When a beloved YA author takes the plunge and publishes an adult novel, the fans who grew up with said author are always a little apprehensive, and rightfully so.
Darren Dash (nice anagram!) has broken out into the adult market with his debut The Evil and The Pure, a dark and twisted crime novel.
You have a wide cast of characters to love and/or despise:
Big Sandy, the hired hitman of a top gangster, who has spent his life looking to take revenge out on the man who killed his mother when he was eleven.
He works for Dave "Bush" Bushinsky, a high-powered gangster in London who wants only one thing and just needs the money to get it.
Bush has a pet scientist named Tony Phials who is working on a new drug that could make Bush a multi-millionaire.
Clint Smith is Bush's cousin, a small-time dealer with delusions of grandeur. He wants to make money, to to New York and get the girl of his dreams, Bush's niece...as long as a slimebag actor doesn’t get her first.
Kevin and Tulip Tyne are siblings who have been orphaned. Adult Kevin gets off on watching teenage Tulip have sex with strange men and he hires her out to fulfill his own sick fantasies, including to the scientist Phials and the priest, Father Sebastian.
Gawl McCaskey is a man who has left a trail of women's bodies from Scotland to Australia and he is looking for a job in London. Greedy Clint and the mystery drug just might be what he was searching for to retire in comfort.
The Evil and The Pure is nothing like Cirque du Freak, The Demonata or Zom-B by Darren Shan. Darren Dash writes here about something much more sinister than the paranormal: real human beings.
Some of his fans might find this a little too dark, but I think those of us who grew up with him and are now adults ourselves will find this to be an amazing read and sound proof of the evolution of his talents.
The violence is vicious, but not overdone for sales or shock value. This takes torture (think the amptutation in Misery by Stephen King but to the genitalia and rabid dog maulings) to a new level.
The story flows easily, going from interesting to page-turning rapid action. If you don't mind a little bloodshed, read this book. It's got the cast complexity of a Maeve Binchy novel as if written by a violent madman, and I mean that as a compliment!
The characters are the best part, as they make the story. The way it's written, you feel like you know them, like you can see them standing right in front of you.
Another thing I liked was the goodness that shone through the dark; a silver lining in the black cloud of real thug life.
This is a book you won’t want to end!
Great work and amazing author evolution!
5/5--loved it!
Purchase The Evil and The Pure via:
Amazon (US)
Amazon (UK)
Smashwords
iTunes Books
Barnes and Noble (NOOK)
Kobo
Goodreads
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