WoW! What a book! This was quite amazing. 
Paula really did a fantastic job of keeping my attention held. 
The story was just mind blowing. I loved the the detective vide this story told. 
amazing to say the least!

Take a minute and  think about the way in which missing persons cases were handled prior to the use of criminal profiling, DNA collection, and widespread access to forensic science.  In those days, not so long ago, law enforcement relied on intuition, instinct, and gut feelings much more heavily than you might imagine.  Even when scoffed at or plagued with self-doubt, Anna relies on these priceless tools to help her old friend, Will, solve the case of a missing teenager. 

Leaving behind her unhappy husband, baby, and career, Anna finds herself in Mendocino, CA, where she grew up.  Within days she is drawn in and tightly bound up in the case of missing Cameron, whose unhappy early life reflects Anna's own. Anna and Cameron, both adopted, were not able to find complete peace and contentment that I'm sure they hoped for with their new families each holding onto their past,. Anna theorizes that Cameron sent out a "bat signal" announcing herself to predators.  Along with working through the emotionally close aspects of Cameron's case, Anna is dealing with her own grief, failure of her marriage, and her obsession with her career working missing persons cases.  

Ms. McLain does an excellent job of highlighting the Polly Klaas case from the early nineties, long-term trauma impact, and metaphysical speculation as background and investigative tools.  She puts them to good use in her search for the suspected kidnapper, who as it turns out, is nearly as flawed and troubled as Anna.  

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and offer my review.

This book is well written, however, it didn't so much appeal to me.  . I think the author is a gifted writer and  develops interesting characters.  The storyline was intriguing about a missing 15 year old daughter of a former television star, however, there was too much dark and unusual things happening.    I had to back-up a few times and reread something I just read to fully understand what was happening.  Parts were depressing, and I  mostly  skimmed  over the sexual abuse.  For the right person, this will be a great book.  

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Group Publishing-Ballantine for giving me the opportunity to read this. in exchange for a fair and honest review.  All opinions are my own.

4-1/2 stars. 
I was so happy to see Paula McLain, author of one of my favorite books ever (The Paris Wife) return with a very different but no less compelling story. Even before I read the author’s note at the end, it was clear this was a very personal novel for McLain. She knows the Mendocino area intimately, and describes the natural beauty of the area in breathtaking detail. I was already aware of her personal history with the foster system and she uses these experiences to intensify her descriptions of the trauma of growing up in the system. 
This novel, while it has more than its share of heartbreak, also has a lot of hope and belief in the power of human connections. I won’t go into the storyline, too many spoilers, but will say that McLain skillfully weaves a well known kidnap/murder with her fictional storyline to create a highly suspenseful, emotional and satisfying read. Beautifully written, with a believable and damaged main character, this novel at times reminded me of Tana French in its intensity and detail to characterization and the world we inhabit.

This is a new breed of thriller- one with heart, compassion, promise, redemption. It’s twisty and dark and oh so lovely.

This book is stunning. It feels like it’s really been written by a detective specialized in missing children, by someone who’d been a fostered kid herself, someone who’s lived and witnessed tragedies firsthand—I almost ache for McLain, thinking about the mountains of research she must have gone through. At some point, the main character, Anna, says, “I wasn’t just involved in my cases, I lived and breathed them,” and it’s exactly how I felt about this book. It breathes on its own, as do Anna and Will through the pages, even the forest seem to want to come to life.
And while there don’t seem to be a single character who isn’t tormented—except Cricket, the dog, maybe—McLain manages to deliver a story of resilience, redemption, and hope. There are real and interesting, deep questions about life, real struggles and hurt. Real horrors, too.
I found this story absolutely fascinating, very loving, and it flows marvelously, almost poetic sometimes in spite of the gravity of the events.
Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Anna is a missing persons detective in California. She escapes to Northern California where her foster family lived when she was younger. While their she stumbled upon a missing teenager and offers her assistance to the sheriff who she knew when she was younger. She delved into the teenagers life to find out what she was into. This book kept me guessing.

I found this book to be very slow, and I had trouble connecting to any of the characters. In fact, I struggled to keep track of who the characters were - it seemed there were too many named characters (i.e. Carolla vs. "the therapist" - would have saved me several seconds of trying to remember who on earth that was whenever the name came up, even though the reader never actually met her!), and not enough character development for those that mattered. I appreciated the truth around Polly's story but don't feel like it added much to the rest of the plot.

If you like mysteries and/ or true crime you will like this book. Although the  main character is hard to get to know - the crimes happening around her make you want to find out what happens.

