When the Stars Go Dark
A Novel
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4.1 • 853 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • GOOD MORNING AMERICA BUZZ PICK • “A total departure for the author of The Paris Wife, McLain’s emotionally intense and exceptionally well-written thriller entwines its fictional crime with real cases.”—People (Book of the Week)
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY MARIE CLAIRE • “The kind of heart-pounding conclusion that thriller fans crave . . . In the end, a book full of darkness lands with a message of hope.”—The New York Times Book Review
“This mystery will keep you guessing, and stay with you long after you finish. Dive in.”—Daily Skimm
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, Anna, desperate and numb, 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. The most difficult lessons of her life have given her insight into how victims come into contact with violent predators. 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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Paula McLain’s previous bestsellers, The Paris Wife and Circling the Sun, were tender historical romances. This dark, emotional thriller is something very different. In 1993, empathetic San Francisco police detective Anna Hart returns home to the small coastal town of Mendocino, California, reeling from a personal tragedy. Before long, the local sheriff—Anna’s childhood best friend—asks her to join the search for a missing local girl. As the case turns into a hunt for a potential serial predator, Anna must fight down painful memories of her own. McLain sets her story during the real-life nationwide search for the kidnapper of Northern California 12-year-old Polly Klaas and works real-world statistics and case studies about missing children into her haunting, lyrical prose. When the Stars Go Dark manages to feel both dreamlike—we loved the poetic descriptions of the foggy, disorienting woodlands of the Pacific coast—and devastatingly real. This is a gripping read with extremely high stakes.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the start of this stunning crime novel from McLain (The Paris Wife), Anna Hart, a San Francisco detective who's on indefinite leave following a tragic incident that has brought her marriage to the brink and destroyed her faith in herself, is driving to Mendocino, Calif., where she spent part of her childhood with the foster parents who offered her a first taste of stability. Soon after she arrives in town, she spots a missing person poster: 15-year-old Cameron Curtis, adopted daughter of a recently retired actor, has vanished. Cameron's fate reminds Anna of the still-unsolved murder of a childhood friend that occurred when she was in high school. "Someone has to save this girl," she resolves. "And it has to be me." Then other similar crimes start coming to light, and Anna becomes eerily aware of the disturbing connection between the victims and their predators. McLain matches poetic prose with deep characterizations as she shines a light on the kindness in her characters' souls. Fans of literary suspense won't be able to put this one down.
Customer Reviews
Almost put it down
Got through chapter 3 and was confused and bored.
Well happy I picked this story back up.
Well worth the read
Wow! Don’t miss this book
I can’t share enough about every single page I enjoyed in this book. Every emotion was touched in this historical fiction story with highs and lows, and descriptions I could see in my mind while reading this book. Not every author accomplishes such a range of emotions when I read, but truly Ms. McLain has done that for me in When the Stars go Dark, with every character I enjoyed as well as disliked.
Wow. Just...wow.
I've seen other titles by this author, but this is the first of her books that I've read. I wasn't sure I was going to like it at first, but after a few chapters I couldn't put it down. She has a beautiful style of writing, and seamlessly threads the past into present day. I also absolutely loved the mystical thread running throughout the book. We know so little about ourselves, and almost nothing about that which we cannot see. I had goosebumps reading the conclusion and the ending was satisfying, desperately sad, and yet, still hopeful. This book is definitely worth a read!