sam's friend, a homicide detective in Nashville). Samantha's a workaholic professional trying to forget the day a Tennessee flood took her husband and children. She has a great team who understands her aversion...more If you like your murder mysteries with less violence and gore... but enjoy high suspense with a hint of romance...J. T. Ellison is the gal for you!

A DEEPER DARKNESS is the first Samantha Owens, Tennessee medical examiner, thriller by Ellison (who has written a bunch of mysteries featuring Sam's friend, a homicide detective in Nashville). Samantha's a workaholic professional trying to forget the day a Tennessee flood took her husband and children. She has a great team who understands her aversion for performing autopsies on drowned victims and her incessant hand-washing.

At the beginning of the tale, we meet retired Ranger Eddie Donovan. It is the day of his death. Eddie has served three tours in Afghanistan and has retired, sick of "nation building," and is working as a security consultant in Washington, DC. He's also taking a day off to be with his wife and daughters....until he gets a call that summons him to his death. Eddie Donovan was a member of the 75th Ranger Regiment Bravo Company in Afghanistan, a proud and loyal member of a band of five "brothers" who served together: King (Perry Fisher), Doc (Donovan), Shaky Guy (William Everett), Mutant (Alexander Whitfield), and Jackel (Harold Croswell). And there's also a young friendly woman with the unit, Maggie Lyons.

After Eddie's death, Samantha receives a call from his mother to perform a second autopsy. The police are calling the murder a carjacking gone wrong. Sam goes to DC...renews her friendship with her former lover's mother and meets the wife. Along with a gruff detective, she discovers that of the five band of brothers, only one is still living. And that Maggie Lyons is on the run. There's a hint of friendly fire, an illegitimate daughter, an Army coverup...the pages are really turning. (Except the missing pages written in Latin in Donovan's journal.)

J. T. Ellison has given us well-defined and likeable characters, prudent use of 50 cents and 4 letter words, realistic crime scenes, a 16-year-old bottle of Scotch, and two cold beers in a wilderness.

I'll be ordering EDGE OF NIGHT (Samantha Owens, Book 2) as soon as it's published in the USA.

Enjoy,
Jane(less)

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Aug 11, 2012 Sam rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: fans of well written thrillers

Recommended to Sam by: from the publisher

It’s a long time since I’ve read a thriller that was so engrossing AND contains a very good liner that I completely agree with “Life’s far too short for bad coffee”. Welcome to the world of Dr Samantha Owen, Medical Examiner who just happens to have an ex-Army boyfriend who was killed in a car-jacking – or was he?

Samantha (or Sam) lives a lonely life in Nashville after the untimely death of her husband and children. Prone to drinking a bit and over washing her hands, she is called on by the moth...more It’s a long time since I’ve read a thriller that was so engrossing AND contains a very good liner that I completely agree with “Life’s far too short for bad coffee”. Welcome to the world of Dr Samantha Owen, Medical Examiner who just happens to have an ex-Army boyfriend who was killed in a car-jacking – or was he?

Samantha (or Sam) lives a lonely life in Nashville after the untimely death of her husband and children. Prone to drinking a bit and over washing her hands, she is called on by the mother of an ex-boyfriend, Eddie Donovan, to perform a second autopsy on him after a carjacking gone wrong. Flying to Washington D.C., she picks up on some things that just aren’t right and is soon involved in a police investigation of not one, but several murders of his former Army mates.

This book is a multitude of strengths – not only is it a fast paced thriller with a page-turning plot, it has excellent characterisation too. With some books in this genre I find it difficult to differentiate the minor characters, but Ellison gives them quirks and a life of their own so the reader is not left trying to remember who is who. There is a nice balance between the personal (Sam’s previous tragedy and the awkwardness of meeting Eddie’s wife), the autopsies and the police procedurals. Fletcher and Hart are well rounded characters, each with enough personal detail for the reader to be able to identify them.

