Amazon Books-A-Million Category:  Mystery/Suspense Publisher: iUniverse ISBN-10:  0595208649 Type: Fiction Pages: 212 Copyright: Nov 30 2001 University studies have never seemed so sinister... Something chilling is at work in Stratton, an isolated college town in the quiet plains of the Midwest. Jay Downing’s best friend disappears, then is found dead. When the police chief won’t pursue answers, Jay is forced to act—and is drawn into a cunning world he never knew existed. The battleground is a most unlikely source: The University Jay attends. Beneath the college campus lies a series of tunnels. Shrouded in secrecy. And frequented by a group of people capable of anything. Coed Kristin Holiday, whose green eyes draw Jay close, is the only person he feels he can trust for help. But is Kristin all she seems? Two men, one a disgraced former law officer, and the other a cop with a history that still haunts him, just might have given Jay the break he needs to bring the darkness to light. Jay realizes he must overcome the evil before it spreads further into the community, and from there... Excerpt Jay decided to head back to his apartment, but as he turned to leave he caught a glimpse of something flicker in the dark. He stopped and waited. The flicker came again…a flashlight. Coming up from the hole now were several flashes, different beams of light, getting closer. Then, suddenly, the lights halted. Jay strained to see more and heard something. “Reed!” he whispered. No response. “Let’s get out of here, now!” He was beginning to doubt it was his friend. Whomever it was apparently wasn’t hearing him. Then something appeared, grotesque. No… Jay stood paralyzed. He saw hair, then blood. Ascending. Animal? Person? More hair, more blood. Eyes. Insidious eyes. Scanning, turning his way. Jay’s stomach churned. Not real…I can’t be seeing… In one combustive motion, he sprang up, pivoted, and began sprinting. Across the distance to his apartment, Jay’s screaming strides seared the grassblades under his feet. He would not be caught.

From BookBrowser, July 2002
Even in Darkness is a chilling debut horror novel by Jeffrey Aran Leever. Unnerving and all too possible, it reads like something Douglas Clegg might write.





Jay Downing and his best friend, Reed, plan to meet at the local college with another friend and a mysterious woman. The plans get messed up. Jay and his friend are separated. When a young woman shows up and says she will take him to Reed. Jay assumes she is the mysterious woman. He doesn’t realize at the time just how mysterious she is.





”Sealed off and abandoned” is what everyone thought of the maze of dark, dank tunnels and hidden passageways under the college. No one has been down in them for decades. Jay knows differently. He hears the chanting. He sees the robed figures. He believes he saw the results of Reed’s murder. The problem is, no one believes him. And is that because no one believes there could be a satanic cult this quiet, Midwest town? Or is that because the cult is made up of a large and diverse portion of the community’s population—a cult with influence?





QUICK, TIGHT, FAST, AND FRIGHTENING. LEEVER IS THE TYPE OF HORROR WRITER WHO CAN PACE A NOVEL. IT READS LIKE IT HAS BEEN WRITTEN FOR AN EASY MOVIE ADAPTATION. DEVELOPED CHARACTERS, SHORT SCENES, REAL DIALOG. EVEN IN DARKNESS IS THE TYPE OF STORY THAT WILL LEAVE SOME HAUNTED LONG AFTER THEY FINISH READING IT.

--Phillip Tomasso III, author of Johnny Blade and Third Ring

From Twisted Tales, Sept. 2002
When Jay’s friend, Reed disappears, and he is chased from a basement room at his university, the police don’t seem interested and even accuse Jay of making the whole thing up. Jay is forced to take matters into his own hands with the help of a former disgraced police officer, and a current one with a haunting past as well as one of his classmates, Kristin.





Underneath Stratton University lie a group of tunnels, frequented by people who are capable of anything. The two police officers give Jay the clues he needs to figure out what’s going on, and what he discovers isn’t pleasant...





THIS IS AN INTERESTING NOVEL, WITH LOTS OF TWISTS AND TURNS TO KEEP YOU GUESSING. IT INTRIGUES FROM THE FIRST PAGE TO THE LAST. I found the characterization a little flat in some places, I didn’t get the feeling that I really knew any of them by the end of the book.





I never thought I’d say this about a book, but some if it moves a little too fast, so that you hardly have time to catch your breath before the next action is happening. I think it would work well as a film. As a novel it’s good, but not brilliant.

It does have suspense, and it does make you want to read on to see what’s going to happen next.





A real page turner.





Reviewed by Annette Gisby, author of Silent Screams



From Midwest Book Review, Sept. 2002
Colleges often have immense power with the locals of the communities they serve...power which can be turned for dark purposes. When Jay Downing's friend Reed Manley doesn't appear for a preappointed "night on the town," and some strange girl tries to lure Jay into the University's long unused underground tunnels, Jay begins to fear for his friend's life. The police treat Jay as if he is on drugs, and when Reed's body appears outside of town, even the coroner seems to be in on the coverup. But it is the professors at Jay's school in Stratton who act the most bizarre:



"Jay looked again at his professor, and wondered what the man knew. What pieces of the truth he held. It was as if Lanum was trying to hold back something, and yet share it at the same time. As if there'd been something Jay had done that gave Lanum reason for contempt. It had to have been something independent of their never-quite-so-serious interactions in class. But what?"



The idea that a university setting could be used for nefarious purposes, and that professors (who, after all, are supposed to represent the creme de la creme) could be arch-fiends stirs up a shiver of recognition in all of us. (Who hasn't dreamt about not attending class and not knowing where their final was?)



EVEN IN DARKNESS IS A WELL WRITTEN, SPINE-TINGLING, GOTHIC, STEPHAN KINGISH NOVEL THAT GRIPS THE READER FROM PAGE ONE. Leever's use of uncertainty in speech, action, and tone puts the reader into a nervous state from the beginning. It is an excellent tool to produce the results he wants, which is to scare us to death and keep us turning those pages. Even In Darkness is a great first effort in the genre for Leever, and presents him as a new talent to be reckoned with. It is entertaining, scary, infuriating, and deeply satisfying, all at once. A great read. Reviewed by Shelley Glodowski, Midwest Book Review