WHAT'S DONE IN DARKNESS by Laura McHugh - Review & Giveaway

 


WHAT'S DONE IN DARKNESS (Penguin/RandomHouse) is my first Laura McHugh thriller and it certainly won't be my last. It's a tight pithy book that sucks you in at the very beginning. It's told in alternating time lines, I really got to know the Sarabeth character and her family of zealots.

17 year-old, Sarabeth Shepherd's family left one cultish Arkansas church for a more rigid one. The family doesn't believe in books, television or movies and the women wear their hair to their waist and long dresses. Everyone works on the farm. Her family regards her as the problem child and Sarabeth dreams of turning eighteen so she can runaway. She's working at the family farm stand one day when a truck pulls up and what appears to be a man wearing a mask gets out, chases her down and kidnaps her. A week later she's found uninjured on the side of the road in a bloody slip. Her family doesn't believe she was kidnapped. They think she ran away for attention. Once she turns eighteen she does runaway, hoping to put her childhood behind her for good.

Nick Farrow of the Missouri Highway Patrol, Missing Persons Unit contacts her because he thinks her captor may be kidnapping women again and he hopes she'll help him. But the last thing, Sarabeth now known as Sara wants to do is revisit that time in her life. She's moved on. Her friends don't know about her past, she has a job, friends, a house, but in many way she's still trapped. Eventually she agrees to help Farrow and she has to confront her past to unravel the truth. 

I felt the tension building while reading WHAT'S DONE IN THE DARKNESS. It's a rather short novel, so there was no let-up until the very surprising ending. I didn't see it coming.  

I felt sad after reading WHAT'S DONE IN THE DARKNESS knowing that many cults exist that don't respect, particularly women's rights. I don't doubt women are being held today against their will and even killed by radical cult leaders. There's a lot of dark woods in this country.

Laura McHugh is the author of The Weight of Blood, winner of an International Thriller Writers Award and a Silver Falchion Award for Best First Novel, and the Missouri Author Award for Fiction. The Weight of Blood was named a Best Book of the Year by BookPage, the Kansas City Star, and the Sunday Times (UK), and was also nominated for an Alex Award, Barry Award, and GoodReads Choice Award (Best Mystery and Best Debut). Her novel Arrowood was a finalist for the 2017 International Thriller Writers Award for Best Novel, and The Wolf Wants In was named one of the best books of 2019 by Library Journal. 

A lifelong Midwesterner, McHugh lives in Missouri with her husband and children.

Thanks to Penguin/RandomHouse we have one copy to giveaway. Just tell us if you enjoy real crime stories and why. We'll announce a winner soon. Good luck.

GIVEAWAY: USA only please.




Comments

  1. MrsBumblesJune 22, 2021 at 9:25 AM

    I love true crime stories. It's very difficult to lose your focus as you try to pay attention to every detail so you know how the crime was solved or who committed the crime if you don't already know. The thought process of a killer fascinates me, as does profiling. It does blow my mind that it seems the subject matter "well" never runs dry. So many horrific crimes.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Padmini RaoJune 22, 2021 at 11:13 AM

    I love true crime stories because I’ve always like scary stories even as a child. I love horror movies as well. I like to be entertained. suzie_rao@yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. diannekcJune 22, 2021 at 3:41 PM

    I enjoy true crime stories, I guess because you know they really happened. When true crime stories are on TV, it's hard to stop watching.
    Dianne. diannekc8(at)gmail(dot)com

    ReplyDelete
  4. bn100June 22, 2021 at 4:09 PM

    sure, to find out what happened

    bn100candg at hotmail dot com

    ReplyDelete
  5. travelerJune 22, 2021 at 5:48 PM

    True crime stories are fascinating and intriguing since they are authentic. saubleb(at)gmail(dot)com

    ReplyDelete
  6. KatherineJune 22, 2021 at 7:02 PM

    What's Done in Darkness sounds incredibly hard hitting! I like pretty much all the subgenre's in crime fiction. With respect to true crime, it's fascinating to learn more about crime scenes and the investigation aspect, and satisfying to learn that there is some resolution to the case (which is generally the situation if it's being written about or shown in a TV program) for the victim and those who love them. khpinelake (at) gmail (dot) com

    ReplyDelete
  7. JoJune 23, 2021 at 6:33 AM

    yes, they grasp you.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Kayla Book Lover in FloridaJune 25, 2021 at 5:32 PM

    Yes! So entertaining!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HOW I'LL KILL YOU by Ren DeStefano - Spotlight

Image
  Make him want you. Make him love you. Make him dead. In Ren DeStafano's novel, HOW I'LL KILL YOU (Berkley), i dentical triplets have a nasty habit of killing their boyfriends, and see what happens when the youngest commits their worst crime yet: falling in love with her mark. Sissy has an...interesting family. Always the careful one, always the cautious one, she has handled the cleanup while her serial killer sisters have carved a path of carnage across the U.S. Now, as they arrive in the Arizona heat, Sissy must step up and embrace the family pastime of making a man fall in love and then murdering him. Her first target? A young widower named Edison—and their mutual attraction is instant.  Then something happens that Sissy never anticipated: She begins to feel protective of Edison, and before she can help it, she’s fallen in love. But the clock is ticking, and her sisters are growing restless. It becomes clear that the gravesite she chooses will hide a body no matter what hap
Read more

INSTAMOM by Chanel Guertin - Review & Giveaway

Image
It's the influencer's golden rule: know your niche. In INSTAMOM (KensingtonBooks) by Chantel Guertin, Kit Kidding knows her audience. Kit promotes living and enjoying a childfree life in her instagram account hashtag #childfree. Kit believes women who choose not to become mothers and not to have children should not be judged or feel guilty.  But things change when Kit meets a smart and sexy dad with a daughter. She's smitten by Will MacGregor and his whip-smart darling eight year-old daughter, Maddie. Kit's picture perfect childfree life faces being turned completely upside down. You know where this is heading so I won't tell you anymore. Except to say, that INSTAMOM is about love and making life choices. It's about being true to yourself and being able to change, even though it may modify everything you once thought was true. It's a fun romcom you'll want to put in your summer bag and take to the pool or beach. Remember to always wear sunscreen. Chantel
Read more

THE SECRET STEALERS by Jane Healy - Review & Giveaway

Image
  It's WWII when twenty-five year old, Anna Cavanaugh finds out her husband has been killed in freak accident in Hawaii. She is intelligent, professional, teaches in DC and speaks fluent French and German. Her parents want her to spend the summer resting at the family cottage on Cape Cod. She can't imagine anything worse. In Jane Healey's, historical novel, THE SECRET STEALERS (LakeUnionPublishing) a friend of her father's, Major General William Donovan, a WWI hero approaches her at her husband's funeral about a job in DC. He asks her to come down from Boston if she's interested and when she's ready. She is. Anna is recruited into the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) a highly secretive communications center which oversees propaganda, resistance groups and gave her a front row seat to the history and tragedy of the war. She becomes Donovan's assistant but soon she's moving up, transferred to England and working in intelligence. But Anna wants to bec
Read more