We Are All the Same in the Dark

husband read it said it was alright

When you read a book by an author and you just know it’s going to be great and you see a second one and it’s great and then you keep watch for when the next book will be out and then it’s finally out and it just BLOWS YOUR MIND!! This book I just couldn’t put it down Julia Heaberlin takes her readers to another level of crazy, mystery, who is the killer! I didn’t want this book to ever end because I wa so wrapped up with all the characters in the book and kept thinking ok we got more chapters left we can’t let it end like this and by the end....MIND BLOWN! They only give you five stars but I’m giving it 10 because the rollercoaster ride I just came off of was amazing!! 🎉🎉🎉

I have lived in Austin, Texas for decades but I plead innocent to previous knowledge of Texas author, Julia Haeberlin. Now that I have read this latest novel of hers, I’ve ordered three more of her books! That is how impressed I am her latest psychological suspense thriller. If you’re hankering for a mystery studded in rural Texas grit with an urban savvy and snaky plot, you’ve come to the right book.There’s desert and desert mythology, the wide and starry sky, Texas wildflowers, small town suspicions, and the unsolved ten year disappearance of a nineteen-year-old girl, Trumanell Branson, and her father. Her brother, Wyatt, is a Boo Radleyesque character who has always been the primary (but unproven) suspect. There’s a lot more in here to compel the reader; I was hooked from page one.Haeberlin captured my interest with her palpable humanity and atmospheric writing. This may be a police procedural, but it is also a character-driven portrait of a community still in pain. Odette, a police officer, is the protagonist with a personal stake in finding Trumanell, as she was her friend, and Wyatt was her first and longterm boyfriend and lover. They grew up together. Odette’s father was the town’s top cop at the time, but he’s dead now for five years.At the moment of Trumanell’s disappearance, Odette was trapped under her car after an accident, losing a leg in the process. Much is focused on the symbolism of her prosthesis and her missing leg becomes a kind of motif of loss, pain, and strength. Odette is married now to a successful Chicago attorney, but made a mistake by returning to Texas with him and falling backward into Wyatt again in a weak moment. Can you love two men? Finn, her husband, and a dead ringer for “Emily Blunt’s husband,” isn’t going to tolerate that.There are several mysteries in this small town. Wyatt finds a young, mute girl with a missing eye outside on the baked ground in the hot sun, barefoot. He names her Angel. A runaway? Abandoned? Odette has a covert group with her cousin, Maggie, daughter of the town preacher. They help these unmoored children by arranging escape from whatever danger they are in. And she relates to Angel’s loss—Odette’s leg, Angel’s eye. It is reminiscent of some of John Irving’s themes (Haeberlin even includes a nod to Irving within the story)--abandoned children, missing body parts, and a touch of a dreamlike quality at times within the narrative.Told in first person from various characters’ perspectives, the story advances with a thrum and well-paced rhythm, misted with levity and pop culture references. I was turning the pages with anticipation and suspense, but at intervals I enjoyed slowing down to enjoy interior moments, the characters’ imaginations and poetic observations. These emotionally tortured characters are relatable and sympathetic, often with a warm and mordant wit. Carefully mapped and executed, it would take a really sullen and cynical reader to not embrace this southern, tragic, and hopeful story. It may leave dust in your mouth but it’s also a breath of fresh air.

Wyatt finds a young girl lying barefoot in a field behind a barbed wire fence just off the highway. She wears a scarf with gold sequins over one eye. Her dress is torn. She has a few bruises on her cheek & shoulder. He picks her up & puts her in his truck. He brings her to his home. Wyatt has no idea how she got there. He thinks maybe she's a runaway. She refuses to speak.Ten years ago, Wyatt's sister disappeared. The only clue she left behind was a bloody handprint. At the time, their father (also missing) was suspect #1. Wyatt was #2. But, they couldn't prove anything. For the past 10 years, Odette (a cop) has been obsessed with trying to find out what happened to Wyatt's sister.Odette takes the girl to an unofficial safe house (her cousin's home). They name her "Angel". Who is this mute, unidentified one-eyed girl found on the side of the road?Odette was 16 when they amputated her leg. She was in a car wreck. She believes the universe brought the girl with the one eye & her (the girl with one leg) together for a reason. Then, Odette disappears. And, the girl with one eye becomes obsessed with finding a woman who was only in her life for a few days.

If you don't wish to make a writer with Trump derangement syndrome richer don't buy this book. Out of context, on page 8, she goes out of her way to make a disparaging comment about Trump voters. Not buying anything else from her.