Friday, July 19, 2024

Still, Dark Places by Christina Graves

 

The Seven Sisters of Still Water. Missing but not forgotten. Memorialized in graveyard stone...

Nora Gray, true crime podcast host, is being called back to her hometown over a decade later by a desperate mother. Another daughter, gone. And Nora knows more than anyone realizes, more than even she remembers.

They call it Skull House, this home back in the woods, rundown, abandoned. And for as long as Nora can recall, the local kids have dared each other to climb the stairs to the top, to brave the ghost of Helaena Barker, who they say waits in the attic behind the door...

But Skull House hides more than tales of ghosts, and it clings tightly to its secrets. Nora is convinced it also holds the missing clues to the Seven Sisters' disappearances and why Nora herself woke up in a field near the house, covered in blood, all those years ago.

While Nora investigates the missing girls, will she be able to trust anyone around her? Will she even be able to trust herself?


Years ago, Nora was found wandering dazed and covered in blood. Her sister was never seen again. Whatever she witnessed was so horrific, her traumatized mind has blocked it from her memory.

Now as a grown woman, she has distanced herself from her past, using a different name and hosting a true crime podcast. During the call-in portion of her show, she is shocked to hear a woman call her by her real name. A woman from her hometown has tracked her down to tell her that her daughter has gone missing just like Nora's sister and the other girls from long ago. 

Reluctantly, Nora agrees to meet with this woman and try to uncover what the police couldn't or wouldn't. Returning to her hometown to solve this mystery may be the key to solving her own.

Told on two timelines from multiple points of view this twisty, emotional, psychological horror was loaded with suspense and surprises. The present-day investigation part moved a little slow for my taste. I found the storyline of the past more compelling than the current day. The ultimate connection between past and present was cleverly written. 

My thanks to Horrorsmith Publishing.

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