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What's Done in Darkness: A Novel Spiral-Bound | June 22, 2021
Laura McHugh
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What's Done in Darkness: A Novel
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Abducted as a teenager, a woman must now confront her past and untangle the truth of what really happened to her in this dark thriller from the author of The Wolf Wants In.
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Self • “Compulsively, propulsively readable.”—Laura Lippman, bestselling author of Lady in the Lake
Seventeen-year-old Sarabeth has become increasingly rebellious since her parents found God and moved their family to a remote Arkansas farmstead where she’s forced to wear long dresses, follow strict rules, and grow her hair down to her waist. She’s all but given up on escaping the farm when a masked man appears one stifling summer morning and snatches her out of the cornfield.
A week after her abduction, she’s found alongside a highway in a bloodstained dress—alive—but her family treats her like she’s tainted, and there’s little hope of finding her captor, who kept Sarabeth blindfolded in the dark the entire time, never uttering a word. One good thing arises from the horrific ordeal: a chance to leave the Ozarks and start a new life.
Five years later, Sarabeth is struggling to keep her past buried when investigator Nick Farrow calls. Convinced that her case is connected to the strikingly similar disappearance of another young girl, Farrow wants Sarabeth’s help, and he’ll do whatever it takes to get it, even if that means dragging her back to the last place she wants to go—the hills and hollers of home, to face her estranged family and all her deepest fears.
In this riveting novel from Laura McHugh, blood ties and buried secrets draw a young woman back into the nightmare of her past to save a missing girl, unaware of what awaits her in the darkness.
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Self • “Compulsively, propulsively readable.”—Laura Lippman, bestselling author of Lady in the Lake
Seventeen-year-old Sarabeth has become increasingly rebellious since her parents found God and moved their family to a remote Arkansas farmstead where she’s forced to wear long dresses, follow strict rules, and grow her hair down to her waist. She’s all but given up on escaping the farm when a masked man appears one stifling summer morning and snatches her out of the cornfield.
A week after her abduction, she’s found alongside a highway in a bloodstained dress—alive—but her family treats her like she’s tainted, and there’s little hope of finding her captor, who kept Sarabeth blindfolded in the dark the entire time, never uttering a word. One good thing arises from the horrific ordeal: a chance to leave the Ozarks and start a new life.
Five years later, Sarabeth is struggling to keep her past buried when investigator Nick Farrow calls. Convinced that her case is connected to the strikingly similar disappearance of another young girl, Farrow wants Sarabeth’s help, and he’ll do whatever it takes to get it, even if that means dragging her back to the last place she wants to go—the hills and hollers of home, to face her estranged family and all her deepest fears.
In this riveting novel from Laura McHugh, blood ties and buried secrets draw a young woman back into the nightmare of her past to save a missing girl, unaware of what awaits her in the darkness.
