We Are All the Same in the Dark

This brilliant, haunting thriller from the globally famous author of Black-Eyed Susans promises to reveal the long-buried mysteries of a legendary cold case involving a Texas town and the discovery of a girl abandoned by the side of the road.

Ten years have passed since Trumanell Branson vanished, leaving behind nothing except a bloodied handprint. Her lovely visage continues to loom like a protective queen over the posters in the high school, police station, and Baptist church in the town. They all guarantee the same thing: you will be located. In the meantime, Wyatt, her brother, is a recluse living in the abandoned old family home. He was found not guilty by the police but was tried and found guilty in the court of public opinion and in a recent documentary on the crime.

Wyatt thinks the missing girl is a sign when he discovers her silently making wishes and abandoned in a field of dandelions. Odette Tucker, the town's youngest police officer, thinks she's going to set off a fire in the town, which is still enraged over the disappearance of its own girl. Odette can't turn away, though. She and the silent, one-eyed mystery girl have an open wound. Her personal past with the missing Tru also haunts her.

In a desperate attempt to crack both cases, Odette battles to find the truth about a tragic night in the past—the night her friend vanished, the night that gave her the idea to become a police officer, and the night that cemented their place in the violent, dark mythology of the town.

Julia Heaberlin creates evocative pictures of a mother and a daughter in this twisting psychological thriller who challenge preconceived notions of physical beauty and strength.