The Dark Man by Desmond Doane

 The best bits of this book are the exchanges between Ford and Mike, genuinely snort worthy at times.  The dialogue is so well crafted and so true to life that I feel a little bit guilty only giving this book 3 Stars.  Not only is the dialogue spot on but the relationship between the two men feels real and their interactions have such a spark of reality to them that you know the author has a really good grasp of how people function.

Unfortunately for me the paranormal bits left me feeling a little bit disinterested.  Whilst the premise of a disgraced Ghost Hunter due to a demon attack was interesting it didn't really stack up.  Ford keeps telling us he is the "real deal" and yet he never seems to visit anywhere that it is just knocking pipes, there is always a genuine paranormal event and that got a bit hinky for me.  Although, there is a little debunking going on in the main case that he calls Mike in to help him with.  It definitely has a ring of the type of "reality" show this book is based off the same things that irritate me about those irritated me about this book - so the author definitely got that right.

We are told from the beginning about Chelsea's case being the reason Ford and Mike no longer speak, the reason the show got cancelled, the reason for EVERYTHING.  It does take a long time before we get even a little bit of further information about this case and the author then drip feeds the case through the rest of the book.  This is a pretty good device as even if you are getting fed up with the current case you keep reading because you knwo we will soon be told more about what happened to Chelsea.

Fairly solid book with fantastic characterisation but a plot that just didn't grab me.

This review has been a long time coming.  I actually read this book between the 25th and 28th June 2020 so my memory is a bit foggy about all the plot lines.  Fortunately, I have a notebook where I jot some initial thoughts on the book and an overall ranking so between the book blurb and that I did have a reasonable handle on what I thought at the time of reading.