Psychological Thriller Review: A Friend in the Dark | Samantha M. Bailey

Who among us hasn’t had a moment in life where we felt a bit lost and sought solace in someone from our past? Samantha M. Bailey’s newest psychological thriller A Friend in the Dark explores this very concept with a digital-age twist.

My first thought while reading this book was “Oh, Eden, you sweet summer child…” Eden seems to be on a crash course that she can’t get off of. But let’s back up a bit—how did she get here?

Eden’s life is shattered

Eden Miller is a real estate agent and mother to a college-aged daughter, Ava. Her husband Dave asked for a divorce a few months before the book starts. Dave and Eden were together since college and have had a wonderful marriage and life together, so Eden was blindsided by the divorce. Dave broke the news to her the day they dropped Ava off at college.

Eden seeks out an old flame

Eden is feeling pretty sorry for herself on her birthday, and after a few too many solo glasses of prosecco she sends a facebook friend request to Justin Ward. Justin is a musician she dated in college and was the first person to shatter her heart, opening the door for nerdy law student Dave to swoop in. Twenty-three years later, Dave will be the one to shatter her heart all over again, so naturally in the wake of that Eden finds herself thinking about Justin.

Eden begins a digital romance

Not only does Justin quickly accept her friend request, but the two begin messaging. The messages quickly turn steamy, and Eden begins to spiral out of control. Is it grief, lust, helplessness, or anger that cause her to act so out of her character with Justin? Perhaps all of them. Either way, Eden slowly begins to wreck her own life. She has phone sex with Justin outside of one of her real estate showings and her boss puts her on leave when a neighbor calls to report it. Not long after, Eden tracks Justin down in person, but he acts like he isn’t sure who she is. He calls right after to apologize, but it was weird…

Eden has a harsh wake up

The leave from work seems to finally awaken Eden from whatever love spell she was living in, because she suddenly starts to think through things in her life. The window that was left open in her house, the spare key that went missing then reappeared a few days later, and the fact that Justin seems to know more about her life than makes sense. Eden searches for answers, but she may not like what she finds…

Review | A Friend in the Dark

This book definitely caught me by surprise. It starts out with the online romance between Eden and Justin, but that escalates quickly and all signs point towards this being a story about Justin becoming obsessed with and stalking Eden. But before the halfway point, the story swerves and it becomes about something more bizarre and twisted (not to imply that stalking an ex isn’t twisted).

The beginning is a bit of a slow burn and that was where I really questioned if Eden was okay. I felt for what she went through with her husband Dave—it sounds like he gave basically no explanation for the sudden divorce. And then as Eden thinks it through, she realizes it may not have been so sudden. Dave already purchased a condo that he moved into the next day, suggesting that he had been planning this for some time.

This lack of answers and closure on a relationship that had dominated over half of Eden’s life is frustrating, to say the least. At the same time, Eden is so naïve and self-destructive. We’ve all done the social media invite after a broken heart and a few too many beverages. Maybe we have even exchanged a few messages with the person, only to ghost them in the light of day when we cringe at our behavior. The problem with Eden is—she never reaches that cringe point because she continues to engage.

To say that Eden quickly becomes obsessed with Justin is an understatement. She can’t stop thinking about him. She shows up to an open house for work and sneaks into the bathroom to send a naughty picture to him. She asks him to call as soon as she leaves. When he calls, she gets intimate with herself in her car outside of the house she was just showing while talking to him. Her company’s name is on the sign in the front yard! I wanted to shake this woman.

In her defense, Justin seems as interested in continuing the connection as she does. But when she identifies and drives to multiple job sites of his construction company to track him down (while she is supposed to be visiting her daughter at college; she does this in Dave’s car while he stays at the dorm with Ava!), things truly begin to get strange. She finds Justin at the last site she drives to. She gets out of her car as if to approach him. Justin squints at her but doesn’t show signs of recognition, then goes inside the house. He calls her to tell her he’s sorry but his wife is inside.

After some explaining, Eden believes him and agrees to continue their romance. But then she hears from her boss that a neighbor saw what she was doing in the car outside of the showing and called to report it. Eden is embarrassed, but not as embarrassed as I think she should be. I would have faked my own death and moved to Canada, but maybe that’s just me! Eden actually isn’t too worried about it (or about the missing key to her home or the window that was mysteriously left open) because she has a date with Justin and she must go shopping for a new outfit.

It’s around this point where the first of several swerves comes into play. I have to say that I was grateful for the twists because the first part was good but somewhat forgettable. There is also a second narrator that will enter the book at some point and that really livened things up. I always enjoy when a book uses a second narrator effectively by going back to some events we’ve already seen and offering context or a different perspective.

This is a tense and quick read. I enjoyed the twists and turns of the story. I will say we eventually get a bit more detail on Dave and why he seemingly divorced Eden out of nowhere and let’s just say Eden was much more forgiving of this behavior than I would be. When it was revealed I thought… really??? And it wasn’t just what caused him to pull out of their marriage, but also his justifying that it was because he was so in love with Eden that he had to do this. I really lost respect for Dave (not for the reason itself, but for divorcing his wife over…talking about it with her first). But then again, I also didn’t have a ton of respect for Eden! Neither did her daughter, Ava, it would seem.

I digress—this is a great, quick thriller to pick up if you’re an Amazon First Reads subscriber or a Kindle Unlimited subscriber! I certainly plan to keep an eye on Samantha M. Bailey’s work after this. I love an easy breezy twisted thriller to get lost in for an afternoon!

Ending | A Friend in the Dark

Brief spoilers and thoughts in the drop downs below if you’ve already read the book and want to see what someone else thought!

Synopsis | Goodreads

A digital romance turns deadly…

Eden Miller’s world is crumbling. Her husband blindsided her with divorce, and her daughter barely speaks to her. In an impulsive decision to escape her present and revisit the past, she sends a friend request to her college crush, Justin Ward.

One night twenty-three years ago changed the course of her life. It closed the door on Justin and opened the door to her husband, Dave. But what if Eden could have a do-over?

Eden begins an online relationship with Justin that awakens her in ways she never thought possible, and his voice and words make her take bold risks. But something’s off. He knows too much about her and her family…he’s been following her.

Eden is forced to awaken from her fantasy and look for answers—who really is the man on the other line? The truth about Justin—and about what happened that fateful night two decades ago—puts her and her family in a fight for their lives.

Thank you to Thomas & Mercer for my copy. Opinions are my own.