Twelve Steps from Darkness-Karen E Taylor

Twelve Steps from Darkness
Karen E. Taylor
Juno, Apr 2007, $12.95
ISBN: 9780809557882

Alcoholic and prescription drug abuser Laura Wagner destroyed her marriage to professor Tony and her addictions cost her any chance of custody of their two daughters, eight years old Lizzy and twelve years old Mandy. She comes out of a bar and hits the accelerator while in reverse; smashing into the vehicle parked behind hers, a police cruiser driven by Woodland Heights officer Mike Gallagher who remains haunted by the unsolved disappearance of five children.

Three months sober blur by as she is finally is considered a candidate to attend the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program. Following her time in rehab, she goes to her new home, but begins to hear voices coaxing her to end her life insisting she would be better off dead than fighting her craving for a drink. Meanwhile Lizzy suffers nightmares that her mommy is hurt and in danger as she insists the voices want mommy dead. As Mike is attracted to Laura in spite of her addictions, Tony is marrying Susan. The voice continues to coax Laura that she is better off dead. She finds the first corpse in her basement, as Lizzie becomes depressed that something wants her mommy dead and will kill those her mommy cherishes to force the final act.

This is an exciting psychological horror thriller as readers will wonder until the climax whether Laura suffers from psychoses or is there something or someone trying to push her over the edge of sanity. Laura keeps the exhilarating story line focused as she struggles with inner demons while trying to remain sober, but the twelve step method that she follows seems to be failing once she begins hearing the voice and having the dreams just like her the nightmares haunting her daughter. Karen E. Taylor provides a deep tale of a woman trying to regain her equilibrium, but in trouble with the audience wondering whether it is mental or demonic.

Harriet Klausner