I’ve mentioned that the book is fast paced, but it’s not so much so that you lose track of what’s going on. The plot is very cleverly constructed, with enough twists that I couldn’t work out who the murderer was until it was revealed. The comments about army life and the rules – including the unspoken – were well placed, but not preachy. There’s also a little bit of romance in this book, but it certainly wasn’t predictable as to who would end up with who!

The emotions in A Deeper Darkness are also very well done. Sam is traumatised after the deaths of her family, but she doesn’t fall into the cliché of the troubled main character. Her pain is real and demonstrated in the flashes of grief that appear randomly – just like the real thing. The pain of Fletcher’s divorce is also explored with a raw emotion – and when Hart tells him why his ex-wife suddenly opened up to him, it all makes simple, yet perfect sense.

This is definitely an intriguing, well written book that will have you reading well into the night. I was really pleased to read that there will be a second book featuring Sam Owens released in the future, which I’ll look out for eagerly. I’ll also be checking out her series involving a police friend of Sam’s, Taylor Jackson.

Thank you to Harlequin for sending me this book and helping me discover a great author!

http://samstillreading.wordpress.com (less)

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Jun 17, 2012 Dalene rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, kindle, netgalley

I have not read any other J.T. Ellison books before this one, even though they have been on my TBR list for a while. I love a good mystery and this definitely was enjoyable. Once it hooked me, I quickly finished it not wanting to put it down for regular day chores. I plan on reading her other books soon.

This book was definitely not a light read as a lot was going on and you definitely had to keep track. Sometimes I felt like I was getting confused, not due to the writer’s ability, just trying to...more

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Dec 04, 2012 Dotti Elrick rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really wanted to love this series as much as her Taylor Jackson series. But I had a hard time getting into the story. This series focuses around Taylor's best friend Sam. Sam is the chief medical examiner for Nashville.
As the story gets underway, we learn that two years earlier, Sam lost her husband and twins in a flash flood. Sam is still grieving, and not handling her loss well.
When she gets a call to go to Washington D.C. at the request of an old boyfriend's mother, she sees it as a way to...more

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Aug 02, 2012 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2012, mystery

After reading and not particularly loving the middle installments of J.T. Ellison's Taylor Jackson series of novels, I'd given up on the series and Ellison. While I enjoy reading novels set in and around Music City, the fun of seeing local real-world landmarks incorporated into the pages of standard procedural had lost its appeal.

So it came as huge surprise to me when I saw Ellison's latest, A Deeper Darkness on the new books shelves at the library that not only did I pick it up but that that b...more After reading and not particularly loving the middle installments of J.T. Ellison's Taylor Jackson series of novels, I'd given up on the series and Ellison. While I enjoy reading novels set in and around Music City, the fun of seeing local real-world landmarks incorporated into the pages of standard procedural had lost its appeal.

So it came as huge surprise to me when I saw Ellison's latest, A Deeper Darkness on the new books shelves at the library that not only did I pick it up but that that back cover blurb was enough a hook to make me want to give Ellison another shot.

In the months and years following the Nashville floods, coroner Samantha Owen is struggling under a flood of her own. She lost her family in the flood and has been muddling through life since that time. When the mother of an ex-boyfriend calls, asking Sam to come to Washington DC to offer a second opinion on the cause of death of her son, Sam reluctantly agrees. Sam and her ex, Eddie Donovan, had a brief romance while in grad school with Eddie breaking off the romance to return to his first love, the military. Donovan served a couple of tours in the Middle East, married and had two children, but never lost contact with Sam.

When Donovan is killed in apparent car-jacking, his mother Eleanor thinks there's something more at work and asks Sam to look into it. As Sam probes into Eddie's death, she discovers a vast conspiracy at work with several members of Eddie's military team all dying under mysterious circumstances. Working with a local DC detective, Sam begins to unravel the real reason Eddie died and how it all connects to something the DOD is trying to cover up from the team's time in the Middle East.

