THE UNLUCKY ONES is by far the darkest and bleakest entry in the Black Harbor series. Hannah Morrissey dredges the depths of the troubles that are befalling the town of Black Harbor with chilling results.

Former police transcriber Hazel Greenlee is still tormented by her ex-husband, Tommy, even though she is now living in New York. This cruel man haunts both her dreams and her waking hours. In their last text to each other before his untimely death, Tommy sent her this message: “If all you had to do was one bad thing, and you could leave Black Harbor behind forever, would you do it?”

"THE UNLUCKY ONES is a dark journey, far bleaker than anything Hannah Morrissey has shown us before."

Sergeant Nikolai Kole, who happens to be Hazel's ex-husband, is the one who discovers the lifeless body of Tommy, who was gunned down in the back of an underground club. Kole already has been swamped with the out-of-control drug epidemic in Black Harbor and spiking criminal activities everywhere. A new drug has hit the streets; it's an instant killer as it contains fentanyl and other dangerous substances inside each pill.

Tommy’s death reaches Hazel and brings her back to Black Harbor for his funeral. As she goes through her old house, she encounters Kole, who informs her that she is messing with a potential crime scene. This ends up being a very legitimate concern as they locate a kilo bag of the new drug stuffed inside a mounted deer head. They wonder if this could be what got Tommy killed, and Kole realizes that he needs to involve his confidential informant to dig for more information on the local drug trade.

Kole's primary CI for this investigation is Harriet, who warns him about Buddha. This individual supposedly is behind Tommy's murder, as well as the subsequent homicide of his best friend, Cam. When Kole finds a suspicious lottery ticket on Cam's body, he gets a chill as he has a copy of the same ticket on him, which harks back to an unsolved case from nine years earlier. Meanwhile, Kole is also dealing with his own brother allegedly getting tossed off the town bridge by a potential suspect in their case.

Hazel is initially placed under house arrest but soon is freed to add her perspective regarding a case that may now be turning into a hunt for a serial killer. The answers they get from their search will reveal not only things about the seedy underbelly of Black Harbor, but also much that is personal to both Kole and Hazel.

THE UNLUCKY ONES is a dark journey, far bleaker than anything Hannah Morrissey has shown us before. Whoever is left standing at the end of this book will not have much to look forward to, because whatever law enforcement is able to solve is only a symptom of a much larger disease that has taken hold of Black Harbor.