When the Stars Go Dark

Experienced San Francisco missing persons investigator Anna Hart knows far too much about the worst aspects of human nature. After a personal catastrophe, a helpless and devoid Anna runs away to the town of Mendocino in Northern California to mourn. Her loving foster parents used to reside there when she was a youngster, and now she thinks it could be her sole remaining home. However, she finds out the day she gets there that a teenage girl from the area has vanished.

The crime feels frighteningly reminiscent of the most crucial time in Anna's childhood, when the unsolved murder of a young girl touched Mendocino and changed the community forever. Anna understands that she has been guided to this point when the past and present merge. She has gained insight into how victims encounter violent predators thanks to the most challenging lessons she has ever had to learn. As Anna becomes obsessed with saving the missing girl, she must accept that true courage means getting out of her own way and learning to let others in.

Weaving together actual cases of missing persons, trauma theory, and a hint of the metaphysical, this propulsive and deeply affecting novel tells a story of fate, necessary redemption, and what it takes, when the worst happens, to reclaim our lives--and our faith in one another.