The Darkest Hour is a 2008 crime novel by Australian author Katherine Howell.
It is the second novel in the author's Ella Marconi series of crime novels.
It was the winner of the Davitt Award for Best Adult Novel in 2009.
Paramedic Laureen Yates has been threatened by her sister's ex-partner after a stabbing, fearing for her life and her family. But when the same man, Miles Werner, is implicated in another murder she finds Detective Ella Marconi pursuing her.
Reviewing the novel for the AustCrimeFiction website Karen Chisholm was initially worried about this being the author's second book, but found the author had "managed to do it again". She concluded that "Katherine Howell writes a damn good story â her plot is faultless, tension and suspense balanced with small havens of down time for both the characters and reader."
After the novel's initial publication in 2008 by Pan Macmillan it was reprinted by Pan Books in the UK in 2014. The novel was also translated into Dutch in 2009 and German in 2010.