If you're familiar with the Taylor Jackson series, you'll probably remember Sam Owens as supporting character to the Taylor-universe. Even if you don't recall this, Sam reflects on how Taylor would react to certain events unfolding in the novel.

Thankfully, many of the weaknesses that turned me off the Taylor Jackson series are downplayed in this novel, though they could rear their ugly head if Ellison decides to begin an on-going series about Sam. Ellison's novels are always one that demand a quick turn of the page, with fresh revelations, clues and twists coming at just the right pace to keep the reader interested and speculating on how they'll all fit together. As a procedural novel, Down Among the Darkness is as confident as other, bigger name procedural entries on the market today.

Because Sam is reeling from the death of her family, the novel wisely doesn't indulge in the romantic subplots that hampered some of the later Taylor novels. There's still a few hints sprinkled throughout, but at no point does Darkness abruptly shift gears from the central mystery to personal romantic entanglements.

However, for a novel built on Sam's loss and tragic events surrounding the Nashville floods a couple of years ago, Ellison keeps the revelation of exactly what happened to Sam's family too far off-stage, to the point that after said specifics are presented in the final pages of the novel, I found myself thinking it would have been better for Ellison to never address them directly on the printed page. Leave it up to the reader to piece together things from Sam's reactions and growth over the course of the story.

And while Ellison is good, she's still quite up there in the upper pantheon of great mystery writers that are on my "must read" set of authors like Michael Connelly, Laura Lippman or Elizabeth George. Each of those authors offers compelling, page turning mysteries with on-going characters with complicated and interesting back stories and histories. Ellison has the mystery side down, but so far her characters don't feel like old friends like Tess, Lynley or Harry Bosch.
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Sep 16, 2012 Manuel rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

Unfortunately my first and last J. T. Ellison's book. One of the worst vooks I'be ever read. It was a chore to finish it. I was truly curious how she would tie all the threads together in the book to a satisfying conclusion (at least that). I wish... It was truly hilarious the way (in a bad sense) she chose to conclude it.

Sam's character was what really got on my nerves. One moment she's on her knees begging Detective Fletcher to let her contribute to the investigation, the next she's ignoring...more

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May 29, 2012 Beth rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

J.T. Ellison’s A Deeper Darkness is a thriller that pulls the reader deeper and deeper into the story with its well-paced suspense and complex characters.

Ex-Army Ranger Eddie Donovan was murdered in an apparent carjacking, but his mother doesn’t believe that is all there is to the story. She asks Eddie’s ex-girlfriend Dr. Samantha Owens, who is now the head medical examiner for the state of Tennessee, to come to Washington, D. C. and perform a second autopsy. What Sam finds pulls her into the ce...more

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Apr 24, 2013 T.M. Smith rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I grabbed this audio/CD version because it was cheap! Not my usual read, but what the heck. I'm so glad I did.

Nashville medical examiner Samantha Owens world was torn apart 2 years ago when her husband and twins were killed in the Tennessee floods. She copes by throwing herself into her work and obliging her pinchet for expensive scotch. She is still in mourning and the nightmares haven't ceased when she gets a call from an ex's mom to tell her that he's been murdered. She wants Sam to perform...more

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Dec 10, 2012 Becky rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's been two years, but Sam Owens's wounds are still fresh. The grief she feels over the loss of her family has not lessened at all. Then Sam receives a call about yet another death: her ex, Eddie Donovan, has been shot in what the police are calling a carjacking, but his mother isn't so sure. She's asking that Sam travel to DC to do a second autopsy on the body. Sam knows the case will be difficult to bear but can't refuse the request. When she arrives, Sam makes a discovery the original autop...more

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Oct 27, 2012 Jackie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Like other fans of J T Ellison, I was nervous about reading a book with a new main character. Sam has been around of course, but not alone as the main character. Well I needn't have worried I really enjoyed the book, in fact almost read it in one go, only extreme fatigue prevented it.

I liked Sam, I liked the story, I liked the pace of it, I liked the characters.

