Alexis Soloski's Here in the Dark is a thrillingly dark psychological drama, set in the least visible part of the spectacle of theater. Vivian Parry, 32-year-old theater critic for an important New York City magazine, carefully rations her vodka and sedatives to keep clear of the grasp of the "therapists I'm occasionally required to see." She holes up in her Manhattan studio apartment, writing and editing between shows. Readers quickly understand that Vivian is avoiding an unnamed trauma. In the audience--anonymous, with pen and notebook poised--is the only time she is remotely okay.
Seeking a crucial promotion, she reluctantly agrees to an interview with David Adler, an eager graduate student. From there, Vivian finds herself inexorably caught up in intrigues involving a missing person, a dead body discovered in a park, an abandoned fiancé, Russian gangsters, Internet gambling, and more. Vivian is heavily reliant on drink and pills; it would be easy to mistake her increasing sense of danger for paranoia, but readers can't deny the threats slipped under her door.
Soloski, in Vivian's clever, moody, sardonic voice, envelopes readers in details richly laden with subtext. Seasonal decorations include "cardboard Santas leering from store windows, snowflakes hung like suicides from every lamppost." Of Justine, Vivian's forceful best (and perhaps only) friend: "There are sentimental tragedies shorter than Justine's texts." Vivian's fragile reality fractures in sleek, stylish prose. Here in the Dark is a carefully wrought, slow-burning psychological thriller: as numb as Vivian keeps herself, the terror surges to a crescendo, her wits and understanding of what is real pitched against an unknown foe. --Julia Kastner, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia