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Amy Engel

The Familiar Dark: A Novel Paperback – Large Print, March 31 2020

by Amy Engel (Author)

4.0 505 ratings

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Paperback, Large Print, March 31 2020

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One of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 2020 (Mystery/Thriller)

"From its gripping beginning to its sobering finale, Amy Engel's The Familiar Dark never fails to enthrall with surprising twists."–Associated Press

A spellbinding story of a mother with nothing left to lose who sets out on an all-consuming quest for justice after her daughter is murdered on the town playground.

Sometimes the answers are worse than the questions. Sometimes it's better not to know.

Set in the poorest part of the Missouri Ozarks, in a small town with big secrets, The Familiar Dark opens with a murder. Eve Taggert, desperate with grief over losing her daughter, takes it upon herself to find out the truth about what happened. Eve is no stranger to the dark side of life, having been raised by a hard-edged mother whose lessons Eve tried not to pass on to her own daughter. But Eve may need her mother's cruel brand of strength if she's going to face the reality about her daughter's death and about her own true nature. Her quest for justice takes her from the seedy underbelly of town to the quiet woods and, most frighteningly, back to her mother's trailer for a final lesson.

The Familiar Dark is a story about the bonds of family—women doing the best they can for their daughters in dire circumstances—as well as a story about how even the darkest and most terrifying of places can provide the comfort of home.

Print length

460 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Random House Large Print
Publication date

March 31 2020
Dimensions

15.16 x 2.08 x 22.78 cm
ISBN-10

0593171853
ISBN-13

978-0593171851
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Amy Engel
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Jess Lourey
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Alex Finlay
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Craig DiLouie
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Tiffany D Jackson
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Product description

Review

“The Familiar Dark is a blistering rural noir brimming with dark secrets and the harsh realities of survival in a hardscrabble town. As Eve Taggert seeks vengeance for her daughter’s murder and descends into the depths of her own jagged past, we are reminded that a mother’s love is a fearsome thing. A powerful, gripping, heart-stopping read.”
--Laura McHugh, award-winning author of The Wolf Wants In

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Random House Large Print; Large type / Large print edition (March 31 2020)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 460 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0593171853
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0593171851
Item weight ‏ : ‎ 340 g
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.16 x 2.08 x 22.78 cm

Best Sellers Rank: #1,055,586 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #47,161 in Suspense (Books)
- #57,559 in Crime Thrillers (Books)
- #67,502 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.0 505 ratings

About the author

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Amy Engel

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Amy Engel is the author of THE FAMILIAR DARK, THE ROANOKE GIRLS, and THE BOOK OF IVY series. A former criminal defense attorney, she lives in Missouri with her family.

Customer reviews

4 out of 5

505 global ratings

5 star		40%
4 star		33%
3 star		19%
2 star		6%
1 star		3%

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Top reviews from Canada

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Shauna Madden

I'm a new fan of this author.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on July 12, 2022

Verified Purchase

Psychological thrillers are my absolute favorite genre, and I'll say first off, I'm not a fan of the "mom" books and won't read them; however, this does not have that flavor. This drags you right into the story and won't let you go with dark soul-bearing characters and deep undertones. Amy Engel is now one of my favorite authors and look forward to reading more of her works.

Helpful

Alisa

Definitely a fan of this author!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on November 18, 2021

After reading The Roanoke Girls, which I loved, I immediately got The Familiar Dark. Small town setting, dysfunctional families, secrets and murder wrapped up in a dark and hopeless setting. So basically all of my favourite things. I’m definitely a fan of this author’s writing. The narration flowed well and there was just the right amount of everything without weighing down the book with unnecessary details. Although I didn’t love it as much as the last book, only because it wasn’t as dark, this one is definitely a close second!

Helpful

Sandy

A dark, harrowing story that stays with you

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 31, 2020

Welcome to Barren Springs. I’ve rarely come across a more appropriately named setting & once you’ve spent some time here, I think you’ll agree.

Our MC & narrator is Eve Taggart. She & brother Cal somehow survived a childhood of poverty, fear & neglect courtesy of their drug dealing mother. Now Cal is a cop & Eve is a single mom, struggling to make ends meet on a waitress’ salary. Twelve year old Junie is the one good thing in Eve’s life & she’s determined to be the mother she never had.

So it’s no surprise that her daughter’s murder marks the beginning of Eve’s descent into darkness. After the bodies of Junie & best friend Izzy are found in a local park, it falls on Cal to break the news to Eve. Meanwhile, his boss Sheriff Land heads to the more genteel side of town to inform Jenny & Zach, Izzy’s wealthy parents. There’s bad blood between Eve & Land & when you learn of their shared history, you’ll understand why Eve decides she must search for the killer herself.

Oh man, prepare yourself…..this one is going to put you through the wringer. On one level, you have a devastated mother’s search for her daughter’s killer. But along the way, the author includes scenes that have you pondering so much more. Casual racism, domestic abuse, the social chasm between poverty & wealth & how we (unconsciously?) judge the parents of missing/murdered children. These are some of the themes that run through the background & shape the course of Eve’s investigation.

The setting effectively sets the tone for what’s to come. Barren Springs is a place that reeks of hopelessness & despair. Opportunity has bypassed it completely & virtually every character is just trying to survive. If it had a town square, a statue of Dante would not be out of place. As with many insular communities, everybody know your business. So the odds of someone rising above their predetermined place in the pecking order is essentially nil.

With this in mind, we follow Eve as she begins digging into events surrounding the death of the 2 girls. Unfortunately, it brings her into contact with her toxic mother & Junie’s estranged father. Eve cut them from her life in an effort to rise above her birthright but as she swings from crippling grief to blind rage, the temptation to return to her roots only grows stronger. With Junie gone, her only reason to keep breathing is revenge.

Once again, this author has created a cast of characters that evoke every emotion. Eve’s mother is a feral woman who survives on cigarettes & hate. Sheriff Land makes your skin crawl every time he steps on the page & you’ll begin to consider ways of wiping the smarmy grin off his face (note to self: delete search history 😈). Eve & Jenny seem polar opposites until events force them together & I really enjoyed the evolution of their relationship.

The story is relentlessly bleak so it seems wrong to say I “enjoyed” it. It’s grim, gritty & makes no attempt to gloss over the ugly sides of human nature. The ending left me drained & in need of a beverage while I processed what happened. But you can only become that immersed in a work of fiction if the author has the tools & ability to pull it off. Ms. Engel clearly does.

Helpful

Arianna McLaughlin

Dark, character-driven mystery that delivers!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 31, 2020

Thank you to Netgalley and Dutton Books for the advanced reader copy. ⁣
⁣
This was my first book by Amy Engel and I’m officially a new fan. ⁣
⁣
The book opens with the gruesome murder of young Izzie and Junie. Eve, Junie’s mother is determined to find out who killed her daughter and enact revenge. As she goes on this quest, secrets and past traumas are revealed. ⁣
⁣
This is a dark and atmospheric read. I could truly place myself in the hopelessness of Barren Springs and feel Eve’s despair at losing her daughter and her struggle to reconcile her ideals with the person she’s become. Engel does a wonderful job at demonstrating family dysfunction through generations and really makes you feel the grief and trauma it creates. ⁣
⁣
I recommend this book for readers who love an atmospheric and character-driven mystery. You won’t be disappointed !

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on April 1, 2020

The Familiar Dark - Well guys, let me tell you. You want to talk about a book you can’t put down? This book. You want a book that has mystery AND incredible, dark, horrible characters? This book. You want a book with atmosphere? THIS BOOK.

Everything about this story blew my g’damn mind. It’s based on two 12 year old girls found murdered and one mothers quest for vengeance. But not in the way your thinking. Not in an, investigate, work with police, solve the crime. No no. More in an eye for an eye (or in this case a life for a life) biblical sense.

This book is perfect BECAUSE it is messy, because the characters are not tidy, put together people. Because it takes place in the holler, the very backwoods of the Missouri Ozarks, where the people are trailer trash poor and hard and unyielding. Because the characters are cruel, relentless and brutal. Because justice is just as brutal.

Eve might be one of my all time favourite lead characters. She does not apologize for how she grew up, or how poor she is now, or her shortcomings. She doesn’t grieve the way the press wants her to. She is out for one thing and one thing only and that is to kill the bastard who took her only child. She has no limits to what she will do because she TRULY has nothing to lose. I love her for just how honest of a character she is - I would love to sit down and drink with this woman, she is no bullshit.

I could talk for days about all the reasons this book is amazing, but honestly you don’t want spoilers and this book deserves to be devoured whole. Go order this book - it’s out on the 31st - and prepare to enjoy one of the single most satisfying reads of your year.

I cannot WAIT to see what people think of this one, and god knows I hope it gets optioned for a movie/show because it would be EPIC.

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

W. A. Burt

Sometimes the answers are worse than the questionsions

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 26, 2022

Verified Purchase

Eve Taggart started life as trailer trash,with little or no parental guidance she found everything was a struggle.Her familiar dark became darker when the thing she loved most was taken away from her.
However,Eve discovers an inner resolve that drives her on to seek justice and although help comes from different sources,not all of it is genuine.
The Familiar Dark was a book that turned out to be much better than I initially thought it would be.It had great depth,gravitas and a scrutiny of family values.

One person found this helpful

johanna handley

Disappointingly full of errors

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 24, 2021

Verified Purchase

I loved LOVED The Roanoke Girls. So dark, so beautifully written. I was excited to read this book by an author I respected and admired. The story was OK and the characters were also good- if a little cliched. But I was so upset by the mistakes. Spelling errors. Character errors (a character that had died, mistakenly part of a future chapter?!). Body parts switching over, just these really silly mistakes that an editor should have picked up on, or even the author herself. It just felt lazy and… like I was being used for a quick sale, like no one really cared about the book, the story or the reader. No respect for any of that. Sad and disappointing.

One person found this helpful

Kaffmatt

Formulaic, repetitive codswallop- Not Recommended

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 26, 2022

Verified Purchase

I can’t read anymore of this.………I’ve got to chapter 11 (36%) and nothing worthy of note has happened. The author has used the ‘tick list’ of themes to include- poor background of main characters- abuse- seedy town- corrupt police et al and they add nothing to the storyline apart from boring, repetitive diatribes.
Someone, somewhere should tear up the tick list and begin another, more original one.
I definitely don’t recommend this book and as I’m sat looking at my burning log fire, if this was a paperback it would be heading that way.

S. Middleton

Superb rural noir

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 1, 2023

Verified Purchase

This has everything...corrupt cops, drug kingpins in the hollers, the haves and have-nots, and a young single mother's quest to find her daughter's killer. Every word counts here, in a very well written tale of rough living and revenge. 5 stars

TAURUS

Suspense read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 14, 2020

Verified Purchase

This was bought as a gift for someone else, but somewhere between reading the covers and wrapping it, could not help but read it..... super read.

2 people found this helpful

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Follow the Author

The Familiar Dark: A Novel Paperback – Large Print, March 31 2020

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About the author

Amy Engel

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