Breaking the Dark

Breaking the Dark is a thriller for adults by Lisa Jewell, author of None of This Is True. It is the first book in the Marvel Crime series and stars private investigator Jessica Jones, a retired superhero. Her time in spandex left her with unspeakable trauma, so she now keeps away from that world and tries to get through each day in Hell's Kitchen, New York. She works alone.

One morning a distraught mother, Amber Randall, comes to her office. Jessica would rather nurse a hangover and forget the poor choices of the night before, but something in Amber's account stays with her. Amber insists that something happened to her teenage twins during a visit to their father in the UK. They no longer act like themselves. Their skin is flawless, their distinctive tics and habits have vanished, and they keep talking about a girl named Belle. Amber is convinced her children have been replaced by something horrible and "perfect."

Jessica travels to the small British village of Barton Wallop, where she meets Belle. The mysterious teenager lives in an isolated old farmhouse with a strange woman who says she is her guardian. Jessica has to work out whether Belle could really be behind the twins' changes, and why the tight-knit village seems to hold dark energies and secrets. Meanwhile her on-again, off-again relationship with Luke Cage is as imperfect as everything else in her life.

The Marvel Crime series offers a grittier, street-level view of the Marvel Universe. Later novels will feature Luke Cage, written by S.A. Cosby, and Daredevil, written by Alex Segura.