We are all the same in the dark A novel

The disappearance of popular 19-year-old cheerleader Trumanell Branson and her violent father, Frank, still haunts Odette Tucker, a West Texas town's youngest deputy, 10 years later in this exceptional thriller from Heaberlin (Black-Eyed Susans). Trumanell's bloody handprint on her home's door was the only clue; her brother, Wyatt, now the town pariah and vilified in a TV documentary, is still the chief suspect. Odette visits Wyatt's remote farmhouse after hearing rumors that he has kidnapped a teenage girl. Wyatt claims he found the girl, whom he calls Angel, dumped in a field. Odette, who lost a leg in a traumatic accident, instantly bonds with Angel, who lost an eye while suffering violent abuse. Odette strives to help Angel, who at first refuses to talk, as she tries to unravel the mystery of what happened to Trumanell, whose reputation remains that of a near saint. After a devastating twist halfway through, the intense plot builds to an emotional finale. Heaberlin sensitively addresses issues of survival and vulnerability in this heart-wrenching gothic tale. Agent: Kim Witherspoon at Inkwell Management. (Aug.)

The discovery of a mute girl by the side of the road sparks new interest in an old mystery. It's been 10 years since Trumanell Branson and her father disappeared from their small Texas town one strange night. The only potential witness, Trumanell's younger brother, Wyatt, spent years in a mental institution afterward, and his girlfriend, Odette--the police chief's daughter--was involved in a horrible car accident that took her leg that same night. Now Odette is a police officer herself and determined to figure out what happened to Trumanell, even if it costs her her marriage. Everyone in town thinks Wyatt killed his sister and got away with it, especially with the recent release of a documentary implicating him, so when he finds a mute teenager in trouble one day and brings her home, Odette has to work as a friend, not a cop, to figure out what really happened to both this girl and Trumanell before the town turns on Wyatt again. Hints of past trauma haunt this book, which does an excellent job of dealing with what real life looks like for an amputee, as Odette has lost her leg and the teenager has lost an eye. What isn't so clear is what Heaberlin, a former journalist, wants to say about the idea of the lost girl in crime fiction, especially with the twist the novel takes halfway through. While there are nuggets of fresh ideas, the themes get a bit muddled. There are, however, interesting twists and turns in the narrative that will carry the reader along. The destination might not be wholly satisfying, but the ride is fun. An exciting though flawed thriller of lost girls and buried trauma in small-town Texas. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Prologue It takes about eight to ten hours to hand-dig a grave, more if you was doing it in the dark. Five to six if you have a helper. It ain't like the movies. You need more than just a spade with a good blade. You need a chainsaw for splitting the roots. A pick. Even if you don't hit rocks, you got Texas clay, which can be as bad as rocks. I always carry a measuring tape and a yardstick, because you've got to make a hole a lot bigger than in your mind's eye. And you've got to go deep enough that folks and animals walking by can't smell the body rotting. I'd go eighteen inches of soil on top to be safe. Bottom line, if you're asking me my opinion, I don't think that Branson girl will ever be found. I never saw anything like the search for her body. Every farm. Every bit of lake property. The cops got a color-coded map and took it inch by inch, year by year, until it was all done. I'll tell you this: If that girl was buried around here, and buried fast, she was buried by someone who knows his dirt. That might be a farmer. That might be a person who's killed a lot. --Albert Jenkins, 66, cemetery gravedigger Excerpt from The Tru Story crime documentary  Excerpted from We Are All the Same in the Dark: A Novel by Julia Heaberlin All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.