Title: The Familiar Dark
Author: Amy Engel
Published: March 2020, Dutton Books
Format: ARC Paperback, 256 pages
Source: Publisher
Summary:
A spellbinding story of a mother with nothing left to lose who sets out on an all-consuming quest for justice after her daughter is murdered on the town playground.
Sometimes the answers are worse than the questions. Sometimes it’s better not to know.
Set in the poorest part of the Missouri Ozarks, in a small town with big secrets, The Familiar Dark opens with a murder. Eve Taggert, desperate with grief over losing her daughter, takes it upon herself to find out the truth about what happened. Eve is no stranger to the dark side of life, having been raised by a hard-edged mother whose lessons Eve tried not to pass on to her own daughter. But Eve may need her mother’s cruel brand of strength if she’s going to face the reality about her daughter’s death and about her own true nature. Her quest for justice takes her from the seedy underbelly of town to the quiet woods and, most frighteningly, back to
her mother’s trailer for a final lesson.
The Familiar Dark is a story about the bonds of family—women doing the best they can for their daughters in dire circumstances—as well as a story about how even the darkest and most terrifying of places can provide the comfort of home.
My thoughts:
I seem to be on a roll this month with phenomenal thrillers and this one certainly fits that bill. This is the first book I’ve read by Amy Engel but it certainly will not be the last…I somehow missed The Roanoke Girls last year but have added it to my must-read list.
This is a dark, gritty read that is completely captivating right from the start. I read this book in two sittings because I just could not stop reading it. This book will haunt you as you become enmeshed in Eve’s life as she becomes determined to find out who killed her daughter.
I loved the way the author ever so slowly gives us pieces to the puzzle, a little bit here, a little bit there, as we learn about all the players in this book. It’s full of completely developed yet flawed characters, but the one that gets the most under your skin, the one you will not be forgetting anytime soon is Eve. I loved her. I loved her strength and how she was so willing to do anything even if that meant turning to the one person she never thought she would in order to get the answers she is so desperate to get. What she feels, her emotions – grief, anger – are so palpable…you cannot help but feel them yourself as you are reading this book.
I loved that this book completely consumed me for a few hours. I thought about nothing but this book and what was going on within these pages. Yes, it’s dark and gritty and completely atmospheric – my favorite kind of psychological thriller! – but it’s also a book that takes a hard look at the relationships between mothers and daughters as well as the lengths mothers will go to for their children. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves dark, gritty, captivating reads. You don’t want to miss this one!
