What’s Done in Darkness by Laura McHugh

                

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Title: What's Done in Darkness
Author: Laura McHugh
Release Date: 6.22.21
Publisher: Random House



Publisher's Summary:
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.

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 new 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.

My Review:

I love love love Laura McHugh's novels. Ever since her debut novel Weight of Blood drew me in, I have anxiously anticipated each of her releases, first Arrowood and then The Wolf Wants In. Now she's back with What's Done in Darkness and she's delivering the same style of spine-tingling, creepy, rural noir thrill ride that has firmly cemented her in my "auto-buy author" category. McHugh's talented writing prevents me from immediately foreseeing each twist and predicting the ending. She always gets me thinking about dirty dealings and secrets that go on in small, hidden communities and especially about how easy it is for people to "disappear" from these places. As with any well written review of a thriller, it is vital to not disclose too many details, so I will simply say if you love gritty and atmospheric rural noir, you HAVE to read this novel--then you'll be a McHugh superfan like me.