Sam goes off to help out the mother of an old boyfriend who has been murdered, by carrying out a second autopsy. She is drawn into the...more

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Mar 20, 2013 Lyzz rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is my first book to read since I lost my husband. That sounds silly. I haven't been able to concentrate longer than a FB post for months, but I knew this new series was a good place to start. Although I already knew that Sam was greatly widowed and much more, I didn't realize that I'd be reading about two widows. Oddly, this is so helpful. One moment I'm wanting to comfort the freshly widowed character; the next I want to hug Sam whose grief is older, riper, and much heavier to carry and te...more

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Feb 03, 2013 Denise rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

3.0 out of 5 stars - "The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent..."

Disappointing. I really wanted to like this first book featuring a character from the Taylor Jackson series, Dr. Samantha Owens. She's -- naturally with novels in this genre -- a beautiful, brilliant, damaged, sensitive, forensic pathologist. This woman has lost her husband and twins in an incident that the author teases us with but never explains until toward the end of the...more

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Mar 03, 2012 Rebecca Harrison rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Deeper Darkness is a great book. Suspense is good til close to end. Dr. Samantha Owens is going thru life on auto-pilot until a good friend and mother of a past love asks her to do a second autopsy on her son. This brings every hurt to the front where Sam can't avoid them anymore.

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Aug 15, 2012 Shelleyrae at Book'd Out rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc-are, provided-by-publisher

I am sure I have read at least one or more of JT Ellison's Taylor Jackson series novels though I don't seem to have a record of it. A Deeper Darkness is an engaging spin off from that series featuring Taylor's best friend, Medical Examiner Samantha Owens.

Asked what I thought of A Deeper Darkness, the first phrase that came to mind was 'easily consumable'. It's a quick read that demands very little and provides a few hours of entertaining escape. The novel is deftly plotted with clues to piece t...more I am sure I have read at least one or more of JT Ellison's Taylor Jackson series novels though I don't seem to have a record of it. A Deeper Darkness is an engaging spin off from that series featuring Taylor's best friend, Medical Examiner Samantha Owens.

Asked what I thought of A Deeper Darkness, the first phrase that came to mind was 'easily consumable'. It's a quick read that demands very little and provides a few hours of entertaining escape. The novel is deftly plotted with clues to piece together and twists that maintain suspense. The pace keeps the pages turning and the main conspiracy storyline resolves in a tension filled confrontation. Ellison references topical events and issues - the Tennessee floods, women in front line combat, the struggles of returned armed forces servicemen and women and obsessive compulsive disorder which provides added interest and depth to the story.

The characters of A Deeper Darkness are well developed with interesting personal histories and motivations. I liked Samantha and thought Ellison did a credible job of creating a well rounded, sympathetic protagonist. The details of Samantha's tragic personal background is revealed piecemeal throughout the story with her OCD a symptom of her grief and emotional stress. Donavon's death is yet another blow despite it being so long since their intimate relationship ended and explains why Samantha is so willing to get involved further in the case. The conflict between Samantha and Donovan's wife, Susan, seemed a little forced to me though that element is quickly resolved.
Detective Darren Fletcher is the the cynical but dedicated officer, I enjoyed his wry sense of humour and his partner, Detective Lonny Hart provides a good foil for him.
Even though we meet a few members of the Ranger team briefly, and others not all, Ellison ensures they are encapsulated as individuals. I would have liked to learn more about them but it wasn't strictly necessary in terms of the story.

I enjoyed A Deeper Darkness and I am intrigued by the premise for the second installment of this series, titled Edge of Black, due for publication in December.
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Jan 30, 2013 Bigd_041555 rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Excellent first book in the Dr. Samantha Owens series. I enjoyed the whole book, suspenseful, well written, the plot line was very intriguing and interesting - J.T. Ellison knew how to tell this story.

I hope J.T. Ellison continues this series with as much passion as she put in this first book. I can't say enough good about the book. Emotions are high on all accounts, and a feeling of, hmmm, completeness when the book was finished.

