NATIONAL BESTSELLER • PEOPLE PICK • OPTIONED BY SISTER PICTURES FOR TELEVISION • The discovery of a girl abandoned by the side of the road threatens to unearth the long-buried secrets of a Texas town’s legendary cold case in this superb, atmospheric novel from the internationally bestselling author of Black-Eyed Susans“If you only read one thriller this year, let it be this one. Psychologically … this year, let it be this one. Psychologically absorbing, original and atmospheric. I could not turn the pages fast enough.”—Elin Hilderbrand, #1 New York Times bestselling author of 28 Summers
It’s been a decade since Trumanell Branson disappeared, leaving only a bloody handprint behind. Her pretty face still hangs like a watchful queen on the posters on the walls of the town’s Baptist church, the police station, and in the high school. They all promise the same thing: We will find you. Meanwhile, Tru’s brother, Wyatt, lives as a pariah in the desolation of the old family house, cleared of wrongdoing by the police but tried and sentenced in the court of public opinion and in a new documentary about the crime.
When Wyatt finds a lost girl dumped in a field of dandelions, making silent wishes, he believes she is a sign. The town’s youngest cop, Odette Tucker, believes she is a catalyst that will ignite a seething town still waiting for its own missing girl to come home. But Odette can’t look away. She shares a wound that won’t close with the mute, one-eyed mystery girl. And she is haunted by her own history with the missing Tru.
Desperate to solve both cases, Odette fights to save the lost girl in the present and to dig up the shocking truth about a fateful night in the past—the night her friend disappeared, the night that inspired her to become a cop, the night that wrote them all a role in the town’s dark, violent mythology.
In this twisty psychological thriller, Julia Heaberlin paints unforgettable portraits of a woman and a girl who redefine perceptions of physical beauty and strength.
Praise for We Are All the Same in the Dark
“This chilling tale of buried sins is relentlessly unpredictable.”—The Times (South Africa)
“[Julia] Heaberlin knows how to build to a truly shocking twist, how to break a reader’s heart and then begin mending it. ‘What’s coming is always unimaginable,’ Odette’s one-time therapist tells her, ‘and by that, I mean just that. It cannot be imagined. What’s coming never acts or behaves the way we think it will.’ That’s true for this novel, too.”—The Dallas Morning News
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Haunting, original story, lyrical prose. One of 2020’s best. Highly recommended.
If you only read one thriller this year, let it be this one. Psychologically absorbing, original and atmospheric. I could not turn the pages fast enough.
Julia Heaberlin’s WE ARE ALL THE SAME IN THE DARK has surged to the top as one of my favorite reads of the year. In Wyatt, Odette and Angel, Heaberlin has created rich, multilayered characters who lead us into a darkly immersive exploration of loss and the search for the truth. I wanted to sit and savor Heaberlin’s beautiful prose but the twisty plot and unexpected revelations propelled me through the pages of this spine-chilling novel. In WE ARE ALL THE SAME IN THE DARK, Heaberlin deftly unspools the threads of an awful crime and its far-reaching implications. Absolutely mesmerizing.
Raw, stunning, both otherworldly and lapel-grabbing, this is the book to grab when you need something to grab you. Julia Heaberlin has written a tour de force.
I loved this book: gorgeous writing, interesting characters, a unique setting, and an unsettling, surprising mystery. Everyone needs to put this book on their to-be-read list right now!
An intense, intelligent thrill-ride of a book — undoubtedly the one I will be recommending all year.
We Are All the Same in the Dark by Julia Heaberlin is a twisted slow burn that left me rereading certain pages just to figure out what the heck had happened. I have only read one other book by her so far (Lie Still) and I rated it the exact same way. I really enjoy Heaberlin’s writing style and the way she can write a book that is slower paced but still addicting. The audio was fantastic and has a whole cast which I am always a fan of. Jenna Lamia, Catherine Taber, MacLeod Andrews & Kirby Heyborne narrate, and they were quite the fitting crew for this book. I love listening to slow burns, and I found that same pleasure listening to We Are All the Same in the Dark. I honestly can’t believe I muddled through life without audio for so long.
