Darkness For Light
“Taut, realistic and full of surprises”
Adrian McKinty
Winner – Davitt Award, Readers’ Choice
Shortlisted – Barry Award Best Paperback USA
Best Books of the Year – The Times UK
Best Books of the Year – The Weekend Australian
Best Books of the Year – The NZ Listener
When deaf PI Caleb Zelic finds one of his clients murdered, it’s a bad day; when he discovers the man was a federal cop, it’s the beginning of a nightmare.
Against his better judgement, Caleb is drawn into the investigation. Soon he finds himself mixed up with his crooked ex-partner Frankie and the fallout from a money laundering scheme gone wrong. Then Frankie’s nine-year-old niece is kidnapped.
Desperate to save the girl’s life, they follow every lead. But the trail will end in death, betrayal and an agonising choice…
(Can be read as a standalone)
Her writing canters along between subtle and funny, lyrical and action-packed, emotionally moving and absolutely terrifying. There’s gore and there’s tenderness. There are psychological aperçus you want to write down and discuss with your therapist. And the plot twists are heart-stopping.
THE AGE
…a propulsive thriller sustained by a writer with a sharp wit and a seemingly effortless facility for maintaining and building tension… genuine literary delights…
AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW
Viskic just keeps getting better. Her prose is elegant and economical and her storytelling is taut, realistic and full of surprises. Caleb Zelic is the perfect character to explore Melbourne’s diverse culture and all aspects of its society, high and low, ugly and beautiful. Darkness for Light is a winner.
Adrian McKinty (The Chain)
Viskic nailed it from the first book, Resurrection Bay, and DARKNESS FOR LIGHT consolidates and cements her spectacular skill as a thriller writer.
SYDNEY ARTS GUIDE
Sharp, caustic dialogue, bursts of wild, kinetic action and moments of deep character insight. This novel does it all, and sounds like no-one else, anywhere.
Jock Serong (Preservation)
Raw, sharp and propulsive
Sarah Bailey (The Dark Lake)
The writing is gripping, the twists unforeseeable and the denouements shocking.
THE AUSTRALIAN
…the real delight of this novel, as always, are the observations of people and place. .. another absorbing crime novel by a writer whose way with words is, as always, killingly clever.
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
should now be considered a master of the genre, and Caleb Zelic one of its most endearing protagonists…
POTTS POINT BOOKS
… the writing here is characteristically spare, the dialogue terse, the humour dry, the pages quick-turning and the death tally high.
THE SATURDAY PAPER
Australian crime writing has produced some world-class and highly successful fiction in recent years… With such a lengthy list of the highest calibre, it is difficult to produce work that is fresh and original. Emma Viskic succeeds on all counts. Her Caleb Zelic is unlike any previous ‘hero’
QUEENSLAND REVIEWERS COLLECTIVE
I was in awe while reading this book. … Gripping, action-packed and real….
BETTER READING
I had to sit and let Emma’s words wash over me for a very long time before I was able to reconcile with myself that I had been reading, and that Caleb was not actually with me … this is a book I will be revisiting and rereading.
CRIME SCENE WA
Another powerful, absorbing thriller: sharp as a knife, full of character and out to fray readers’ nerves in the very best kind of way.
READINGS BOOKS
Darkness for Light not only matches the crisp writing and superbly crafted professional and personal tensions of the first two books, it ramps up the stakes … All the stars for Emma Viskic!
NARELLE HARRIS
Viskic continues to impress with her engaging brand of thought-provoking crime fiction — character-driven stories that resonate without pretence.
BOOKLOVER REVIEWS
Darkness For Light opens with a bang and the pace rarely lets up … There is much to admire in this beautifully written book.
MURDER MAYHEM
…addictive and intelligent …utterly intoxicating!
MRS B BOOK REVIEWS
…utterly, completely and immensely compelling
POP ED LIT