When the Stars Go Dark

When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain 384 pages

I’m a huge fan of author Paula McLain. She writes some of the most compelling historical fiction today focusing on forgotten women like pioneer aviator Beryl Markham and Hadley Richardson and Martha Gellhorn (Hemingway’s first and third wives). Well, there’s been a renewed interest in the Hemingway wives sine Ken Burns’ documentary on Papa aired on PBS last April (2021). This time out, McLain threw me. The protagonist of this contemporary historical fiction is a fictional character but still possess the strength of those real-life women.

The year is 1993. Missing child expert Detective Anna Hart of the San Francisco Police Department has come to the small town of Mendocino (also in northern California) to grieve a personal tragedy. I like the way McClain wasn’t upfront with the Anna’s heartbreak---it was one of the plot lines that made this a page turner. Mendocino holds special meaning for Anna, as she lived there with her foster parents.

Anna came to be alone, to clear her head, to work things out. It didn’t help that her marriage is also crumbling.  She came to find the peace of wilderness.

On her first tip into town, she reads the bulletin board at the local coffee shop and learns that a local teenage girl, Cameron Curtis, is missing. This could turn out to be a high-profile case as Cameron is the daughter of a television mega-star who is hiding out, hoping the case will be quickly solved. Anna doesn't want to get involved, even though the case seems similar to one that occurred when she lived there. Anna knows the local sheriff and many of the other villagers, but she came here to heal, not solve another case.

The year 1993 is significant. Readers may remember that as the year real-life Polly Klaas was abducted from her home in front of her friends. So that case is floating around in the novel’s background. And with yet when another teenage girl goes missing in the next town, Anna is drawn in to the cases. There must be some connection between that cold case from so many years ago and the two local ones. And so, she offers to help.

This novel falls into several genres: mystery, suspense, literary, historical fiction and thriller, but the one that stood out the most to me was the literary aspect…several times I had to slow down and re-read some of the sentences because they were so beautifully written. I wish I had marked a few that really stood out, but alas, the copy I read is a library book, and I was too lazy to copy them. DANG! I think y’all would have liked to read a few.

 “When the Stars Go Dark” receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.