Early in the novel, Laurie Steven brilliantly has the murderer leave a note, enigmatically addressed to Gabriel, saying “we are one,” and it is this horrific truth that really pushes Gabriel into some very uncomfortable, intimate encounters with his own darkest self- the self that feels an unreal, intense need to murder, or inflict violence on someone else, to ever make sense of the calamitous thoughts of his own mind. This thriller is gruesome, and sometimes unapologetically so, with how relentlessly the author delves into the sadistic, almost inhuman violence that causes the main character to become embroiled in a mystery, which will incidentally cause him to really question his own ethics, his own psyche, and the many inconsistencies of character that make him such an interesting, though unpredictable force in the novel. Rather than just allusively reference Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous, genre-defining psycho-suspence work, we get a new, innovative reworking of the tale, told from the perspective of a very complex character, who has shades of Dexter, and even more profound sinister shades of my favorite Ingeniously, Laurie Stevens incorporates the enigmatic scenes of the arsonist murder, who leaves strange markings on his victim’s body, in this uncanny fashion that seems to be something taking place, when the main character, Gabriel Mcray (the principle character of the plot) is not present of the action of a scene.

Almost immediately, I became instantly engrossed with the confounding drama of Gabriel’s psychological life, and his relationships with the many other dynamic, idiosyncratic co-workers at the bureau he works at. This type of sketch for a main character for a thriller has been done over and over again, but Laurie Stevens really delves into the ongoing psychodrama of the morally complex thoughts, desires, and impulses of Gabriel Mcray, making it stand out from the many overwrought “antihero” cop thriller dramas that are out there in the mainstream market.

The story begins with the gripping account of the Gabriel Mcray’s various unprofessional discrepancies, stemming from several outbursts of very intemperate anger, which has put the community at large in the area in more of a skeptical mood about the “professionality” of the Los Angeles detective bureau, for which Gabriel Mcray is a part of.

And, Laurie Steven’s The Dark Before Dawn is one-part nightmarish, and two-parts intense psychodrama, in a work that structurally and metaphorically echoes the late nineteenth century psychological thriller (that started the genre as a whole), Robert Louis Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde. While mainstream publishing has a slew of wonderful books, I honestly feel that the indie publishing market- a market stigmatized normally as having subpar, inartistic, amateurish writing- is rife with some of the most gut-wrenching, visceral creative stuff in the market. Amazon/ Barnes &Nobles/ Books-A-Million/ Goodreads

The Dark Before Dawn by Laurie Stevens