Desolate by Ker Dukey

Desolate by Ker Dukey

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I didn’t know what to expect from Desolate, but I can guaran-damn-tee you that it wasn’t to fall for the sociopath. When I finished reading Empathy I was happy that Ryan got what he deserved and though I must admit that I forgot all about last part of the Epilogue that laid the foundation for this book, I still never would have expected to finish Desolate feeling like Ryan had been redeemed. Yet, Ms. Dukey has managed to leave me feeling exactly that way. Now the hard part begins, writing a review that is spoiler free while conveying how much I loved this book.

Desolate finds Blake and Melody together eighteen years later, preparing for their daughter to go off to college in the fall and planning to have another child. Their love and devotion to one another is obvious as is the fact that they still have that “spark,” as evidenced by the extremely hot kitchen sex they have in the beginning of the book. Clearly, all is well in their world. Until Blake gets the call from Ryan’s psychiatrist and learns that Ryan has been deemed to no longer be a danger to himself or others and is expected to be released from the psychiatric hospital in the next three months. At this news, I was likely as outraged as Blake was but obviously for an entirely different reason. Sociopaths cannot be cured. As Ryan says later in the book, there’s nothing to fix because it’s missing, not broken. My outrage was not directed at the author. Oh no. Sadly, the narcissism that led Ryan’s psychiatrist to believe that he fixed the unfixable exists in every profession, including psychiatry. And as a highly intelligent sociopath, Ryan would have easily been able to pick up on the doctor’s narcissism and manipulate him to obtain his freedom. Nope, my anger was at the character who unleashed Ryan’s darkness back into the world.

As for the rest of the story… Oh. My. Goodness!!! Ms. Dukey writes so many twists and turns into the story that I never saw coming, yet they’re all believable. I loved the relationship that Ryan developed with Cereus and that after he spent some time with her, he didn’t want to hurt her – no desire to whatsoever. His desire to protect her was so thorough that any plans for revenge he had for Blake and Melody were discarded because to hurt them, was to hurt Cereus. But you know what they say about good intentions – the road to hell is paved with them. Where Empathy was about Blake’s redemption, Desolate is Ryan’s trial by fire and it’s a freaking bloodbath. But we are talking about a serial killer here, so that’s not surprising. Again, Ms. Dukey’s attention to detail when it comes to the sociopathic mind is impressive and I can only hope that the epilogue is a promise for another book in the series. Well done Ms. Dukey.

I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
Reviewed by Angela at Crystal's Many Reviewers!

Check out the Desolate Release Day! blog post on Crystal's Many Reviewers.


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