When the Stars Go Dark
Paula McLain
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars
3.86
· 28 ratings · 385 pages · Published: 13 Apr 2021
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
An atmospheric novel of intertwined fate and heart-wrenching suspense: A detective hiding away from the world. A series of disappearances that reach into her past. Can solving them help her heal?
Anna Hart is a seasoned missing persons detective in San Francisco with far too much knowledge of the darkest side of human nature. When tragedy strikes her personal life, desperate and numb, Anna flees to the Northern California village of Mendocino to grieve. She lived there as a child with her beloved foster parents, and now she believes it might be the only place left for her. Yet the day she arrives, she learns that a local teenage girl has gone missing.
The crime feels frighteningly reminiscent of the most crucial time in Anna's childhood, when the unsolved murder of a young girl touched Mendocino and changed the community forever. As past and present collide, Anna realizes that she has been led to this moment. As Anna becomes obsessed with saving the missing girl, she must accept that true courage means getting out of her own way and learning to let others in.
Weaving together actual cases of missing persons, trauma theory, and a hint of the metaphysical, this propulsive and deeply affecting novel tells a story of fate, necessary redemption, and what it takes, when the worst happens, to reclaim our lives--and our faith in one another.
Tagged as:
- thriller 4
- mystery 3
- historical 3
- historical fiction 3
- suspense 3
- crime 3
- law enforcement 3
- psychological 2
- literary fiction 2
- drama 2
- dark 2
- true crime 2
- horror 2
- realistic 2
- family 1
- police procedural 1
- tragedy 1
- female mc 1
- kidnapping/abduction 1
- whodunit 1
- Add topics
- format - reader age
- audiobook 3
- book 1
- adult fiction 1
- content warnings
- murder 3
- abuse 2
- death / grief 1