Four years ago, Catherine was a fun-loving, if somewhat excessive, single woman who enjoyed going out with her friends and hooking up from time to time. On Halloween, all that changed when she met a man with whom she started a relationship that would send her into a downward spiral, causing her to lose lifelong friends, making her fear for her life, always looking over her shoulder even after others told her she was safe. Catherine met Lee at a Halloween party and agreed to have dinner with him after running into him at the gym several days later. The two began an intense relationship, but as Catherine became uncomfortable with Lee’s secretiveness, he became more so and more overbearing of her, even striking her. The novel begins with Lee on trial for assaulting Catherine, and he attempts to turn the tables, citing her mental instability, something he used to drive her friends away from her. Two years after the trial, Catherine suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, checking locks and windows, behaving in a ritualistic manner that leaves little time for a normal life. A young man Stuart moves upstairs from Catherine and she slowly comes out of her shell as she begins to trust again, until she realizes that Lee has been released from prison and is stalking her, this time, she fears, to kill.
A taught, psychological thriller, Into the Darkest Corner effective shifts the narrative between the time when Catherine first met Lee and four years later as she is living her life with him in prison. Elizabeth Haynes not only delves into the relationship between men and women, but between women exploring what causes one to betray another and what it takes to restore that friendship. Catherine is an empathic character rather than a sympathetic as she tries to get her life back together and then realizes she, with the help of her friends, is strong enough to fight back.
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