Love in a Dark Place
A man revisits an ill-fated love affair in the gritty, tragedy-infused Atlantic City novel Love in a Dark Place.
A former lover reflects on his lost partner in Geoffrey Douglas’s historical novel Love in a Dark Place, about Atlantic City’s alluring, treacherous secrets.
In 2017, Sarah, an addict in her sixties, drowns. In 2018, Harry, a professor who was once a reporter, reminisces about meeting her decades earlier when she worked as an escort. Enthralled by the revival of the Atlantic boardwalk through the construction of new casinos in the late 1970s and early 1980s and by the teeming grittiness that such businesses invited, from suicides to mafia crimes, Harry thrived at the Herald, writing about his chosen beat. But now, his views about the past are changing.
Flashbacks reveal Sarah and Harry’s gradual involvement with each other. Their relationship progressed from a transactional one toward romantic dates, though neither of them expected to build a future together. However, the book’s efforts to humanize Sarah’s sex work involve typecasting: She was a beautiful, cagey woman who seemed sad, a detail that Harry dwells on more than once. Indeed, he characterizes her as “doomed” and considers her a “child of a woman.” She is thus reduced to someone fated to meet with tragedy. Still, Harry falls in love with her, generating suspense about the terms of their parting.
The scenes that take place just before Sarah’s drowning are poignant. As Sarah fell apart, her daughter sought Harry’s help on Sarah’s behalf. Regrets, the effects of aging, and the ties that persist despite people’s changes meld with bittersweet memories, which gather depth through Harry’s clear concern for Sarah. His attempts to piece together what happened to Sarah intensify as he explores the mob’s role in her life.
Atlantic City’s underworld is drawn in stark terms and with mentions some of its more notorious figures. Drawing on his training as a journalist, Harry reveals the boardwalk’s history, decline, and transformation in ways that highlight its lesser-known microcosms, including a boxing gym and one of its fighters. These stories tie into past betrayals in Sarah’s life, and the stunning cruelty exhibited toward her is revealed in foreboding layers.
Beyond the novel’s focus on the traumas Sarah endured is Harry’s pensiveness, and the darkness is balanced by the duo’s bright shared moments. Indeed, as Harry’s initial fascination with the boardwalk is complicated by revulsion at its vices and his fear for Sarah’s safety, rich considerations emerge about how people’s decisions are seldom easy to judge. Even Harry’s choice to pursue the truth to the detriment of another person is not judged. His pain over caring for someone who could not be helped transforms the novel into a powerful elegy.
Love in a Dark Place is a rending historical novel about a reporter’s quest to comprehend an elusive woman in a corrupt town.
Reviewed by
Karen Rigby
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