I haven’t read so lyrical words written in full of intensity in such a 
 powerful, moving, thought provoking tone! I literally find myself trapped  inside the mind of heroine and I didn’t want to leave there even it hurt me a lot! 

Inner poet of Ms. McLane created a tormented but a decent fighter, remarkable heroine: Anna Hart who is specialized to find missing people, dedicated San Francisco detective. After tragedy hit harder, for gathering the shattering life pieces,she decides to go to back to small hometown Mendocino where she grew with her foster parents who help her become the person she is today! 

  But as like her unfinished business about a missing girl who traumatized her for years, another 15 years old  Polly Klaas : missing girl case occurs at the very same place, showing quite resemblances with the past missing girl case that haunted her. 

  Anna is so exhausted, broken, hurt and she knows deep in heart this case will be more overwhelming that she can get through but she cannot disappoint the broken hearted mother who is looking for her lost girl. 

She eventually teams up with town’s sheriff Will who is also close childhood friend of hers, to conduct their investigation. With the help intuition and experienced instincts of Anna, they are few steps ahead of FBI to solve the crime. With the growing interest of media attention to the case, both childhood friends dig out more gruesome facts, getting closer to the final revelation. 

After reading the disturbing statistical facts the author shared about sexual assaults of young women, the story disturbs you more and you start to look from the different angle to those brutal realities of life!

 I honestly have a little hard time at the beginning of the book even though I enjoyed the unique writing style of the author. Especially getting lost in heroine’s struggling  emotional thoughts filled with pain and grief was a little slow burn and compelling start to a dark, heart wrenching crime story. I liked those parts but they also depressed me a lot. I wanted to feel the excitement of starting a new action packed mystery which is dragging you to the different streets of criminal worlds but as soon as the investigation process starts and Anna suited up to work with Will, the rhythm of the story increased higher, hooking me up, I didn’t want to put it down! 

Overall: the author is brilliant and she proved us she can choose to write different genres and she can nail all of  them! This book is more meaningful project because there are so many parallel things from her real life with the character she created and she is a quite great researcher. So I’m proudly giving my four dark, gruesome, intense, well- crafted four stars! 

Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/ Ballantine for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.

When The Stars go Dark starts out very promising, with Anna on the run and hints of a lost baby and a breaking marriage. But when a sheriff, Will, allowed our main character (Anna) to join his missing persons' investigation, I gave up. Even though the sheriff knew Anna growing up, and she's a missing person "expert", there is no way I could see such happening in real life. He doesn't ask delve into why she's back in town, which should be a total red flag. It didn't feel authentic to me, and perhaps it's explained later, but the narrative wasn't compelling enough, to continue. #netgalley 

P. S. Thanks so much to Netgalley for the ARE.

WHEN THE STARS GO DARK
BY PAULA MCLAIN

This is a challenging review for me to write because I loved Paula McLean's first two historical novels. The first one called, "The Paris Wife," which honors Ernest Hemingway's first wife and perhaps his greatest love. The two even though they eventually divorced because he was incredibly unfaithful too while married, evidently they always kept in touch throughout his life. The second one that I read because I loved the first one so much and served as an introduction to her writing was one that I also loved called, "Circling the Sun," The second one was based on Beryll Markham's tumultuous life which also was very well written. Both of these were intriguing and hard to put down for me and someday I will read them again. Her latest novel called, "When the Stars Go Dark," piqued my curiosity but I found it to be a great departure from her previous work. I think that it is a positive attribute when an author breaks the proverbial mold and ventures into something vastly different. But in this case the subject matter was both dark and deeply disturbing to me. So much so, that at one point I remember while I was reading her latest work my stomach felt queasy and I felt like I might not be able to finish this one. I probably wouldn't have had I not been required to write a review in exchange for requesting it. When I saw that Paula McLean had written a new book, an author that I admire. When I read the synopsis it did give me pause but I went ahead and requested this anyway due to the two books of hers that I had read and loved.

This one was written with prose that often read like poetry throughout, but if I am to be honest didn't quite work and was at first at least for me a distraction from the plot. It begins with a female fleeing from her life with a husband and it is evident that she has recently given birth. As I read on I was able to ascertain that she is the protagonist that is an experienced detective named Anna Hart who grew up with early childhood trauma from her first family of origin. At the same time she reflects back to two caregivers that she received in foster care who gave her stability and therefore provides her with a primal innate nature to be the effective detective that she is when it comes to finding missing persons.

Maybe what was deeply unsettling to me is the factual details woven into the narrative about the Polly Klaas abduction. Knowing that it was real life juxtaposed with the missing teenager of fifteen named Cameron whom Anna is obsessed with finding. Will who is a former childhood friend of Anna's who she reconnects with and agrees to help. Will and Anna are on their own as far as help goes in solving the case compared to all of the manpower and the involvement of the FBI and national media attention given to the Polly Klaas case.

