Paula McLain: When the Stars Go Dark, 9780861540808, Oneworld Publication UK, hardback ,
Pub date May 13, 2021

(US edition 9780593357231, Ballantine, large format paperback)

 

All the novels I previously read by Paula McLain had historical backgrounds featuring strong female characters like Beryl Markham, Martha Gelhorn or Hadley Hemingway; all three terrific reads, she is a great storyteller in my opinion.  With “When the Stars go Dark” she enters a new terrain, that of a literary thriller/mystery and having just finished the last page, she has my all thumbs up!   

Set in Mendocino, Northern California, the main character is Anna Hart, a missing person detective who retreats to her home town to recovery from a personal tragedy only to walk into another missing person case of a local teenage girl, Cameron.  Will, her former high school friend and now the chief of police, gladly accepts Anna’s seasoned expertise and offer to help with the investigation. This case has a familiar ring to both of them from an unresolved disappearance of Jenny, one of their friends from teenage days.  In Anna,  McLain created a very likable, intelligent, strong protagonist who after a very troubled childhood was able to turn her life around with the help of loving forster parents.  In her author’s note McLain reveals how her own autobiography helped with the plot and the female lead and that she poured a lot of her past experiences into the book which makes it so believable. 

I had a reluctant “well let’s see about his” approach when I started the novel as I was biased being a fan of her historical novels but she won me over fast and I raced through the book towards the finale.  Paula McLain can very clearly write excellent mysteries too!