Darling Girls
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4.4 • 33 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
It's not just secrets buried at Wild Meadows.
For as long as they can remember, Jessica, Norah and Alicia have been told how lucky they are. Rescued from family tragedies and raised by a loving foster mother on an idyllic farming estate, they were given an elusive second chance of a happy family life.
But their childhood wasn't the fairy tale everyone thinks it was. And when a body is discovered under the home they grew up in, the foster sisters find themselves thrust into the spotlight as key witnesses. Or are they prime suspects?
A thrilling page-turner by New York Times bestselling author Sally Hepworth of sisterhood, secrets, love and murder.
WINNER OF THE NED KELLY AWARDS BEST DEBUT CRIME FICTION 2024
LONGLISTED FOR THE MARGARET AND COLIN RODERICK LITERARY AWARD 2024
LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKPEOPLE BOOK OF THE YEAR ADULT FICTION 2024
Praise for Darling Girls
'Sally Hepworth's Darling Girls is the kind of story that grabs you hard and doesn't let go. Easily one of the best books I've read all year. An absolute page-turner from first word to last, and a story told with wit and compassion. It's got HUGE HIT written all over it, and I'm going to be pressing it into the hands of everyone I know. A superb and haunting mystery.' Jane Harper
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Australia's broken foster care system comes into focus through the eyes of three women who've endured it in this bleak domestic thriller from bestseller Hepworth (The Soulmate). Jessica Lovat is a professional home organizer with obsessive tendencies; Norah Anderson takes other people's employment competency tests for money and struggles with anger issues; and social worker Alicia Connelly's low self-esteem keeps her locked away from the world. Though not blood-related, the trio call themselves "sisters" since living together at Wild Meadows Farm under the watch of their abusive foster mother, Holly Fairchild. Now, 25 years later, Wild Meadows has been sold, leading to the discovery of human remains buried under the farmhouse, and authorities bring Jessica, Norah, and Alicia from Melbourne to the crime scene in Port Agatha for questioning. Hepworth toggles viewpoints and timelines, revealing how each girl was placed at Wild Meadows and showcasing Holly's erratic—possibly even murderous—behavior. While Hepworth's vivid prose helps to maintain the plot's momentum, the unrelenting descriptions of child abuse grow grim and tiresome, and the payoff to the core mystery is deflating. Hepworth has done much better in the past.
