Mystery Galore

Lisa Unger’s Black Out

She’s done it again! Mrs. Unger has mesmerized me with her way with words. I enjoyed her first two novels (Beautiful Lies and Sliver of Truth) and thought she couldn’t outdo herself…I was wrong. I picked at this novel into the wee hours of the night until my eyes begged to be closed. Ha, I even stowed away from the sunlight because of it’s annoying ability to bounce off the white pages and practically blind me. This is truly an amazing book. I have been waiting months for this and it’s been well worth the wait.
It’s about a woman (Ophelia…Annie…) who took part in some terrible deeds. She thinks all her troubles are behind her until she goes to a get together with a friend. Then it all starts to fall apart. There’s a mysterious man following her, her memories flood back but in pieces (leaving the key elements out-ah!), her husband becomes a mystery to her, and there’s lots of blood. My only mistake…that I didn’t start it sooner. Enjoy!

Pg. 70: Gray is not a handsome man, not in the classical sense. Though there’s something in the way he carries himself that makes a girl forget he’s not easy on the eyes … There’s a hard silence to him, a shell you’re not sure you want to crack. There was no reason for me to fall in love with him … The first time I met Gray, he handcuffed me and threw me in the back of his car.

Pg. 75: I always loved the way he said my name…when Marlowe said my name, it took on a new life…he drew out the ‘eee’ like he was caressing it with his tongue.

Pg. 202: I’m not sure how many more women or girls there were. I remember flash details – garishly red lipstick, a turquoise barrette, a flower tattoo, sparking pink nail polish badly applied. I hear a nervous giggle, a cry of terrible pain. These things stay with me.

Pg. 206: There are questions I’ve asked myself a number of times over the past few years: Can you shift yourself off and start again? If you’ve done unthinkable things, can you cast them away like unflattering garments, change your ensemble, and become someone else? What of the relief of punishment, the wash of atonement, the salve of forgiveness? I thought I was free.

Pg. 260: I knew in that moment that I would never be free from him. That for the rest of my life, he’d live under my skin, in my nightmares, just around the next corner.