One note, though and this may or may not be a spoiler, I would ha...more

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Aug 27, 2012 Katrina rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A Deeper darkness is a great mystery - suspense story filled with twists and turns and paced at a steady rate.

Characters that are easily liked, and disked, but easily related to and a storyline that will certainly keep the reader engaged till the last page.

We all want to know the what, how and who of every murder mystery and this story certainly kept my interest till the very end.

The ending however fell short for me, I felt it was a bit rushed and not as well-developed and consistent with the...more

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Dec 19, 2012 Crystal rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: murder-mysteries

This isn't my usual genre. as much as I like forensic dramas on TV, I tend not to read them, and prefer the young adult genre. but I needed an audio book, there weren't many good YA ones, and this sounded interesting, so I grabbed it. I'm not sorry I did. It wasn't bad. I didn't love the characters, or even care terribly what happened to them, but I didn't hate them either, was curious how things would turn out, and was happy for the pleasant ending some of them got, and sad for the one fake out...more

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Oct 02, 2012 Sam rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

What a really fun mystery. The first book in JT Ellison's new series about Medical Examiner Dr. Samantha Owens was hard to put down. A super-fast read but not lacking in intrigue or good story telling.

We start off in DC and the mysterious death of ex-Ranger Eddie Donovan. Well not so mysterious if the local police report goes unchallenged. Enter Dr. Samantha Owens. When her former lover’s mother asks for to fly up to DC, from Memphis, and perform a second autopsy, Sam has her doubts but feels i...more

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Feb 06, 2012 Melanie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Great book, great suspense!!! A definite winner, and a great spin off involving Taylor's best friend Sam!!!! Hoping there are more books to come with Sam as the main character!!! :)

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Sep 17, 2012 Barb rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I didn't realize this was an off shoot of the Taylor Jackson series by JT Ellison. The story involved her good friend Samantha Owens, the medical examiner. The story didn't involve Taylor except for a few mentions, but since I just started reading the Taylor Jackson series I think learning her story may have "read me ahead" a little in the series. This story was about Sam being called in to re-examine her ex-boyfriend's body after he was murdered. She was called by his mother, Eleanor, when she...more

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Jul 02, 2012 Gina rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-book-releases, 2012, ccc-club, challenges-2012, book-club, female-detectives, conspiracies, library, murder, mystery, mystery-crime, mystery-detective, relationships, summer-reads, suspense, thriller, war, women-of-mystery-club, criminal-charges, death, family, family-dysfunction, friendship, psychology-women, military, police-procedural, 5-00-rating, literature-german

Goodreads Description- As a medical examiner, Samantha Owens knows her job is to make a certain sense of death with crisp methodology and precision instruments.

But the day the Tennessee floods took her husband and children, the light vanished from Sam's life. She has been pulled into a suffocating grief no amount of workaholic ardor can penetrate—until she receives a peculiar call from Washington, D.C.

On the other end of the line is an old boyfriend's mother, asking Sam to do a second autopsy on...more Goodreads Description- As a medical examiner, Samantha Owens knows her job is to make a certain sense of death with crisp methodology and precision instruments.

But the day the Tennessee floods took her husband and children, the light vanished from Sam's life. She has been pulled into a suffocating grief no amount of workaholic ardor can penetrate—until she receives a peculiar call from Washington, D.C.

On the other end of the line is an old boyfriend's mother, asking Sam to do a second autopsy on her son. Eddie Donovan is officially the victim of a vicious carjacking, but under Sam's sharp eye the forensics tell a darker story. The ex-Ranger was murdered, though not for his car.

Forced to confront the burning memories and feelings about yet another loved one killed brutally, Sam loses herself in the mystery contained within Donovan's old notes. It leads her to the untouchable Xander, a soldier off-grid since his return from Afghanistan, and then to a series of brutal crimes stretching from that harsh mountainous war zone to this nation's capital. The tale told between the lines makes it clear that nobody's hands are clean, and that making sense of murder sometimes means putting yourself in the crosshairs of death.

