...[an] inventive fourth novel ... The darkness that permeates the park’s environs also works as an imaginative metaphor for murky emotions and concealing secrets, even from those to whom one is closest. A shrewd plot and realistic characters also soar in Under a Dark Sky ... Rader-Day expertly plots an ingenious mystery in Under a Dark Sky.
...a tense locked-room mystery and a brilliant psychological thriller ... Her considerable talent is on fine display in Under a Dark Sky ... This could have so easily devolved into melodrama, but Rader-Day never lets that happen ... Rader-Day reveals these dark secrets like the slow unfurling of a poisonous flower and imbues each of her characters with enough humanity and complexity so they never descend into caricature ... This should be a huge hit, and Rader-Day deserves to be a household name.
Setting herself apart from Christie wannabes, Rader-Day bounces the characters off one another to sometimes hilarious effect, while at the same time reflecting on the inner state of a woman left alone and grieving. Eden's recovery is complicated by her inability to withstand darkness, or sleeplessness, since her husband's death. 'I wasn't guilty,' she asks her dizzy, detached self. 'Was I?'
...a cleverly-plotted mystery ... It’s a great setting for a murder, and each of Rader-Day’s prickly millennials feels capable of murder ... Readers will have fun following the subtle clues.
