We Are All the Same in the Dark
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Synopsis
It’s been a decade since Trumanell Branson disappeared, leaving only a bloody handprint behind. Her pretty face still hangs like a watchful queen on the posters on the walls of the town’s Baptist church, the police station, and in the high school. They all promise the same thing: We will find you. Meanwhile, her brother, Wyatt, lives as a pariah in the desolation of the old family house, cleared of wrongdoing by the police but tried and sentenced in the court of public opinion and in a new documentary about the crime.
When Wyatt finds a lost girl dumped in a field of dandelions, making silent wishes, he believes she is a sign. The town’s youngest cop, Odette Tucker, believes she is a catalyst that will ignite a seething town still waiting for its own missing girl to come home. But Odette can’t look away. She shares a wound that won’t close with the mute, one-eyed mystery girl. And she is haunted by her own history with the missing Tru.
Desperate to solve both cases, Odette fights to save the lost girl in the present and to dig up the shocking truth about a fateful night in the past–the night her friend disappeared, the night that inspired her to become a cop, the night that wrote them all a role in the town’s dark, violent mythology.
In this twisty psychological thriller, Julia Heaberlin paints unforgettable portraits of a woman and a girl who redefine perceptions of physical beauty and strength.
Synopses source: The StoryGraph
Review
Genre(s): Fiction, Mystery/Thriller
HB&W Rating: 4 stars
View on StoryGraph, Goodreads
Buy on Barnes & Noble | Amazon
I took this book with me for the plane ride on vacation last week – another book to fit the June Travel prompt for my book challenge, since I took it with me traveling. 😉
This small town mystery/thriller is a quick ready courtesy of its short snappy chapters and compelling story. I love how the author represented people with differing abilities in the story, really delving into what it’s like day in and day out for people using prosthetics.
The author did a great job of making me question my theories – though I was right in the end. 😉 Still that feeling that nothing was as it seemed was so pervasive and lent an overall sinister feel to the book. Sometimes the way things were phrased was confusing and I needed to reread those snippets to try to find sense in it. I think this was an attempt to keep the reader questioning everything but it detracted from my enjoyment a bit. I couldn’t always tell if it was Odette trying to think or think like Trumanelle, for example.
It was a very compelling story, though, and I found myself eager to get back to it when I had needed to put it down. It gripped me and didn’t let go. I would definitely recommend this for anyone who likes an atmospheric mystery/thriller.
Until next time,
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