I was introduced to this author late last year and Ellison has now become one of my favorite mystery/suspense writers. Her plotlines are always very dynamic but fresh. Its not always the same ole same ole with Ellison. She has finely tuned characters that after reading several from her Taylor Jackson series, I feel that I really know these "people". Ellison also does not resort to what many female mystery writers do which is depend on a romantic aspect. Ellison seems to avoid this filler and actually forms a good story that can catch the attention of female readers without any bodice ripping.

The Deeper Darkness takes a spin from her Jackson series with ME Samantha Owens as lead in this book. After the death of her children and husband she just cannot seem to get it together. Sam gets a call to do a secondary post on her first love, Eddie Donavan. Feeling compelled to do this for her old flame she travels to DC to do the autopsy. From there she inserts herself into the investigation because she feels at fault for the loss of everyone she has ever loved. With many thrills, spins and turns, Ellison again takes us on her hectic journey to find the truth. However, this story is a little different in that is has a more somber tone than any of the books I have read from Ellison. This book made me sad at times to see the hurt in all of these women's souls. I would love to see this book spin into a new series from Ellison. It also deals with the military and the current events in the fighting in Iraq and Afganistan. As a reader, I could definitely tell that she did her homework on her subject matter. I loved having Sam as a lead and there are so many plots to explore with an ME involved in the police investigation. Maybe she can be the newer fresher Patricia Cornwell's Kaye Scarpetta. This is a 5 star must read for any mystery fan!(less)

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Sep 09, 2012 Kayleigh Murphy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In some ways A Deeper Darkness is several books in one. The first book is a heart-wrenching look at a wife and mother who survived her family's death in a sudden and unexpected flood. The career she'd always loved is suddenly hollow, and to cope with her loss she's hardened herself almost to the point of no-return and developed OCD tendencies that she struggles to hide from the people around her. The second book is an honest examination of life as the spouse or family member of a war veteran, an...more In some ways A Deeper Darkness is several books in one. The first book is a heart-wrenching look at a wife and mother who survived her family's death in a sudden and unexpected flood. The career she'd always loved is suddenly hollow, and to cope with her loss she's hardened herself almost to the point of no-return and developed OCD tendencies that she struggles to hide from the people around her. The second book is an honest examination of life as the spouse or family member of a war veteran, and the complexities that are added to the relationship when they return home from Afghanistan, Iraq, etc. The third story is a crime mystery looking into the death of an ex-ranger, and slowly piecing together a much larger and more insidious case. Separately they'd be interesting stories but something that's been done before, entwined together however, the result is a multi-faceted book that interested me from different fronts and was easy to consume from start to finish.

When we first meet Samantha Owens she's calm, in control and thinking fondly of the ordered, organised events that are to unfold during the day in her autopsy lab. Just as an impression of who this woman is begins to form everything begins to come apart at the seams when it's revealed that one of the bodies about to be delivered drowned. With that brief little sentence you quickly come to realise how damaged Samantha is. All of that structure at the initial introduction was simply a well fortified wall that's only job is to keep her upright until she can make it back to the privacy of her home where she is free to fall apart in whatever way she chooses. However it's clear that structures and walls and order have long been a mainstay in her life. She's scientific, pragmatic, sensible and logical, things which are emphasised in flashbacks, internal narration and her reactions to unexpected questions or advances. When it comes to people Samantha loves though, her rationality flies right out the window.Time and time again Samantha seethes with anger and disappointment when people throw up roadblocks and halt her determined effort to get to the bottom of Eddie's death. Not that they're wrong to do so, she is simply a medical examiner - she's not qualified to take part in a criminal investigation and she probably shouldn't even be told much of the information about the case - but there's a passion and fire that motivates her and clashes dramatically with the cold scientific rigor she regularly embodies. The stress and heartache that comes from investigating your first love's murder so soon after the death of your family is an important component in Samantha's character - it leaves her vulnerable and likeable, and makes her focused attempts to persevere through the pain all the more inspiring. All this being said, I wasn't the biggest fan of Samantha. At times I found her cold, obnoxious, condescending and self-involved and I highly doubt that if I met her i'd have anything to say to her that didn't revolve around the weather. But this just cemented the reality of her character - no one's perfect after all.

