The Darkest Web

by Kristin Wright

Overview

What is more dangerous? The lies she tells or the truth she’s hiding?

Jane Knudsen is an exceptionally private and intimidatingly beautiful workaholic attorney. Unflappable and cool, she’s the last person likely to suddenly snap and murder one of her firm’s senior partners. Yet she’s become the most likely suspect in the crime. She’s retained Allison Barton, her former law school roommate, to represent her. It’s Allison’s job to believe Jane, even if Allison never really knew her. No one did. Jane always made sure of that.

For Allison, getting close to her client now grows more complicated with each new development in the case. There may be other suspects in the victim’s orbit—his harried assistant, his wrathful wife, his overly attached daughter—but everything points to Jane’s guilt. She had opportunity, access, the weapon, and a motive—and she’s hiding something else. And Jane would rather go to prison for life than reveal the secrets that could save her.

But what secrets are worse than murder? And what will Allison risk to discover them?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781542026352
Publisher:	Thomas & Mercer
Publication date:	04/12/2022
Series:	Allison Barton , #2
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	622,562
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Kristin Wright is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School and has simultaneously been a small-town general-practice lawyer handling criminal defense and the vice president of the elementary school PTA. She is the author of The Darkest Web and The Darkest Flower in her acclaimed Allison Barton series. She lives in Virginia with her husband; sons; and beagle, Indiana Jones. For more information about the author, visit www.kristinbwright.com.

Editorial Reviews

04/04/2022

In Wright’s uneven sequel to 2021’s The Darkest Flower, Allison Barton, a Charlottesville, Va., criminal defense attorney and single mother, takes on a former law school roommate, Jane Knudsen, as a client. Jane fears she may be arrested for killing her nasty, vindictive boss, whose body she discovered in his office. As Allison admits, they “were never quite friends,” and she was jealous of the stunningly beautiful Jane, believing rumors that Jane’s excellent grades were because Jane slept with her professors, which Jane never denied. After Jane is charged with murder, Allison struggles during the trial to build a defense while also trying to uncover the secrets her client would rather go to prison to protect. A brisk pace and a couple of clever twists elevate the story, but too often the plot veers into soap opera territory as Wright checks off such familiar tropes as the harried single mother, a precocious child, and a toxic workplace. Frequent mentions of Jane’s beauty and others’ reactions to it grow tiresome. Wright can entertain, but she breaks no new ground. Agent: Sharon Pelletier, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

2022-01-12
A civil attorney fearful of standing trial for killing her detestable boss sees her only hope in hiring a defense lawyer whose life is nearly as chaotic as her own.

Once the funeral is over, no one in the Charlottesville office of Blackwood, Payne & Vivant, the “unmarked Honda Accord of law firms,” has a nice word to spare for Raymond V. Corrigan Jr., who was shot to death in his office sometime after midnight. When impossibly beautiful Jane Knudsen, a Blackwood associate hungry for a partnership, finds Ray’s body upon her customary pre-dawn arrival, her first reaction is relief at not having to deal with him anymore. That’s swiftly followed by certainty that the police will consider her a prime suspect whether or not she notifies them of her discovery, since everyone at the firm, from managing partner Greg Dombrowski to fellow associates Josh Gardner and Amir Burhan to longtime administrator Irene Robinson, will know better if Jane says she wasn’t there at 6 a.m. Helpless to avoid the glare of suspicion, Jane asks her old UVA law school roommate Allison Barton, who made quite a splash in The Darkest Flower (2021), to defend her. The two were never friends, and their salt-and-pepper relationship is the main attraction in Allie’s second case. But Wright, presenting her story again in alternating chapters, narrated by Allison and her client, also piles on complications, from a poisonous widow to importunate and unwelcome romantic pursuits of both Allison and Jane, from sexual harassment to domestic abuse, from a hidden past to child pornography, until even the most hard-bitten readers will beg, like Jane, for release.

Overplotted and overwrought but as immersive as a serious addiction.

Kirkus Reviews

Immersive as a serious addiction.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Taut, suspenseful courtroom scenes and strong, fascinating female characters made me unable to put the book down. A top-notch legal thriller.” —Victor Methos, Edgar Award nominee for A Gambler’s Jury and 2020 winner of the Harper Lee Prize for The Hallows

“Sharp writing and clever storytelling, with two great lead characters. The Darkest Web is like a stick of dynamite that, once lit, races toward an explosive and satisfying climax. Kristin Wright is the real deal.” —Chad Zunker, Amazon Charts bestselling author of An Equal Justice and the Sam Callahan series

“This is one of those rare thrillers that combines a fast-paced plot that will keep you guessing, powerful characters you can’t help but root for, and a richly beating heart that will capture you from the first chapter. Clear your schedule: The Darkest Web grabs hold of you and doesn’t let go until the end.” —Amy Suiter Clarke, author of Girl, 11

“Wright has done it again in the addictive sequel to The Darkest Flower. The Darkest Web is as disturbing as it is captivating, and this female-driven legal thriller includes all the elements that made Wright’s debut so successful, with twists and turns to make any reader consume it in one go, as I did. The Darkest Web will have you questioning the benefits of beauty and how well we truly know our colleagues.” —Elle Marr, Amazon Charts bestselling author of The Missing Sister and Lies We Bury

“The Darkest Web is a chilling, heart-gripping thriller that will grab you from the first page until the last. Not only is it a fast-paced legal drama, but it deals with very real trauma and delves into a world so horrifying you can’t believe it’s real. Kristin Wright is a master of getting into the twisted minds of evil people.” —Lyn Liao Butler, author of The Tiger Mom’s Tale

“For fans of Liane Moriarty and John Grisham, The Darkest Web is an addictive story that hooks you from page one and keeps you riveted through every twist until the very last page. With skilled prose, Kristin Wright has written a sharp legal thriller with heart and complex characters readers will find themselves rooting for. In Allison Barton, Wright has created a strong, smart, relatable main character, and readers will want to devour every book in this masterful series.” —Elissa Grossell Dickey, author of The Speed of Light and Iris in the Dark

“Kristin Wright cements herself as a top-notch writer of legal thrillers with The Darkest Web, an expertly woven tapestry of brutal murder and secret histories that ensnared me so completely I couldn’t stop reading until every strand was unraveled.” —Ron Walters, author of Deep Dive

From the Publisher