Into The Night by Sarah Bailey

Publisher's Synopsis

This time Gemma finds herself lost and alone in the city, broken-hearted by the decisions she's had to make. Her new workplace is a minefield and the partner she has been assigned is uncommunicative and often hostile. When a homeless man is murdered and Gemma is put on the case, she can't help feeling a connection with the victim and the lonely and isolated life he led despite being in the middle of a bustling city.

Then a movie star is killed in bizarre circumstances on the set of a major film shoot, and Gemma and her partner Detective Sergeant Nick Fleet have to put aside their differences to unravel the mysteries surrounding the actor's life and death. Who could commit such a brazen crime and who stands to profit from it? Far too many people, she soon discovers - and none of them can be trusted. But it's when Gemma realises that she also can't trust the people closest to her that her world starts closing in...

Riveting suspense, incisive writing and a fascinating cast of characters make this an utterly addictive crime thriller and a stunning follow-up to The Dark Lake.

My Review of Into The Night by Sarah Bailey

Into the Night is the second book to feature Gemma Woodstock following on from the dark and powerful The Dark Lake. She has recently moved from a small town in Victoria to the city and is still in the process of settling into the more hectic lifestyle, feeling her way in the job as she tries to prove her capability.

Detective Sergeant Gemma Woodstock is a Melbourne police detective but she is also the typical hardboiled detective. She has a difficult partner so prefers to operate solo, her boss operates at arms length and is hardly supportive, overlooking her for lead roles on cases.

By her own admission she’s a flawed character having separated from the father of her son and, although she regularly Facetimes Ben, her son, it’s nowhere near enough. She drinks, she feels a need to go out at night picking up random men in bars, yet she can’t seem to bring herself to commit to a regular relationship with men she knows. 

She and her partner pick up a high profile case involving a young up and coming actor. Taking the lead on this type of case is a daunting experience but it also helps to focus the mind on her job. This is a murder case that has the eyes of the world on her and the media scrutiny is intense. She’s committed to doing the right thing by the actor and that means trusting her partner, working more as a team and acting more responsibly.

This is a typical police procedural that follows a predictable path once the investigation begins. As joint leads, Gemma and her partner get down to the process of allocating the usual tasks necessary to try to winkle out small snippets of information that might provide a break. It’s a process that establishes Gemma’s investigative strengths and helps to provide momentum to the case. 

The high profile nature of the case means that there’s plenty of scrutiny on the team and on Gemma in particular. Oddly, though, breakthroughs come from Gemma’s personal life and other peripheral cases that appear to be unrelated. I felt this melding together of the disparate threads was borderline overly coincidental, but are woven into the fabric of the story with convincing enough proficiency as to be acceptable.

I found Gemma Woodstock to be a fascinating character, a character who is seriously complex and should be a quivering wreck given the anxieties and feelings of guilt she carries around with her. Fortunately she’s also blessed with a great deal of strength that enables her to overcome some pretty confronting moments as she deals with a few surprise twists.

Into the Night carries over the dark themes that were established surrounding Gemma in The Dark Lake. A flawed protagonist means that it’s necessary to accept a few distractions, forgive the poor life choices and celebrate the deductive insight that’s demonstrated.