I wasn’t sure I even wanted to read When The Stars Go Dark, having been underwhelmed by The Paris Wife (I thought Circling The Sun was OK — I know, I’m in the minority on both these titles). But when I read the blurb from Kristin Hannah that said it was “….guaranteed to keep the reader up all night,” I jumped at the chance to read this book (from Random House/Ballantine and NetGalley), in exchange for this honest review.

I immediately liked protagonist Anna Hart, a police detective from San Francisco who runs from her home in the City north to Mendocino, following a tragedy (which is only revealed slowly in an excellent unspooling of the reasons why Anna HAS to get away). She has good memories of Mendocino, having landed there in a solid home as a young girl following her stay in various horrible foster homes.

When Anna arrives in Mendocino, she becomes very curious about a missing teenage girl. It is eerily reminiscent of the unsolved murder of Anna’s childhood best friend, which seems to have contributed to her work with criminals and survivors as an adult, after she left Mendocino.

Her curiosity evolves into obsession as she works with people she has known for years, including her childhood friend’s brother, to try to save the missing girl. Set in the 1990s, Ms. McLain weaves in actual cases (including Polly Klaas) and information about the effects of childhood trauma as she has Anna use everything she remembers and has learned since to try to solve the current mystery. I started reading late afternoon, and while it didn’t exactly keep me up all night, for sure I grabbed my Kindle first thing in the morning and read til I was finished. 

My husband’s reading tastes lean more toward historical (both fiction and fact, including military history), but I suggested he try this one since we lived on the north coast of CA when we were first together, and I thought he’d like Anna. He loved it, and so did I. Five stars.