"Powerful, beautiful and not for the faint-hearted. "
Plenty of books fit into the ‘Small town, big secrets’ genre, but for my money this is one of the best. Set in the poorest part of the Missouri Ozarks, the story follows Eve Taggert as she sets out on an all-consuming quest for justice after her daughter is found murdered on the town playground next to the body of her best friend. Eve is a mother with nothing left to lose and her search for the killer leads her into the very darkest depths of the human psyche.
The small, hardscrabble town of Barren Springs is brilliantly portrayed, as is Eve herself – a pleasingly complex protagonist grappling with her own family demons. The story also has some great twists and packs a real emotional punch. Powerful, beautiful and not for the faint-hearted.
| Primary Genre | Thriller and Suspense |
| Other Genres: |
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Closing date: 02/08/2026
One of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 2020 (Mystery/Thriller)
"From its gripping beginning to its sobering finale, Amy Engel's The Familiar Dark never fails to enthrall with surprising twists."-Associated Press
A spellbinding story of a mother with nothing left to lose who sets out on an all-consuming quest for justice after her daughter is murdered on the town playground.
Sometimes the answers are worse than the questions. Sometimes it's better not to know.
Set in the poorest part of the Missouri Ozarks, in a small town with big secrets, The Familiar Dark opens with a murder. Eve Taggert, desperate with grief over losing her daughter, takes it upon herself to find out the truth about what happened. Eve is no stranger to the dark side of life, having been raised by a hard-edged mother whose lessons Eve tried not to pass on to her own daughter. But Eve may need her mother's cruel brand of strength if she's going to face the reality about her daughter's death and about her own true nature. Her quest for justice takes her from the seedy underbelly of town to the quiet woods and, most frighteningly, back to her mother's trailer for a final lesson.
The Familiar Dark is a story about the bonds of family-women doing the best they can for their daughters in dire circumstances-as well as a story about how even the darkest and most terrifying of places can provide the comfort of home.
The Familiar Dark features in the following genres: Crime and Mystery, Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Thriller and Suspense, Psychological thriller
The Familiar Dark is available in Paperback, Hardback
The Familiar Dark was written by Amy Engel and published by Random House an imprint of Diversified Publishing
The Familiar Dark has 460 pages