I loved that this was a Southern fiction novel (I mean Texas), and there are so many secrets you won’t even believe it. I really enjoyed all of the different viewpoints, and I would say it was pretty complex in the best way possible. It also had a bit of a gothic feel which I loved, and it is definitely very character driven so be prepared for that. If you like slow burns with unreliable narrators, I would recommend checking out We Are All the Same in the Dark. It had a wonderful amount of twists and turns, and I didn’t know what was going to happen!
Gorgeous prose, vividly imagined setting, characters that’ll break your heart, and of course, a thrilling twist.
I didn’t think I could like Julia Heaberlin’s writing more after Paper Ghosts.
Then I read this incredible novel.
The story could’ve been set just north of my hometown, its characters coming to life in the cornfields near Morse and Pringle in the Texas Panhandle, the deaths and coverups a part of its history as much as any.
And throughout this twisty, atmospheric work of fiction, Heaberlin does what few writers can: combine a delicious crime story with prose so incredible you pause only to appreciate beautiful sentences and phrases.
If you’re already a fan of hers, you’ll positively love this latest installment. If not, this novel will convert you.
5+ Stars
I just love it when a book takes hold of your mind, body and soul, and completely takes over your life and you never want to put it down; this is that book. It is a suspenseful thriller, very much a slow burn but still so addictive; I was desperate to find out all the answers to the twists, shocks, devastating events that had me turning the pages well into the night. The characters had me hanging off every word they uttered, they were written extremely well, so much so I felt I was in this story with them, it felt that real.
I thought this book was researched really well; it was deep and very meaningful. This author was very clever with her words because she took me down a long and winding path of never-ending questions that had me second-guessing every person in the town, even the good guys, and still, she keeps you guessing until the very end.
With secondary characters that are very important in this story, wonderful writing skills and an ending I wouldn’t have guessed in a million years, this book was superb in all ways. It is one I can’t recommend enough.
Holy cow what did I just read? This book is FANTASTIC!!! 10 years ago, Trumanell Branson and her father Frank disappeared. Odette’s father was the police officer on her case and it is still open. Now 10 years later, Odette is a police officer still trying to find out what happened to her friend Trumanell. Wyatt is Trumanell’s brother and the town assumed Wyatt killed his sister and his father. Odette and Wyatt dated in high school. When Wyatt finds a lost little girl in a field., Odette takes care of her and tries to figure out who she is. This story is first told by Odette then by Angel the lost little girl Wyatt found. . This story has so many twists and turns, secrets, and mystery it makes for the absolute best of thrillers! I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.
Recently finished the ebook and loved it so much I got the hardcover — and also grabbed the author’s other books. This is a thoughtful fast-paced thriller but I took my time reading it because I didn’t want it to end. And the writing was tight and beautiful.
I listened to the entire audiobook in one day and was captivated from start to finish. I can usually guess who the villain is, but I had no idea until the reveal. The descriptions are amazing. The characters are flawed and realistic. The narrators of the audiobook were perfect. I can’t recommend this enough.
A gripping, richly layered exploration of haunted souls in a haunted place… a story that keeps you guessing at every turn.
What a sad story. So many lost souls.
I had no idea where the story was going, but couldn’t put it down. It had a good ending.
Couldn’t put it down. Shocking twist midway in the story made it irresistible to keep reading to find out what happened
This was quite close to a 5 star for me but there were a few tiny things that held me back from that.
Told in 3 sections, this story focuses on a singular event where a man and his daughter go missing years earlier and are presumed dead (but no bodies have ever been found).
