Dark Site by Patrick Lee

Minotaur Books, 400 pages, $27.99

I’ve noticed something some writers do, and I’ve done the same something myself when writing but without any conscious effort. It’s worth pondering why this is so in our hyper-aware and stressful times. It is this. When a male protagonist is referred to, it is by his last name. A female character, on the other hand, is mentioned by her first name. In “Dark Site,” Sam Dryden is “Dryden,” and Danica Ellis is “Danica.” Even more telling, one of the characters is named Jack Grace, and he is referred to as “Grace.” Hmm.

I suppose I fell into a rhythm based on the stereotypes with which I grew up. The male prep school and adult male enclaves of business and the military foster males calling each other by their last names. Women are chatty, friendly, and nurturing, so they receive motherly recognition encapsuled in their chatty, friendly, and nurturing first names. The protective one receives the tougher name and the person who needs protecting receives the friendlier one.

I’ve been trying to break myself of this bias.

“Dark Site” hardly breaks the mold with tough guy “Dryden” protecting the more helpless “Danica” (i.e., she doesn’t know how to shoot a gun). However, in the sections of the story dealing with events in 1989, he is “Sam” and she is “Danica," and she is the more adventurous and daring of the two. Of course, they are both twelve years old, so they are allowed their first names.

Back to the story.

Author Patrick Lee has already written a couple of other Sam Dryden books, both fast-paced thrillers. But “Dark Site” can very well stand on its own outside of the series playbook.

In 2018, Danica is in fairly desperate financial straits in Gold Beach, Oregon, when two people attempt to kidnap her. Her background is innocuous and her life certainly has held only minimal drama, of interest to almost no one, including herself. Danica flees her perilous situation in Oregon to visit her estranged stepfather in California.

In 2018, Sam is pondering purchasing and renovating an old house in Malibu. When someone tries to attack Sam, he dodges the bullet meant for him and realizes the trail leads to where Danica’s stepfather is. He does not know Danica or her stepfather, however, so the journey is a strange and puzzling one for him. He arrives just in time to save Danica from yet another attempt to capture or kill her.

After some distrust and disquiet, Sam and Danica unite to uncover who is behind the attacks and why. Bring in the military and FBI? What if it is the military or FBI trying to kill them for nefarious reasons? They realize that they have to eventually trust someone who can provide a clue. And that is how Patrick Lee leads his readers on a merry chase, following clues obtained in heart-pounding fashion to advance the plot. He’s very good at that!

The plot of the last third of the book is a little hare-brained, but Lee presses the accelerator and zooms on at breakneck speed. Events in 1989 and 2018 toggle back and forth. We realize early on that Sam and Danica did know each other as twelve year olds. But why can’t they remember each other, especially since the events that took place when they were twelve seem to be extraordinary.

The only comfort I can give you while reading this book is to remind you that Sam and Danica somehow survive the events of 1989. They are functioning adults in 2018. Now if only they can survive the events of 2018, they will have quite a tale to tell.

Great page turner, even though the ending was a little too fantastical.