At this point in the novel events become more linear compared to the jolting beginning and the plot becomes much easier to follow. In the author's note at the end of the book Paula McLean gives some frightening statistics regarding female sexual assault. She also discloses that she grew up in the foster care system during a period in her life which explains the authenticity that she infuses with her brilliant characterization of Anna. Anna is particularly finely attuned to be able to align herself with the victims that she is searching for in the Mendocino village in 1993. She appears to have great insight into the missing females that her and Will are investigating. Anna's almost sixth sense of what most likely transpired and her ease to untangling clues takes front and center stage on the hunt compared to Will.

This was a book that I had to read until the final page and then go back to the beginning and read it again for me to grasp the whole narrative. On reflecting back I do feel like the book was well written and does succeed in the message this author delivers. It does make sense, but it did take me to backtrack as it was complicated by the structure not always following a straight line. I can't say that I enjoyed this but other's may who have a strong stomach for the subject matter of missing children and young adults. I also can't deny that Paula McLean's talent as a gifted writer due to her MFA in poetry and her life experience does succeed in this newest work and it is worthy of its four stars. As a mother of two grown son's aged 19 and 22 I am grateful that so far this author's plot and the facts of this work have not yet affected their lives and I hope that it never does, For me this was hard to read but my takeaway is to be more informed no matter how uncomfortable I felt reading this. As I mentioned beforehand the poetic prose made the writing and my comprehension of the story somewhat jarring at first. However, after reading further and by the time Anna and Will are firmly established the poetic writing was quite beautiful. Especially as it describes the atmospheric setting of the outdoors in the vast wilderness of the woods and the Pacific Ocean and its cliffs and beaches. In one phrase it describes the pine needles on the forest floor to smell like cinnamon. The breathtaking imagery lifts this novel far above most in this genre and what most likely attributes it to feel so real and eery.

Publication Date: April 13, 2021

Thank you to Net Galley, Paula McLean and Random House Group Publishing--Ballantine for generously providing me with my Arc in exchange for a fair and honest review, All opinions are my own,

#WhentheStarsGoDark #PaulaMcLain #RandomHousePublishingBallantine #NetGalley

This books reminds me of Law and order, SVU.  It is depressing with sexual abuse.  I was not in the right frame of mind to read this. The author has a great writing style and I would like to try another of her books.  I will try to come back to this story and be more objective at a later time.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this book. I'll be posting my review on Goodreads and Amazon

When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain, is a suspense-filled look into the mind of a serial murderer of a young woman. It is a gritty and determined book and the author has done a lot of research that shines through in her story. The story also gives us a chance to see the toll that these detectives take daily as they try to save a kidnapped victim before it is too late. I loved the story of our lead protagonist Anna and the relationship with her foster-father that will serve her well through life. He taught her to look and reach for the stars. My one recommendation would be less emphasis on the Polly Klaas story which is distracted from an already good book. Well done. Thanks to the author and @netgalley for this arc which will be published in Spring 2021. All thoughts are my own and without bias. #kidnapping #triggers #younggirls #detective #murder #criminalfiction ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book was quite the deviation from McClain's previous novels. This one packs more of a punch and is filled with more suspense, trauma, and mystery. The underlying elegance of her style is still apparent, but it is showcased in a different way. This novel may not be suited for survivors of certain types of abuse, but I also think this is the kind of story that deserves to be told.

Paula McLain is just brilliant!  She is a fabulous historical novelist and now, having taken on the suspense genre, she proves to be a master there as well.  WHEN THE STAR GO DARK is both a gripping mystery novel and a deep exploration of identity.  Set in Mendocino, California, McLain weaves a fictional story about the disappearance of Cameron Curtis. the fifteen-year-old daughter of a former television star.  McLain cleverly links the real life disappearance of Polly Klaas.  This was an amazing read and I look forward to the next project McLain produces.  Loved it!

This was an interesting book and it read well, it just wasn’t for me.....................................

I thought this book was going to be really interesting to me. I’ve been craving a crime book and I’m from Northern California. Unfortunately just lacked the pulling me in and wanting to go on the crime ride with the main character.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC of this novel. Quite a departure from the author's previous novels. A mystery, thriller, whodunit that is a little slow paced, the book digs into the actions of a serial kidnapper, murderer. Despite the fact that I have mostly had it with the plethora of novels with this storyline, I read with interest. The author's lyrical writing wins out. Definitely worth a read.