I won't dedicate as much time to the other characters in the book, but while most of them were well fleshed out, none had the same life as Samantha. Some were, understandably, a little cardboard-y, serving mostly as markers to move the mystery and the plot along, but even the characters like Detective Darren Fletcher (equal parts cynical, protective and kind) and his better natured partner Detective Lonny Hart who I adored felt a little...lacking compared to the focus that had been put into Samantha. This unbalance was, I think, the main reason I really detested the character of Eddie’s wife, Susan. Though I’m sure we were supposed to believe that her catty remarks and overly snobby attitude was a reaction to the sudden death of her husband, I just found it hard to believe that she and Eddie were soul-mates, and she always seemed out of sync with the rest of the characters. Compared to Samantha, Susan just felt two-dimensional, as though we were supposed to be shocked and a little annoyed that Eddie would marry her and not run off searching for Samantha. Be that as it may, this really was a book about Samantha and while I wish the other characters had been a little more equally weighted, they each had an important function within the story and they fulfilled those roles well.

The book cycles through Samantha, Fletcher and Susan (mostly) as narrators, though Samantha takes up the lion's share of these. It helped spread the story out, divulging certain details of the mystery to one character (and yourself) while keeping that little nugget in the dark from the rest of the main cast of players. It results in an interesting array of red herrings and wasted hunts - but ever so slowly, among the potential threads of Government conspiracies, the psychological impact of war, relationships, secrets and assaults, Fletcher, Hart and Samantha build up a case that is much bigger than the original belief of Eddie's mother that he wasn't the victim of a simple carjacking. Because of the focus on Samatha and her personal history with Eddie, and recent losses, the mystery wasn't the most difficult to work out - but it didn't need to be. The meat of the story is Samantha (and to a lesser extent Susan and Fletcher) coming to terms with her situation, letting go of the past and moving forward.

This book was a spin-off from J.T. Ellison's Taylor Jackson, and already has a second book due for publication at the end of the year. I'm intrigued to see where it heads, because it was pretty neatly wrapped up in the closing chapters of this book - but I imagine it probably follows Samantha back in her proper position as medical examiner. Hopefully now that Samantha's character is well formed and has had a book dedicated to the good, bad and ugly sides of her self, the next book will be able to focus on some new characters who work side by side with Samantha, although I would also love to see some of the crew from this book pop up in the next story too! A Deeper Darkness is an engaging story with a mystery that packs a punch and a protagonist with a lot of heart. A great read!(less)

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Jan 23, 2013 Spinneretta rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Dr. Samantha Owens is a Medical Examiner in Nashville, Tennessee. When her ex-boyfriend, Eddie Donovan's mother calls, telling her he was killed and asking for a second opinion, Samantha heads off to D.C. to help.
She finds herself embroiled in a mystery, someone is killing the members of Eddie's rangers team, and soon Samantha finds herself in the crosshairs.
It is a well written book, with lots of suspense, and a well written plot.
My one complaint would be that the relationship that happens is s...more

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May 31, 2012 Naomi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

OK, ANYONE who knows me for even the shortest period of time, knows I am a HUGE fan of author Steve Hamilton and the duo sister writing team of PJ Parrish! Absolutely love 'em!! However, both these authors are INCREDIBLY SLOW in releasing new books, so I have to find new authors to entertain me with their style of writing. This is not an easy feat. When I make a statement that an author can go toe to toe with these two, the author should take it as my HIGHEST level of compliments cuz I don't say...more

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A Deeper Darkness (Dr. Samantha Owens #1)

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