Thereβs a notorious stretch of road known as Sally in theΒ Wood, where far too many drivers have met tragic ends. OneΒ night, a taxi driver narrowly avoids hitting a ghostlyΒ figure that darts across the road. The next morning, eightΒ hiking Girl Guides discover the body of a dead girl on aΒ woodland trail near Folly View College. Was she running fromΒ something? And what really happened on Halloween night, whenΒ a group of students held an impromptu bonfire party and oneΒ of them ended up dead in ONE DARK NIGHT by Hannah Richell.
The dead girl is Sarah, a recent transfer student who easilyΒ integrated into the social scene at Folly View. AsΒ classmates are interviewed, Rachel Dean, the Head of StudentΒ Welfare at Folly View College finds her daughter, EllieΒ strangely detached from the tragedy. After learning herΒ daughter attended the party, and evidence was found of anΒ altercation between her daughter and the victim, Rachel, andΒ her husband, Detective Sergeant Ben Chase, becameΒ increasingly concerned. As the investigation deepens, RachelΒ and Ben must put aside their personal differences and findΒ out how Ellie is involved and who ultimately ended the youngΒ womanβs life.
Set in a close-knit British community, ONE DARK NIGHT brimsΒ with a dark academia atmosphere, intense teenage emotions, andΒ twisting plotlines. Sarah's death is both brutal andΒ mysterious, and suspects abound: a jealous classmate, aΒ rejected love interest, a local drug dealer, a predatoryΒ faculty member, a homeless drifter, or the unsettlingΒ caretaker who roams the campus at night. Clues unfoldΒ through bloody clothing, cryptic messages scrawled on theΒ body, a missing phone, a single arrest, text trails, andΒ fractured family dynamics. As jealousy and betrayal come toΒ light, readers are pulled into a web of suspense that keepsΒ them guessing until the final pages, when even the mostΒ likely suspect becomes less likely. ONE DARK NIGHT is highlyΒ engaging and readable; the characters hook you in and takeΒ you on a ride of haunting intrigue and unrelenting suspense.
When a body is found the day after Halloween, a small British community must reckon with its past and the dangers lurking in its present in this spine-tingling novel from “not to be missed” (Hayley Scrivener, author of Dirt Creek) author Hannah Richell.
On Halloween, a group of teenage students meet in the woods near Sally in the Wood, a road steeped in local lore and rumored to be haunted by the ghost of a murdered girl. By the end of the night, one student will be dead.
Rachel, the school guidance counselor, is trying to keep a handle on her increasingly distant teenaged daughter, Ellie, while students and parents panic and mourn. Her ex-husband and detective Ben, dealing with a personal crisis of his own, has concerns about his daughter’s safety as he investigates the death. Meanwhile, Ellie is keeping secrets from both her parents, including one about where she was that night.
Told from multiple perspectives and with Hannah Richell’s distinct “atmospheric and ever-twisting” (Emylia Hall, author of the Shell House Detective Mysteries) prose, One Dark Night is a white-knuckled and suspenseful thriller about urban legends, privilege, and how the past continues to haunt us.
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