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Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier

Thriller

Things We Do in the Dark

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by Jennifer Hillier

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Quick take

Caught in the paparazzi’s glow after her husband’s murder, Paris Peralta quickly learns all that glitters isn’t gold.

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, Multiple_Viewpoints

    Multiple viewpoints

  • Illustrated icon, Buzzy

    Buzzy

  • Illustrated icon, Murder

    Murder

  • Illustrated icon, Unsettling

    Unsettling

Synopsis

When Paris Peralta is arrested in her own bathroom—covered in blood, holding a straight razor, her celebrity husband dead in the bathtub behind her—she knows she’ll be charged with murder. But as bad as this looks, it’s not what worries her the most. With the unwanted media attention now surrounding her, it’s only a matter of time before someone from her long hidden past recognizes her and destroys the new life she’s worked so hard to build, along with any chance of a future.

Twenty-five years earlier, Ruby Reyes, known as the Ice Queen, was convicted of a similar murder in a trial that riveted Canada in the early nineties. Reyes knows who Paris really is, and when she’s unexpectedly released from prison, she threatens to expose all of Paris’s secrets. Left with no other choice, Paris must finally confront the dark past she escaped, once and for all.

Because the only thing worse than a murder charge is two murder charges.

Free sample

Get an early look from the first pages of Things We Do in the Dark.

Things We Do in the Dark

CHAPTER ONE

There’s a time and a place for erect nipples, but the back of a Seattle police car definitely isn’t it.

Paris Peralta didn’t think to grab a sweater before they arrested her, so she’s only wearing a bloodstained tank top. It is July, after all. But the air conditioning is on high, and she feels cold and exposed. With her wrists cuffed, all she can do is clasp her hands together and hold her forearms up to cover her breasts. It looks like she’s praying.

She’s not praying. It’s much too late for that.

Her head throbs underneath the butterfly bandage one of the EMTs stuck on before they put her in the cop car. She must have slammed it into the rim of the bathtub sometime last night, but she doesn’t remember tripping or falling. All she remembers is her husband, lying in a bathtub filled with blood, and the screaming that woke her up this morning.

The blond-ponytailed detective behind the wheel glances at Paris again in the rearview mirror. Ever since Jimmy signed a streaming deal with new Netflix competitor Quan six months ago, people have been staring at her a lot. Paris hates it. When she and Jimmy got married, she expected to live a quiet life with the retired actor-comedian. That’s the deal they made; that’s the marriage she signed up for. But then Jimmy changed his mind and un-retired, and it was about the worst thing he could have done to her.

And now he’s dead.

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Why I love it

It was such a delight to discover Jennifer Hillier. When I read Things We Do in the Dark, I became an instant fan. This is a superb novel—a complicated story, expertly told. It deals sensitively with dark themes, and the characters and storytelling are utterly authentic.

The story opens with Paris Peralta soaked in blood, holding a straight razor. Her older husband—multi-millionaire comedian Jimmy Peralta—lies dead in their bathtub. Paris is charged with his murder, but there’s much more to the story. Paris is not who she says she is, and this case is going to open her up to scrutiny that she will not be able to withstand. At the same time, podcaster Drew Malcolm is reviving interest in a notorious Canadian murder case twenty-five years in the past, involving infamous murderess Ruby Reyes, aka the Ice Queen, as Reyes comes up for parole. Hillier thrills and teases us until the different storylines collide in the most satisfying way.

I love it when I’m in the hands of a talented storyteller who grabs you and won’t let you go. That’s what happened when I opened Things We Do in the Dark. I couldn’t put it down. I suspect you won’t be able to either . . .

Member ratings (27,276)

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View all
The Boyfriend
The Last One at the Wedding
Sleep Tight
First Lie Wins
House of Glass
Middle of the Night
Listen for the Lie
A Talent for Murder
Beautiful Ugly
Someone in the Attic
One Perfect Couple
Like Mother, Like Daughter
Kill for Me, Kill for You
Bad Tourists
Murder Road
Daughter of Mine
The Fury
The Other Mothers
When I’m Dead
The Soulmate
What Lies in the Woods
She Started It
The Only One Left
Dark Corners
Blacktop Wasteland
All the Dangerous Things
The Only Survivors
The Broken Girls
The Family Game
The Push
We Were Never Here
Things We Do in the Dark
The Golden Couple
The Stranger Upstairs
Gone Tonight
Too Good to Be True
The Last Word
You Are Not Alone
Rock Paper Scissors
Not a Happy Family
A Flicker in the Dark
Reckless Girls
The House Across the Lake
The Last Thing He Told Me
The Maidens
Everything We Didn't Say
The Paris Apartment
You're Invited
The Last Party
Dark Places
Pieces of Her
The Wife Between Us
Sharp Objects
None of This Is True
The Silent Patient
The Other Woman
Necessary People
The Family Upstairs
The Night Swim
Girl A
The Hunting Wives
Just Another Missing Person
First Born
The Lies I Tell
Breathless