When the Stars Go Dark

 

When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain is hard to absorb for readers with daughters. The grisly historical fiction mystery takes the reader back to 1993 in Northern California when young girls were being abducted, including Polly Klass, one of the cases covered in this book.

Anna Hart, the protagonist, is a successful missing persons detective. She is consumed by her work, haunted by the dark side of people who abduct and harm others.

Because of a personal tragedy, Anna has fled San Francisco and heads back to her final foster home in Mendocino. When she lived there, her teenage friend Jenny had been abducted and murdered. Anna reunites with two old friends: Will, the son of the police chief and now the police chief himself, and Caleb, Jenny’s brother. All three have been damaged by what happened to Jenny.

Will is currently involved in the case of a missing girl, Cameron, daughter of a former Hollywood star who has stepped back from the limelight to raise her daughter in Mendocino. Soon after, another girl, a fictitious character named Shannon, and Polly Klass are also reported missing. Even though she is on leave, Anna decides she was drawn back to Mendocino to help Will find Cameron.

When one of the girls decaying body is found, Will and Anna double down in their efforts to find Cameron before time runs out. A most menacing suspect who has been below their radar the whole time will be revealed.

While it is a different sort of McLain book, readers will be riveted to their seats for this page turner.

I loved the two Paula McLain books about two of Ernest Hemingway’s wives, The Paris Wife and Love and Ruin. With an MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan, she is also the author of two collections of poetry and the memoir Like Family: Growing Up in Other People's Houses, her story about being a foster child. Her work has also appeared in a number of magazines. Born in California, McLain lives with her family in Cleveland, Ohio.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting February 9, 2021.

I would like to thank Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.