Dark August : a novel /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

"Dark August is a tightly-paced cauldron of a thriller about small town corruption, murder and mayhem, in the vein of Sharp Objects and All The Missing Girls. A macabre and confidently twisty debut." -- Lisa Gabriele, internationally bestselling author of The Winters

An electrifying, page-turning debut about a young woman haunted by her tragic past, who returns to her hometown and discovers that there might be more to her police detective mother's death--and last case--than she ever could have imagined.



Augusta (Gus) Monet is living an aimless existence with her grifter boyfriend when she learns that her great grandmother--her last living relative--has just died. Ditching her boyfriend, Gus returns to the home she left as a young girl. Her inheritance turns out to be a dilapidated house and an old dog named Levi. While combing through her great grandmother's possessions, Gus stumbles across an old trunk filled with long-lost childhood belongings. But that's not all the trunk contains. She also discovers cold case files that belonged to her mother, a disgraced police detective who died in a car accident when Gus was eight. Gus remembers her mother obsessing over these very same documents and photographs, especially a Polaroid of a young ballerina.

When Gus spots a front-page news story about the unearthing of a body linked to one of the cold case files from her childhood trunk, she can't resist following her mother's clues. As she digs deeper, determined to finish her mother's investigation, her search leads her to a deserted ghost town, which was left abandoned when the residents fled after a horrific fire. As Gus' obsession with the case grows, she inadvertently stirs up the evils of the past, putting her life in danger. But Gus is undeterred and is committed to uncovering long-buried secrets, including the secrets surrounding a missing geology student, the young ballerina in the Polaroid, a prominent family's devastating legacy, and a toxic blast that blew an entire town off the map.

But is Gus ready to learn the truths that culminated on one terrible August night, more than a decade earlier, when lives were taken, and secrets were presumed buried forever...?

Dark August introduces a bold new voice and will leave readers guessing until the final startling conclusion.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Screenwriter and director Tallo makes her debut with an engrossing mystery. Twenty-year-old Augusta "Gus" Monet, who's been leading an aimless life, returns to her hometown of Ottawa, Canada, after she learns of the death of her great-grandmother, Rose. When Gus was eight, Rose sent her away to boarding school after Gus's widowed police detective mother, Shannon, died in a car accident. At Rose's house, Gus finds a trunk filled with Shannon's cold case files. She remembers that her mother was obsessed with local powerbroker Kep Halladay, convinced he was responsible for multiple suspicious deaths and a college student's disappearance, but Shannon's efforts to expose him were thwarted at every turn by Halladay's wealth and connections. When a body is unearthed that's connected with one of the cold cases in the trunk, Gus gets on the same investigative trail as Shannon, and in so doing unleashes a terrifying and violent chain of events. Distinctive characters and an intricate plot will keep readers turning the pages. Tallo is off to a promising start. Agent: David P. Halpern, Robbins Office. (June)

Booklist Review

This truly inspired piece of writing, reminiscent of William Faulkner, whose most acclaimed novel is, interestingly enough, Light in August. In Dark August, we meet Augusta "Gus" Monet, a 20-year-old badly damaged by the death of her mother when she was eight and by an emotionally deprived childhood spent under her great grandmother's care. Living an aimless existence in Toronto with a no-good boyfriend, surviving on the proceeds of petty crime, Gus learns that her great grandmother has died. At first, it appears that all that has been left to Gus is a decaying old house and a geriatric dog, but then she makes an amazing find in great granny's mattress and uncovers a special treasure that reconnects Gus to her police-detective mother--files from the crime she was working on at the time of her death. Gus journeys, often dangerously, through a small town's secretive past looking for answers, as the reader witnesses her transformation into a remarkable and resilient woman while a mystery of epic proportions unfolds around her. Anyone who has read Faulkner's story "A Rose for Emily" will appreciate the singular grotesqueness that manifests itself in the closing chapters, which culminate in a frightening, yet moving, conclusion. Highly recommended for mystery fans, as well as devotees of Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro.