Girl in the Dark: A Novel of Suspense

by Marion Pauw

Overview

An award-winning, internationally bestselling author makes her American debut with this taut, riveting domestic drama with the compulsive intensity of The Good Girl, The Pocket Wife, and The Stranger, about a long-lost brother convicted of a horrifying crime and a sister’s fight to clear his name.

A single mother and lawyer, Iris has a colorful caseload, a young son with behavior issues, and a judgmental mother.

She also has a brother—shocking news she uncovers by accident. Why did her mother lie to her for her entire life? Why did she hide the existence of Ray Boelens from her?

Curious about this sibling she has never known, Iris begins to search for long-buried truths. What she discovers surprises—and horrifies—her. Her older brother is autistic—and in prison for brutally murdering his neighbor and her daughter.

Visiting Ray, she meets a man who looks heartbreakingly like her own son. A man who is devoted to his tropical fish and who loves baking bread. A man whose naiveté unnerves her. There is no question that Ray is odd and obsessive, unable to communicate like the rest of us. But is he really a killer?

Told in the alternative voices of Ray and Iris, Girl in the Dark is a compulsive, page-turning thriller about lies, murder, and the tenacity of a family determined to stay together even as they are pulled apart at the most vulnerable seams.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062424815
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	11/21/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	319
Sales rank:	229,013
File size:	769 KB

About the Author

Marion Pauw is a thriller writer living in Amsterdam. In the Netherlands, Girl in the Dark won the Golden Noose Award—the annual award for the best Dutch crime novel—under the title Daglicht (Daylight), and has sold more than 200,000 copies in Europe. It was also made into an acclaimed Dutch film. Girl in the Dark is Pauw’s American debut. 

Editorial Reviews

12/21/2015
Lawyer Iris Kaselstein, the heroine of Dutch author Pauw’s intriguing if flawed U.S. debut, is having a hard time managing her workload while fulfilling her responsibilities as a single mother to her three-year-old son, Aaron. Aaron’s aggressive behavior in day care forces Iris to interrupt a conference with a client, Peter van Benschop, who’s facing civil charges for using an underage teenager in a porn film. Meanwhile, Ray Boelens, an inmate convicted of stabbing his neighbor Rosita Angeli and her four-year-old daughter, Anna, to death, before stubbing a cigarette out on the little girl’s corpse, consistently maintains his innocence. Finally, Iris learns by chance that Ray is her older brother, and she agrees to advocate for him. Her natural questioning of her mother’s choice to keep Ray’s existence a secret leads to serious tension between them. The truth about Rosita and Anna’s deaths may surprise some readers, but even they may view it as a contrivance. Agent: Michael Carlisle, Inkwell Management (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

One of the most thrilling and entertaining suspense writers of The Netherlands—or any country for that matter. Marion Pauw just may be the Dutch answer to Gillian Flynn.

Herman Koch

Pauw’s American debut is a tense revelation of dangerous family secrets and a challenge to preconceptions about autism.... A must-read for fans of character-driven stories, such as Tana French’s Faithful Place.

Booklist (starred review)

One of the most thrilling and entertaining suspense writers of The Netherlands—or any country for that matter. Marion Pauw just may be the Dutch answer to Gillian Flynn.” — Herman Koch, author of The Dinner

“Pauw’s American debut is a tense revelation of dangerous family secrets and a challenge to preconceptions about autism.... A must-read for fans of character-driven stories, such as Tana French’s Faithful Place.” — Booklist (starred review)

From the Publisher

Narrators Emily Sutton-Smith and Scott Merriman work well to build the suspense at the heart of this drama. Sutton-Smith has us rooting for plucky Iris, an under-supported single mother who works as a lawyer. Sutton-Smith’s determined voice provide a nice contrast to Scott Merriman's restrained characterization of Ray, Iris's autistic brother, who has been incarcerated for murder for many years. It’s not long before Iris—who, until recently, didn’t even know she had a brother—begins to wonder if the gentle-seeming man really did commit the ghastly crime. Sutton-Smith and Merriman use distinctive pace and pitch to orient the listener as the chapters alternate, from Iris to Ray, and back. The storylines build, exposing the ways in which Iris's personal difficulties mimic Ray's physical confinement. We listen closely as these troubled lives come together to secure a man's freedom. M.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

FEBRUARY 2016 - AudioFile