When the Stars go Dark - Paula McLain

psychological thriller

overview - this book is based on a missing persons case - Polly Klaas.  And the author has incorporated the case into the story

Characters

Anna Hart - the Protagonist.  A missing persons detective.

Cricket - Anna's dog.
Robin - her junkie mother
Jason and Amy - step siblings.
Frank - Anna's husband

Will - Sheriff.  His Dad used to be the Sheriff when Anna and him were younger
Beth - Wills wife

Jenny Ford - disappeared in 1973
Caleb - an old friend of Anna.  Seems like a recluse artist now. Brother of Jenny

Emily Hague - actress
Troy Curtis - the father, having an affair, and gotten her pregnant
Cameron Curtis (15) - missing girl and foster daughter of Emily.   
(An)drew Hague - creepy brother, long since estranged.  He's probably a red herring

Gray Benson - Camerons school friend

Hap & Eden (?)- Annas foster parents



The story is told in 2 sections, but interconnected.  Flashback and now

Flashback
Anna had a bad traumatic childhood.  Her mother was a Heroin addict and died on Christmas when Anna was 12(?) and her stepsiblings were 4 and 5.  And when the mother died, they got put into different foster homes and separated.
Anna has also possibly been abused, as hinted at when it's revealed that Cameron has been abused.

There is also a sub-story about Jenny Ford who vanished when Anna was a teen.

Now
Something bad has happened, maybe involving Annas child, and she heads to her childhood home to heal.
When she gets there, there's a sudden rash of missing kids (including Polly Klass), but the mainly the kid of a famous actress.  looks like she's a run away. Emily seems to blame herself for failing as a parent.  Looks like she's stressed at the stress of homelife and did a runner.  probably a Red herring.

A visit to Gray Benson reveals that Cameron went to go on the pill, but they nurse required a fully examination (why?).  Anyway, the examination revealed scarring (abuse from years ago), and Cameron went into a funk.  Gray has a model portfolio of Cameron that he's volunteered to help people find her

After much investigation, Anna finds an artist form in a pub requesting models, and realises that Grays photo may have been for this request, and so follows up on the request, which leads to the antagonist - Caleb.   Which then leads to Cameron who recently escaped.

The ending is with Caleb going all psycho and it's all a bit to easy to resolve.  Looks like he killed his sister years ago, and has been killing since.  He turns into a Hollywood type over the top bad guy, who even tries to kill Cricket, and it was a bit too easy to find Cameron.  Anna ends up shooting him.  End of that story

Cameron was very very likely abused by her foster grandfather.

Anna's backstory was that her 2 year old daughter died when she left her in the car for moment, while she went back indoors to take a phone call, and her daughter climbed out of the car and got accidentally run over by a neighbour.  At the end of the story, she decides to head home and try to heal.

And also look for her stepsiblings, and hope they don't shut her out.  We don't find out and that's not the point.  The point is her moving forward.

Suspect number one - Emily.

Actual suspect - Caleb
but this novel is not about the case, it's also about Anna and her growth as a character

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