When the Stars Go Dark

 

 When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain (2021) 384 pages

Main character Anna Hart is running from tragedy which has struck her immediate family. There are little details except visual bits and pieces in the beginning as to what exactly has happened to her. All we know is that she is running from it, and is feeling deeply guilty by what has happened. Anna returns to northern California, Mendocino specifically, where she spent her time in foster care as a child. She feels that Mendocino is the only place where she can return, not only to grieve what has happened recently, but return to the trauma she experienced before ending up in foster care. She is a detective, taking time off from her official position, but is soon drawn into a missing person's case which has struck the small town of Mendocino. A movie star's daughter, also an adoptee, has gone missing. Anna joins the search with her friend Will, a local sheriff who is investigating the case. This story not only draws on themes of abuse and trauma, but how one can identify these things happening in a young person's life, and what that can look like from the outside. Anna becomes obsessed with the case when not only the movie star's daughter disappears, but multiple from neighboring counties. As the story unfolds, we learn more of what Anna went through herself as a young child, being ripped out of the only family she knows when her mother overdoses on drugs and is placed apart from her siblings. I enjoyed the mystery aspect and uncovering the details in the missing person's case, but also in the healing and grieving process in what is happening in most immediate time setting in Anna's life. Overall a really solid read.