ABOUT: Through A Lens of Dark & Light
His mother’s dying wish brings a grieving photojournalist back to the small town he fled decades ago. Where his late father's enigmatic camera she left him reveals unsettling truths and a buried past.
Psychological Suspense with elements of Supernatural Mystery and Literary Thriller. This multi-faceted categorization reflects the complexity of the story and its potential appeal to a wide range of readers who enjoy character-driven mysteries with a psychological and atmospheric edge. The story will be presented to you in weekly installments beginning the evening of Wednesday, January 8th.
About The Story
Robert Sterling’s once-brilliant life lies in ruins. A former acclaimed photojournalist, his career and happiness crumbled after his wife’s death sent him into a downward spiral. When his estranged, institutionalized mother passes away, she leaves him a mysterious inheritance: his late father’s battered World War II-era camera, a cryptic letter, and an unsettling directive—return to where it all began.
Drawn back to the small town he fled decades ago, Robert confronts the shadows of his past: the shame of his father’s fatal mistake, his mother’s mental unraveling, and a haunting secret. Where he had found and lost his first love. Where—when he was 18 years old—someone had tried to kill him for what he had done.
As the camera captures images that defy explanation, Robert begins to glimpse truths that blur the line between memory and reality. Each photo pulls him closer to the answers his mother promised but also deeper into a web of guilt and buried trauma. Can Robert piece together the fragments of his past and find redemption? Or will the truths revealed through the lens destroy him for good?
Taut with suspense and deeply evocative, Through a Lens of Dark & Light explores grief, forgiveness, and the relentless pull of the past.
“All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt.”
–Susan Sontag
Advance Reader Praise
What First Look Readers had to say about the story:
[This comment came in three stages] 1) “Dammit, Dennis Lowery!! Take my money already! This is good! My lunch break is over, but I don’t want to stop reading. I think this is the best work of yours I’ve read yet. 2) I can tell a good story by the imagery it creates in my head. If it’s good, as I’m reading, I’m seeing the events unfold like a movie... and that’s exactly what’s happening here. Down to background details. 3) Finished. That was excellent, and I’m extremely impressed. I was actually laughing to myself and called you an SOB for the twist at the end. Well done.” –Dan S. He further added this via social media: “Want a good read? I mean, a really good read? This is an excellent story... and if you don’t follow Dennis, I’d suggest you do. I don’t follow many authors, but I enjoy his works. Good stuff... do it... do it now.” –Dan Syes
“I love how the whole time I kept falling from one surprise into the next and how, from beginning to end, the story kept building and building. The entire time, when you think, ok - this is it, another surprise is presented. Absolutely amazing until the last paragraph. And I do have to mention this again... Dennis… the way you describe details... I can’t tell you how special that is. Details that I think no one else would ever notice. You paint a picture with your words like no one else.” –Nina Anthonijisz.
“This grabbed me right away. Compelling... is it a ghost story!? [rhetorical question] I loved how the writing perspective changes between present and past. You tied up the loose ends beautifully. A great read.” –Debra D.
“As a reader, there is no better experience than to forget you are reading and just become immersed in the story. This book did that…. A story, once read, you will never forget.” –Amy R.
“I was plowing through a really bad book and finally gave up. I loaded this book that I had downloaded a little while back, and thank you, Dennis Lowery for saving me from the reading blues! Excellent job! Loved the work! It was a really great read. I'm still thinking about it. And the end with the SPOILER REMOVED really hit home with the perspective of what one's feelings, experiences, and sometimes tragedies might be to others.” –Mike M. Jensen
“I'm halfway through, Dennis. It's wonderful. Hard to put it down. Great read!” [when she finished] “Best I've read in a long time. I finished it late last night and even dreamt about it. I woke this morning, and it's still with me... I cannot tell you how deeply this story affected me. I was drawn in from the very first song lyrics. I found myself singing each familiar tune along in my head, and as it always does, allowing the music to work as a time machine. In so many ways, I related to this tale. I loved how you wove now and then together through wakening and dreaming happenings. I loved the premise of light and dark, and the lens we all use to focus on what matters most to us... love, understanding, even forgiveness reaching back to heal the misunderstandings of the past.” –Bobbie T.
"In a story combining the writing style of O’Henry with the suspense of Rod Serling's Twilight Zone, Dennis Lowery takes the reader on a fast-paced journey about love lost and love regained. With a riveting story-line, the reader is left hanging at the end of each chapter, eagerly ready to jump into the next. Very well written!!!" –Jim Zumwalt (James G. Zumwalt is the bestselling author of Bare Feet ~ Iron Will - Stories from the Other Side of Vietnam's Battlefields, The Juche Lie | North Korea's Kim Dynasty and Doomsday Iran: The Clock is Ticking).
"I thoroughly enjoyed this story and read it in one sitting, which is unusual for me. It kept me interested." –Mark Rawls
"Fantastic! Oh, this made me cry happy tears and had me riveted the entire time. I knew SPOILER PART REMOVED... I didn't want to continue, but I was compelled to finish even though I knew there was sadness mixed with joy. It makes me think that I should look at moments in my life differently." –Kira H.
"A wonderful, rich story full of every detail I could imagine. I particularly enjoyed the music references and flow between past and present. Well Done." –Fay Handstock
"So well written... the detailed descriptions taps into all the senses... nostalgia at its best. You know you've tapped into something great when each frame changes, moving you forward yet gives new meaning to a previous scene or event. It's a re-read with several stories, and even in that, there are the stories that each character could tell. I'm left wanting more!" –Lena Kindo-Kamara