Dark Site by Patrick Lee
Publisher: St. Martin’s Publishing Group
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Fern

On an otherwise normal morning, former Special Forces operative Sam Dryden is the target of an unsuccessful attempted abduction. Using his attacker’s cellphone, he learns that another person, a woman named Danica Ellis, is also being targeted. Dryden arrives just in time to save Danica from the assault team sent after her. But neither of them recognize the other, or have any idea why they are being targeted. The only clue is a heavily redacted, official-looking document given to Danica by her stepfather before he was killed.

Dryden immediately recognizes it as a “scrub file.” A scrub file is a record of what a subject knew before their memories were chemically destroyed. The redacted document refers to witnesses to a secret military site in Ashland, Iowa in 1989. Both Dryden and Danica Ellis lived in Ashland in 1989, when they were both twelve years old, though neither of them has any memory of the other.

Switching back and forth between the present day, when Dryden and Danica try to elude the forces that are after them, and the past in Ashland, Iowa, when both were twelve, making a discovery that forever changed their lives, this latest Sam Dryden novel proves yet again that Patrick Lee is one of the most original, compelling thriller writers today.

On what began as a normal morning has ex-Special Forces Sam Dryden fighting off an unsuccessful abduction attempt and then following the only link to a woman called Danica Ellis. Having never laid eyes on each other, Sam is astonished when moments after his arrival Danica also is nearly abducted by a unit eerily similar to the one who attempted to abduct him. Clearly the two of them are linked somehow – but if they’ve never met how can they be connected? As they each reach back into their pasts can they solve what’s really going on before it’s too late?

This is the third book featuring Sam Dryden and while they each are very self-contained with no real links between the stories they do each have a similar feel and pace to it. I feel anyone can pick this up by itself and thoroughly enjoy the suspense and action-orientated pacing of the plotlines. In this story I was pleased that the book bounces from the present (2018) back to 1989 when the main series of events leading to the current day occurred. As Sam and Danica discover more about the past it is merged quite well with these flashbacks so the reader learns of events and connections as the two main characters do. I felt the author did a good job with this balancing enough information to keep the plot moving but without the jarring quality flashbacks often seem to have. I thought this was well handled.

Readers who enjoy a solid mystery plot with elements of bio-warfare and military angles in it, along with a nefarious enemy lurking in the shadows should find that this sort of mystery really fits the bill. While the action keeps the pace moving at quite a solid clip the book didn’t come across to me as rushed and I had time to enjoy the unraveling of the plot. Readers who enjoy a faster pace to their stories should find this really appeals to them.

With a small cast of well-rounded and interesting characters plus an interwoven plot spanning the past and present times this was a good book and an author I enjoy.