J.
Kaye Oldner: This author has
a talent of getting deep inside a
character's mind - the dark part,
the scary part, the part that some
author's don't touch. I highly
recommend her books on audio. The
narrator's voice for this one as
well as her previous book added
richness to both the story and
characters.
D A R K P L A C E S
Gillian Flynn
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.
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.
Reviews:
"Love her or loathe her, Libby
Day won't be forgotten without a
fight."
—Marilyn Stasio, The New York
Times
"Edgar-finalist Flynn's second crime
thriller tops her impressive debut,
Sharp Objects. When Libby
Day's mother and two older sisters
were slaughtered in the family's
Kansas farmhouse, it was
seven-year-old Libby's testimony
that sent her 15-year-old brother,
Ben, to prison for life. Desperate
for cash 24 years later, Libby
reluctantly agrees to meet members
of the Kill Club, true crime
enthusiasts who bicker over famous
cases. She's shocked to learn most
of them believe Ben is innocent and
the real killer is still on the
loose. Though initially interested
only in making a quick buck hocking
family memorabilia, Libby is soon
drawn into the club's
pseudo-investigation, and begins to
question what exactly she saw-or
didn't see-the night of the tragedy.
Flynn fluidly moves between cynical
present-day Libby and the hours
leading up to the murders through
the eyes of her family members. When
the truth emerges, it's so twisted
that even the most astute readers
won't have predicted it.”
(May)
—Publishers Weekly
"Once in a while a book comes along
that puts a new spin on an old idea.
More than 40 years ago, Truman
Capote (with In Cold Blood)
took readers inside the Clutter
farmhouse in Holcomb, KS, to show
them what it was like to walk in a
killer's shoes. Flynn (Sharp
Objects) takes modern readers
back to Kansas to explore the
fictional 1985 Day family massacre
from the perspective of a survivor
as well as the suspects. In order to
identify the true killer, an adult
Libby Day must come to terms with
the traumatic events of her
childhood, when her mother and two
sisters were slaughtered. Although
Flynn sometimes struggles with the
large cast of characters she has
amassed, each with his or her own
set of volatile foibles, and
complicates matters by dealing with
them in both the present and the
past, the tight plotting and
engaging characters carry the reader
over the few rough patches that
appear. For all public libraries."
—Nancy McNicol, Library
Journal
"The sole survivor of a family
massacre is pushed into revisiting a
past she'd much rather leave alone,
in Flynn's scorching follow-up to
Sharp Objects (2006). On a
January night in 1985, Michelle Day,
ten, was strangled, her
nine-year-old sister, Debby, killed
with an ax, and their mother, Patty,
stabbed, hacked and shot to death in
the family farmhouse. Weeks after
jumping out a window and running off
in the Kansas snow, Libby Day,
seven, testified that her brother
Ben, 15, had killed the family, and
he was sent to prison for life amid
accusations of sex and Satanism. End
of story-except that now that the
fund well-wishers raised for Libby
has run dry, she has to raise some
cash pronto, and her family history
turns once more into an ATM. A
letter from Lyle Wirth promises her
a quick $500 to attend the annual
convention of the Kill Club, whose
members gather to trade theories
about unsolved crimes. When
self-loathing Libby ("Draw a picture
of my soul, it'd be a scribble with
fangs") realizes that none of the
club members believes her story, she
reluctantly agrees to earn some more
cash by digging up the leading
players: Ben, whose letters she's
never opened; their long-departed
father Runner, who's as greedy and
unscrupulous as Libby; Krissi Cates,
the little girl who'd spent the day
before the murders accusing Ben of
molesting her; and Ben's rich,
sleazy girlfriend Diondra Wertzner.
Flynn intercuts Libby's venomous
detective work with flashbacks to
the fatal day 24 years ago so
expertly that as they both hurtle
toward unspeakable revelations, you
won't know which one you're more
impatient to finish. Only the
climax, which is incredible in both
good ways and bad, is a letdown. For
most of the wild story's running
time, however, every sentence
crackles with enough baleful energy
to fuel a whole town through the
coldest Kansas winter."
—Kirkus Reviews
About the Author:
Gillian Flynn’s
debut novel, Sharp Objects, was an
Edgar Award finalist and the winner
of two of Britain’s Dagger Awards.
She lives in Chicago with her
husband, Brett Nolan, and a rather
giant cat named Roy.
Visit Gillian's
Website
