Gillian Flynn rocketed to fame with her book Gone Girl, a twisty tale of love and madness. It would be very hard for any writer to duplicate that kind of success, but Flynn is a a great writer and she has continued to write books that are intriguing, plumb the depths of the human psyche and have characters that are always a bit broken in some compelling way. Dark Places is no exception!

Libby Day just wants to live her life, but her past makes that almost impossible. When she was seven her mother and two sisters were killed in a gruesome triple homicide that the media called the “Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas.” Even worse, her fifteen year old brother, Ben, was arrested and tried for the murder and it was Libby’s testimony that sent him away to prison. Libby never quite got over the horror of losing her entire family and although initially she was able to live off the royalties of books and documentaries recounting the horrific murders, now, twenty five years later, the money as well as the interest in the case has dried up.

Then she gets a call from someone who says he wants her to come and talk to the “Killer Club,” a group of armchair detectives who pursue their passion for mystery and crime detection by taking on old cases and trying to solve them. Although Libby is initially just interested in the money that she might make by going to talk to the group, she is startled to find that there is a small but ardent group within the club who believe her brother is innocent of the crime!

Eager to prove them wrong, Libby begins looking into the case herself, opening boxes and going through files of documents from the trial that have sat untouched for all these years. Soon she is following up leads that take her from Missouri to Oklahoma and back to Kansas and the scene of the crime and what she uncovers is more deadly than she ever imagined.

Flynn has a real flair for the twisty, unmoored narrator, and Libby is no exception. She is not an empathetic character, but you root for her anyway because you want her to be successful at something and to begin to live her life which has been on hold for twenty five years. Flynn strings you along, leaving little clues along the way all leading to an unstoppable ending!

Brenda’s Rating: ****(4 Out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Marian and Sharon

Book Study Worthy? yes

Read in ebook format.