Wednesday, June 30, 2021

72. When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain

listened on Libby, borrowed from Library
narrated by Marin Ireland
Unabridged audio (11:29)
2021
371 pgs.
Adult Mystery set 28 years ago (hard to call in HistFict!!)
Finished  6/30/2021
Goodreads rating: 3.92 - 20,891 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: 1993 Mendocino, California

First line/s: "The mother who tore off her dress when the police came to her house with the news and then ran down the street in only her shoes, while her neighbors, even the ones who knew her well, hid behind their doors and windows, afraid of her grief."

My comments: A very intense story about child abduction/s and one woman who has overcome a rough childhood in foster care to become tough, smart detective bent on saving kids. This is a good mystery with the unfolding of her own story beautifully woven in.  Set in Mendocino, California in 1993 - no cell phones or internet!

Goodreads synopsis:   Anna Hart is a missing persons detective in San Francisco. 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 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 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.
        From the New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Wife comes a novel of intertwined destinies 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?

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