Jason Dressen is a physics professor at
second rate Lakemont College in Chicago. A family man, content with the choices
he’s made and his station in life. But, maybe there is some regret, a few “what
ifs” that haunt him from time to time. But when Jason is kidnapped at gun-point
and taken to an abandoned power plant, he knows exactly what is important to
him, exactly how much his family and comfortable life mean to him. As he begins
to lose consciousness from the drugs administered by his kidnapper, believing
death is imminent, the kidnapper asks, “Do you regret your decision to stay
with Daniela and make a life with her?” Jason answers, “No…never.” He wakes up
in a world that isn’t his. He’s Jason Dressen, a renowned, award winning
physicist, successful beyond his wildest imagination. But he has never married,
no son. And he doesn’t remember any of it. The novel is then about Jason’s
quest to get back to his wife and child, no matter the cost, while navigating
scientific breakthroughs that he discovered, yet doesn’t understand. 
DarkMatter is Black Crouch’s eighteenth novel, but the first I’ve read. It is a
science fiction mystery, not something I usually read, but after hearing so
much about it from so many different people, I had to give it a try. The science
was a little over my head, but no so much that I didn’t understand the implications it
had on the rest of the story.
Mr. Crouch does excellent work in the
development of Jason Dressen, something that seems hard to do in a fast paced
thriller. A man who starts as a content, humble, and somewhat timid man has to
become more than that to accomplish his goal. He not only needs to find his strength,
but also a viciousness that most of us hope we never need; and to learn that
sometimes love means letting go. The challenges he faces in the alternate
realities force him to do that, but if he’s able to find his own world, his
Daniela, will he be the same Jason he was when he was taken?
Science Fiction readers will love Dark
Matter, I’m sure. But if you’re a mystery/thriller lover, step just outside
your comfort level and give it a try. I expect you’ll be thrilled you did!
Crouch, Blake. Dark Matter, Crown, July 26, 2016.
- ISBN-13: 978-1101904220
A copy of Dark Matter was provided to The Thirty Year Itch by the publisher via NetGalley.com. No compensation was provided for this review.
