In Barren Springs, Missouri, two pre-teen girls are found murdered in a park. Who did this terrible deed haunts every resident, but none more so than Eve Taggert, mother to one of the murdered girls. Eve becomes determined to find her daughter's killer at all costs. But throughout the investigation, will she be able to handle the secrets that arise and that involve those closest to her?
In THE FAMILIAR DARK, Amy Engel has truly mastered a potent blend of an emotional roller coaster and shocking, controversial topics. This is not a run-of-the-mill suspense/thriller tale, and it becomes a meticulous and intricate story that rules the heart and the mind, with every sentence orchestrating a symphony of heightened emotion. THE FAMILIAR DARK will thrill and chill readers, showing how much Engel has grown as a writer since her last book, THE ROANOKE GIRLS.
A powerful tale of mothers and daughters, readers looking for an atypical tale that is guaranteed to make your heart race, THE FAMILIAR DARK by Amy Engel will be an unforgettable ride that I will not forget anytime soon.
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.