Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

Dark Places

A Novel

Gillian Flynn

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Themes
Family murder, Search for the truth, Questionable testimony
Pacing
Mixed

Who it’s for

  • For readers interested in a family-murder mystery and a search for the truth.
  • For readers who enjoy stories that alternate between past events and a later investigation.

Where it sits

How strongly BookFrontier reads the book as belonging to each subject.

Nearest books

Closest matches from our semantic model, which compares what books are about, then ordered by what their readers also loved. Most of these share its genres: Psychological Thrillers and Suspense.

  1. Gone GirlGillian Flynn63% match
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  4. Famous Last WordsGillian McAllister61% match
  5. The Life We BuryAllen Eskens63% match
  6. Then She Was GoneLisa Jewell61% match
  7. Local Woman MissingMary Kubica63% match
  8. None of This Is TrueKristin Atherton, Ayesha Antoine63% match

For younger readers: A Northern Light, All These Bodies, A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

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About this book

I have a meanness inside me, real as an organ.

Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in “The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas.” As her family lay dying, little Libby fled their tiny farmhouse into the freezing January snow. She lost some fingers and toes, but she survived–and famously testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer.

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Twenty-five years later, Ben sits in prison, and troubled Libby lives off the dregs of a trust created by well-wishers who’ve long forgotten her.

The Kill Club is a macabre secret society obsessed with notorious crimes. When they locate Libby and pump her for details–proof they hope may free Ben–Libby hatches a plan to profit off her tragic history. For a fee, she’ll reconnect with the players from that night and report her findings to the club . . . and maybe she’ll admit her testimony wasn’t so solid after all.

As Libby’s search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist towns, the narrative flashes back to January 2, 1985. The events of that day are relayed through the eyes of Libby’s doomed family members–including Ben, a loner whose rage over his shiftless father and their failing farm have driven him into a disturbing friendship with the new girl in town. Piece by piece, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started–on the run from a killer.

Publisher details

Publisher categories

  • Women Detectives
  • Suspense
Authors
Gillian Flynn
Publisher
Crown Publishing Group
Published
May 5, 2009
Format
Print & ebook
Reading lane
Women Detectives