The first part is told by Wyatt, the son and sibling to the missing. Wyatt is a troubled man and when he finds a young girl in bad shape on the side of the highway, things are bound to take a turn for the worse. The town people already think he is a man who got away with murder. Maybe he did…
The second part is narrated by Odette. She’s a police officer, just like her father and grandfather before her. She was also Wyatt’s girlfriend the night the incident took place. She is now in a troubled marriage and unable to let the past go. She must know what happened to Wyatt’s sister.
The third section is told from the point of view of Angel. She is the girl that Wyatt finds on the edge of the road. She’s tough and has had a heartbreaking life so far. She’s on the run but is unwilling to tell anyone from what. Eventually, she too will have a role in trying to figure out what happened but it may cost her her life.
Excellent story. This was a real page turner for me. The characters were brought to life remarkably well. Wyatt is unpredictable and frightening in many ways. Yet there are some indications that he has a soft interior and is deeply haunted by the past. Whether that’s guilt or something else has to be flushed out within the pages. Odette is tough as nails. She’s stubborn and resilient. She will seek the truth no matter the price. Finally, there’s Angel. Life has been rough for her but she’s also one not to back down from a challenge. She trusts no one and for good reason.
There are several reasons I thoroughly enjoyed this book. First, I really thought Heaberlin did a great job bringing the reader into the story. I was able to get a real feel for the atmosphere. Everything from the “Blue House” that Odette lives in to the eerie ranch where Wyatt resides, the details paint a vivid scene. Next, the action scenes are intense but in a subtle way. There’s just enough tension to bring a reader to the edge of their seat but not so much that it seems unrealistic. Finally, I liked the conclusion. I had some suspicions and ended up guessing right in some ways but was off base in others.
There were two main reasons I did not give this 5 stars. First, the beginning is wordy and felt slightly off. There is a lot of discussion about Trumanell Branson but I had a difficult time initially understanding who she was and the significance surrounding her disappearance. References are made that I really didn’t understand at first. The story does come together, but just takes awhile. Second, at times the story gets a bit repetitious. The reader hears a lot about Odette’s missing leg and Angel’s missing eye. (Although I give credit for providing the reader with a lot of information regarding prosthetics.) Furthermore, the fact that Trumanell becomes such an icon and remains so many years later seemed a bit unrealistic. That’s just my opinion though.
Overall I thought this was a great book and would definitely recommend it!
One final thing – I was really intrigued by the men in this story. Wyatt in all his craziness, Rusty (Odette’s partner) who seems like a bulldog and is hard to figure out whether he can be trusted, and Finn (Odette’s husband) who at times seems like a great guy and yet at other times seems like a bit of an uppity jerk. I would love to have another story about or explore these characters more in depth!
We Are All the Same in the Dark is a great title for this book. Because it’s about a gutsy young woman with a missing leg and a another gutsy young girl with a missing eye. I love that title. But this is a complex mixture of criminal operation and police work in trying to solve it. Odette is the police officer who tries to figure out who killed her best friend and Odette boyfriend’s, at the time, sister. And there are some she is confused about. She doesn’t know who to trust among these people. One being her ex boyfriend and her partner at the police department. The other gutsy girl is a girl Odette tries to help because that’s what Odette does. She tries to help. Those in death and those alive. This is a great criminal fiction drama. You will not know who did the deed until the very end and I mean the very end. I didn’t figure it out anyway and I always love to try to see if I can figure it out. Nope, not this one…
This book is a whodunit but unlike I’ve ever read. Don’t get used to the narrator as that part changes from person to person for various reasons. The story has some original characters with strong female protagonists such as Odette the deputy sheriff with a prosthetic leg and “Angel” the found girl with one eye (and where the author, Julia Heaberlin really shines with her research into persons who have prosthetics and how it effects the characters mentally as well as physically). It is a winding story with the questions of what happened to a girl who went missing with her father-did he kill her and himself, or is he still alive? Or did wild, crazed brother Wyatt kill them both? This is a beautifully written book adn very original. Highly recommended and I look forward to more work from this talented author.