Hello Beautiful People! Welcome to a new review! For this review, I get into a first for the site which is finishing off a series. Although just a small three-book series the Oak Knoll series has been super enjoyable to check out and I enjoyed all the books in the series a lot. Getting into the final book of the series Down the Darkest Road by Tami Hoag I’ll say that while I had some hopes of what it would be and while it was completely different from what I expected it was a good read, it defiantly feels like this series wasn’t meant to end at three books.
Main Characters:
- Lauren Lawton: Moves to Oak Knoll with her daughter Leah to try and get a fresh start for them after the loss of her other daughter Leslie when she was abducted many years ago and her husband died soon after, finds that this new start however may not be so fresh and be very tainted by the past
- Leah Lawton: Was always in the shadow of her older sister Leslie and even after her disappearance is even more now, is heavily neglected by her mother who is obsessed with finding out who took her sister, finds that her mother’s obsessions may hurt her
- Tony Mendez: Detective with the Oak Knoll police who takes an interest in Lauren Lawton and tries to do things for her that other police couldn’t
- Anne Leone: Connects with Lauren when she moves to Oak Knoll due to a shared past of trauma
- Wendy Morgan: Becomes friends with Leah when she moves to Oak Knoll due to their also similar shared past of dealing with traumatic situations
- Rolland Ballencoa: Is who Lisa believes took her daughter although she has no proof of it, finds that he may be stalking her family all these years after destroying it
- Greg Hewitt: A private investigator who is helping Lauren find info on Rolland and a little fling for Lauren
My Review
As I had said before given that Down the Darkest Road by Tami Hoag is the last book in the Oak Knoll series I was expecting it to go a bit differently. While the second book followed a different plot line than the first it had a lot of the characters from the first book in it making it feel closely connected. While I am definitely not mad about the way this book went I kind of wish that Tami maybe continued to play off of the same characters from the first two books. Really other than Tony there are no other continuing main characters from the other book. Anne and Wendy pop up throughout the book but to me, it felt a bit like an unnatural stretch. I wish that Tami maybe brought back Tommy as a character for this one to bring in the plot of the mystery. I don’t know I just feel like that would have flowed a bit better with the first two books rather than bringing in a handful of new characters to create a new mystery. I guess to be fair though one of my complaints about the other books is that I felt like Anne was unfairly picked on a lot and in this book, she is just a happy pregnant mom who doesn’t have to get beat up at all. Sadly, Vince really isn’t in this book much and he was always my favorite character so I missed him being in this book.
I gave Down the Darkest Road a 7/10 rating overall. The mystery in this book is fantastic and super interesting, but like I said before it felt very separate from the rest of the series. Pushing that aside it’s a thrilling book, but also one that gets your blood boiling. Lauren Lawton and her teenage daughter Leah have been through more than two people should ever have to go through. After getting in trouble and being told to stay in the house Leah’s older sister Leslie left against her parents’ wishes and was never seen again. Devastated by his daughter’s disappearance Lauren’s husband died by suicide years after she was gone leaving her and Leah alone. Thinking Oak Knoll could bring something new for them Lauren soon sees she is sadly mistaken when she realizes that the past will continue to follow them there. Detective Tony Mendez takes an interest in his newest residents and their past, and soon finds that he may be able to figure out things that other law enforcement couldn’t in the past.
A factor that I struggled with in the book is that it follows mainly Lauren and her daughter, and this may be a bit too blunt but Lauren is a tough character to like. Don’t get me wrong there is a lot I respect about her. She had been through a lot as a mother and wife, and my heart absolutely hurt for her, but she is also an incredibly rude person. I understand what happened making her hard and cold to people, but she often took it to levels that weren’t needed. I got why she may have been frustrated with law enforcement as there had been a lot of injustices done to her family, but I didn’t like how she often acted like they didn’t care or weren’t doing anything when they clearly were. If anything she often put herself in extremely dangerous situations that she would need saving from police and then would turn around and tell them that they sucked. There is this element to the mystery in which Rolland the man that Lauren believes took her daughter is extremely calm, cool, and collected, and due to this has control over a lot of situations. Lauren played into this way too much letting it control her and it just made me cringe at her often throughout the book. I also didn’t love how Lauren treated Leah. I understood that she was hurting from the loss of her other daughter but the way she essentially forgot the other one was tough to see throughout the book. She forced her daughter to live in this bubble while also neglecting her in ways, but again would then put herself in dangerous situations so she was just a very hypocritical character.
The book essentially follows Lauren and Tony as they try to figure out if and why Rolland took Leslie, why he is stalking the Lawton family now, and if Leslie is dead or alive. Some parts felt a bit like filler for me and I think it could have gone at a touch of a faster pace but overall a good read. You really don’t have to have read the other two books to read this one so if you haven’t checked out the first two and are interested in this one don’t hesitate to check it out. I would definitely recommend checking out the first two books but they are very different from this one but have a few similar characters.
Have you read Down the Darkest Road by Tami Hoag before? What did you think? Did you like the first two books better than me, or did you prefer this one?
*** Don’t go any further if you don’t want to read any spoilers ***
It’s pretty clear throughout the book that Rolland killed Leslie and was now going after family but the question was why. There was an aspect to this though at the end that I didn’t see coming.
Turns out Rolland moved to Oak Knoll first and Lauren followed him there to keep an eye on him in the hopes of finally catching him doing something that would prove he killed Leslie. Lauren is super unstable throughout the book and I just hated how she put Leah in danger.
Eventually, Rolland does what we all expect and goes after Leah. He does this with the help of his partner Greg whom he met in jail. Turns out Greg’s name isn’t really Greg and he used to be bunkies with Rolland. The two essentially became crime friends and committed crimes together as a duo. Greg lied to Lauren saying he was a private investigator to try and get his way into her life because I guess that’s his thing and they eventually wanted to get Leah and Lauren. They do but Lauren outsmarts them and can save her and Leah.
Overall not a lot of twists, but the book ends with Lauren having some closure on what happened to Leslie and she and Leah can finally move on. It was a nice ending in that way but I don’t think Lauren had to do all that and risk her other daughter to get the answers, but I guess she also felt pretty desperate.
I hope you enjoyed this review! Feel free to follow me on my socials @baddiebookreviews to be kept up to date for when I release a new review!
Baddie Book Reviews 