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Original Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 256 pages
ISBN-10: 0399590315
Item Weight: 0.8 lbs
Dimensions: 5.7 x 0.9 x 8.5 inches
“Laura McHugh’s psychological thrillers are characterized by their deeply wrought characters, objectively harrowing situations, and their shared setting in the Midwest and Ozarks. In What’s Done in Darkness, a woman revisits her abduction as a teenager when more information comes to light.”—Oprah Daily
“What really sets McHugh apart, though, is that her social novels are seasoned with gothic horror. Each of them has kept me reading late into the night and left me chilled by their revelations. The mountains and hollows of Arkansas are gorgeous, but there be monsters in those hills.”—Los Angeles Times
“[McHugh is] a sharp observer of the nuanced dynamics that make the Heartland tick, particularly in its shadier corners, and her female characters are rich and full of life—even when they’re the victims of horrific evils.”—Elle
“Laura McHugh has been reinventing the rural noir to tell women’s stories, and her latest is a harrowing venture into a deeply religious community hidden in the Ozarks.”—CrimeReads
“Laura McHugh is already on everyone’s short list of crime writers to watch for, someone who just goes from strength to strength. Compulsively, propulsively readable, it never loses sight of what’s really at stake for its characters—or its readers.”—Laura Lippman, bestselling author of Lady in the Lake
“What’s Done in Darkness is a beautifully paced story of a young woman’s courage to confront, both psychologically and by novel’s end literally, an evil that might again entrap her.”—Ron Rash, bestselling author of Serena
“It’s hard to find a truly original thriller these days, one that’s populated with unique characters and a plot that feels fresh. But with What’s Done in Darkness, Laura McHugh has managed a new spin on the genre. A riveting, poignant, and propulsive read.”—Amy Engel, bestselling author of The Familiar Dark
“In her latest spine-chilling thriller, McHugh weaves a dark and delicious spell. Seamless, expressive writing, a voice like a crystal clear lake, an intimate sense of place, and storytelling that keeps the pages spinning make this a thriller that should be at the top of everyone’s summer reading list.”—Julia Heaberlin, internationally bestselling author of We Are All the Same in the Dark
“Thoughtful, compelling, and steeped in the secrets of its backwoods setting, What’s Done in Darkness is a cry for justice for the girls and women lost on the shadowy, ultrareligious fringes of the homeschooling movement.”—Amy Gentry, bestselling author of Good as Gone and Bad Habits
“This is one heck of a spine-tingler . . . If this one isn’t on your Thriller Reads Radar, it should be!”—Hannah Mary McKinnon, bestselling author of Sister Dear and You Will Remember Me
“What really sets McHugh apart, though, is that her social novels are seasoned with gothic horror. Each of them has kept me reading late into the night and left me chilled by their revelations. The mountains and hollows of Arkansas are gorgeous, but there be monsters in those hills.”—Los Angeles Times
“[McHugh is] a sharp observer of the nuanced dynamics that make the Heartland tick, particularly in its shadier corners, and her female characters are rich and full of life—even when they’re the victims of horrific evils.”—Elle
“Laura McHugh has been reinventing the rural noir to tell women’s stories, and her latest is a harrowing venture into a deeply religious community hidden in the Ozarks.”—CrimeReads
“Laura McHugh is already on everyone’s short list of crime writers to watch for, someone who just goes from strength to strength. Compulsively, propulsively readable, it never loses sight of what’s really at stake for its characters—or its readers.”—Laura Lippman, bestselling author of Lady in the Lake
“What’s Done in Darkness is a beautifully paced story of a young woman’s courage to confront, both psychologically and by novel’s end literally, an evil that might again entrap her.”—Ron Rash, bestselling author of Serena
“It’s hard to find a truly original thriller these days, one that’s populated with unique characters and a plot that feels fresh. But with What’s Done in Darkness, Laura McHugh has managed a new spin on the genre. A riveting, poignant, and propulsive read.”—Amy Engel, bestselling author of The Familiar Dark
“In her latest spine-chilling thriller, McHugh weaves a dark and delicious spell. Seamless, expressive writing, a voice like a crystal clear lake, an intimate sense of place, and storytelling that keeps the pages spinning make this a thriller that should be at the top of everyone’s summer reading list.”—Julia Heaberlin, internationally bestselling author of We Are All the Same in the Dark
“Thoughtful, compelling, and steeped in the secrets of its backwoods setting, What’s Done in Darkness is a cry for justice for the girls and women lost on the shadowy, ultrareligious fringes of the homeschooling movement.”—Amy Gentry, bestselling author of Good as Gone and Bad Habits
“This is one heck of a spine-tingler . . . If this one isn’t on your Thriller Reads Radar, it should be!”—Hannah Mary McKinnon, bestselling author of Sister Dear and You Will Remember Me
Laura McHugh is the internationally bestselling author of The Weight of Blood, winner of an International Thriller Writers Award and a Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award for best first novel; Arrowood, an International Thriller Writers Award finalist for best novel; and The Wolf Wants In. McHugh lives in Missouri with her husband and their daughters.