'A dark and beautifully written thriller with a haunting ending that will stay with you long after you've turned the last page. 'Engel masterfully creates a milieu in which women struggle against all odds to provide the best lives possible for their daughters. “A dark, deeply compelling novel with a twist at the end that made me gasp.” –Laura McHugh, award-winning author of The Wolf Wants In A powerful, gripping, heart-stopping read.' As Eve Taggert seeks vengeance for her daughter’s murder and descends into the depths of her own jagged past, we are reminded that a mother’s love is a fearsome thing. ' The Familiar Dark is a blistering rural noir brimming with dark secrets and the harsh realities of survival in a hardscrabble town. This rural noir stakes Engel’s claim to that dystopian terrain somewhere between Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects and Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone.' Without sacrificing any of the narrative’s ferocious urgency, Engel gradually discloses a few of Eve’s own guilty secrets-on the way to some gut-wrenching final revelations. And it's the beautiful writing that knifes through you in this one.' ' The Familiar Dark follows a mother who investigates a dark murder. 'From its gripping beginning to its sobering finale, Amy Engel's The Familiar Dark never fails to enthrall with surprising twists.' 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. 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. 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. 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. Eve Taggert, desperate with grief over losing her daughter, takes it upon herself to find out the truth about what happened. Set in the poorest part of the Missouri Ozarks, in a small town with big secrets, The Familiar Dark opens with a murder. Sometimes the answers are worse than the questions.

'From its gripping beginning to its sobering finale, Amy Engel's The Familiar Dark never fails to enthrall with surprising twists.'– Associated PressĪ spellbinding story of a mother with nothing left to lose who sets out on an all-consuming quest for justice after her daughter is murdered on the town playground. One of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 2020 (Mystery/Thriller)

The familiar dark a novel