Title: We Are All The Same In The Dark
Author: Julia Heaberlin
Publisher: Michael Joseph UK
Synopsis:
It’s been a decade since Trumanell Branson disappeared, leaving only a bloody handprint behind. Her pretty face still hangs like a watchful queen on the posters on the walls of the town’s Baptist church, the police station, and in the high school. They all promise the same thing: We will find you. Meanwhile, her brother, Wyatt, lives as a pariah in the desolation of the old family house, cleared of wrongdoing by the police but tried and sentenced in the court of public opinion and in a new documentary about the crime.
When Wyatt finds a lost girl dumped in a field of dandelions, making silent wishes, he believes she is a sign. The town’s youngest cop, Odette Tucker, believes she is a catalyst that will ignite a seething town still waiting for its own missing girl to come home. But Odette can’t look away. She shares a wound that won’t close with the mute, one-eyed mystery girl. And she is haunted by her own history with the missing Tru.
Desperate to solve both cases, Odette fights to save the lost girl in the present and to dig up the shocking truth about a fateful night in the past–the night her friend disappeared, the night that inspired her to become a cop, the night that wrote them all a role in the town’s dark, violent mythology.
In this twisty psychological thriller, Julia Heaberlin paints unforgettable portraits of a woman and a girl who redefine perceptions of physical beauty and strength.
My review:
We Are All The Same In The Dark is an atmospheric novel which definitely builds tension, but I’m not quite sure whether I enjoyed it or not. It feels like a fresh novel, and i told in two distinct parts. It follows various characters in a Texas town as a young girl with only one eye is discovered by the side of the road: Wyatt, the local man who found her; Odette, a troubled police officer who has been romantically linked with Wyatt in the past; and the young girl herself.
There are parts in the first half which really gripped me, and others that I felt dragged on a bit. Then about half way through things suddenly change, and this twist – which I don’t want to give too much away – changes the dynamic of the book.
I really enjoyed Heaberlin’s previous books Black Eyed Susans and Paper Ghosts, and although I struggled to connect with the characters in We Are All The Same In The Dark, I do think this is a really well crafted book. I think if some parts were a little faster paced I would have enjoyed it even more.
Rating: 3/5
Many thanks to the publisher, Michael Joseph UK, for providing a copy of this novel, on which I chose to write an honest review.