#BlogTour ‘We Are All The Same In The Dark’ by Julia Heaberlin

About the book…

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 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, her 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.

Many thanks to Ella Watkins for the blogtour invite and gifted ebook copy of ‘We Are All The Same In The Dark’ which is out now in ebook and hardcover formats.

”Loving dark men is a seesaw.They never tell you everything.You always wonder if the tiny red spot on a shirt is really from a spaghetti dinner like they claim.Byt then they put a bird back in a nest.They pull a drowning kid out of the water.”

Odette Tucker is a narrator with a distinct, and unique voice which pulls you into her life, pulls you into the back story of her family, and it feels like drowning-but you don’t mind it at all.

Her personal history is forever intertwined with that of Wyatt Branson, she can never shake their connection as both his sister,Trumanell, and father,Frank, vanished the same night that Odette lost her leg.

A mystery which was never solved, but did not stop the townspeople blaming Wyatt , nor Odette obsessing over the case, comes to a simmering , rolling boil as a girl who shouldn’t be, appears in Wyatt’s path. Coming to the rescue, Odette takes the one eyed girl whom she names Angel, to her cousin’s halfway house, intrigued and perplexed by her appearance and where she was found.

The link between the physical body and the metaphysical self is a constant theme throughout the novel-the insubstantial nature of flowers and plants who exist for the season juxtaposed with the constant craving for resolution in the Trumanell case. The stories and legends which build up around the people in the town are more important than the actual facts-the names Odette’s grandmother used to nickname people becomes their identity, attached to a story, which has roots and continues to dig down deeper as generations pass.

Odette’s missing leg is a symbolic of her missing past, her destroyed future and the constant itch of the Trumanell case-the police and fire department were so busy cutting her free from the wreck of her truck that they were delayed in the search for Tru and her father, Frank.

A decade later, Odette is now a policewoman, occupying her place in family and town history. Her marriage is on the rocks, her obsession with her father’s death overwhelming and suddenly, this girl, this Angel has appeared. Forcing herself to face the black hole of her past and calling on all of her resources, it’s like a dark, gothic fairy tale where Odette is determined, once and for all, to secure her legacy by bringing Trumanell home, smashing that glass on her framed ‘Missing’ poster and setting her free, once and for all.

A deeply personal character study wrapped up in a engaging mystery, all presented like the most glorious, decadent wedge of Southern Gothic, this is a book which, unlike the dandelions which become symbolic with Angel, stays longer than a season and leaves a marked impression of a writer, who gets better with each successive novel.

About the author…

Julia Heaberlin is the author of the international bestseller,‘Black Eyed Susans’  and ‘Paper Ghosts’, a finalist for Best Novel of the year by the International Thriller Writers.

We Are All The Same In The Dark’ , her latest psychological thriller, has received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. Her books have sold to more than twenty countries, including two other psychological thrillers set in Texas, ‘Playing Dead’ and ‘Lie Still’. A journalist, she has long held an interest in true crime and its lasting psychological effects on victims. Her books have examined themes of the Texas death penalty, dementia, prosthetics, and the power of DNA technology. Before writing novels, she was an award-winning editor for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Detroit News, and The Dallas Morning News. (Almost) a native Texan, Heaberlin lives in the Dallas/Fort Worth area where she is at work on her next book.

Twitter @juliathrillers @MichaelJBooks