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    Under a Dark Sky: A Novel
    Under a Dark Sky: A Novel
    Under a Dark Sky: A Novel
    Audiobook11 hours

    Under a Dark Sky: A Novel

    Written by Lori Rader-Day

    Narrated by Tavia Gilbert

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    About this audiobook

    From the critically-acclaimed author of The Day I Died comes a terrifying twist on a locked-room mystery that will keep listeners guessing until the last words.

    Only in the dark can she find the truth . . .

    Since her husband died, Eden Wallace's life has diminished down to a tiny pinprick, like a far-off star in the night sky. She doesn't work, has given up on her love of photography, and is so plagued by night terrors that she can't sleep without the lights on. Everyone, including her family, has grown weary of her grief. So when she finds paperwork in her husband's effects indicating that he reserved a week at a dark sky park, she goes. She's ready to shed her fear and return to the living, even if it means facing her paralyzing phobia of the dark.

    But when she arrives at the park, the guest suite she thought was a private retreat is teeming with a group of twenty-somethings, all stuck in the orbit of their old college friendships. Horrified that her get-away has been taken over, Eden decides to head home the next day. But then a scream wakes the house in the middle of the night. One of the friends has been murdered. Now everyone—including Eden—is a suspect.

    Everyone is keeping secrets, but only one is a murderer. As mishaps continue to befall the group, Eden must make sense of the chaos and lies to evade a ruthless killer—and she'll have to do it before dark falls…

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateAug 7, 2018
    ISBN9780062850355
    Author

    Lori Rader-Day

    Lori Rader-Day is the Edgar Award–nominated and Anthony, Agatha, and Mary Higgins Clark Award–winning author of Death at Greenway, The Lucky One, Under a Dark Sky, The Day I Died, Little Pretty Things, and The Black Hour. She lives in Chicago, where she is cochair of the mystery readers’ conference Midwest Mystery Conference and teaches creative writing at Northwestern University. She served as the national president of Sisters in Crime in 2020.

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    Reviews for Under a Dark Sky

    4/5

    35 ratings7 reviews

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    • 4/5
      3.5, rounded to 4. I kept reading because I wanted to know what happened, but it just seemed like the book kept getting longer and longer. War-ren seemed a little stalkerish at the beginning. He never even apologized for it or acknowledged it, and she was so broken and deliriously tired she just needed someone to cling to.

      It did resolidify my want of doing a night or two at the dark sky park on the Pamlico Sound.
    • 4/5
      4.5 stars.

      Under a Dark Sky by Lori Rader-Day is a riveting, suspense-laden murder mystery.

      Eden Wallace is still grieving the death of her beloved husband, Bix, when she discovers he planned a surprise anniversary getaway for them before his death. Eden goes on the trip which she hopes will be a turning point in coming to terms of her loss. Eden is optimistic the time away will help her turn the corner on the paralyzing fear of the dark she has experienced ever since the night he died. Upon her arrival at Dark Sky Park, she discovers she is sharing her getaway with six twenty-something strangers. Deciding to stay the night and leave in the morning, Eden is awakened in the middle of the night when one of the men is murdered. The local sheriff insists everyone remain during the early phase of the investigation and Eden tries to piece together who would have reason to murder their friend.

      Eden has found it impossible to move past Bix’s death. Their life together was spent moving from base to base where her larger than life husband was always the center of attention. After his retirement from the military, they moved to Bix’s hometown of Chicago where Eden was hopeful his PTSD, nightmares and self-medicating with alcohol would improve. While Bix transitioned into civilian life with relative ease, Eden could not resist his efforts to “improve” her career choices. In the months since his shocking death, Eden has withdrawn from her family and friends and due to her sleep deprivation, she no longer works.

      Although Eden is uncomfortable staying with strangers, her fear of the dark overrides this discomfort. The dynamics of the group are fascinating to her but she is quickly made to feel unwelcome by much of the group. She picks up on some tense undertones between the friends, and she is relieved to leave them to their own devices. She is of course upset by the murder, but Eden is confident the sheriff will quickly release her to return home.

      However, Eden is stunned by the unexpected revelations that put her smack dab in the middle of the investigation. Unable to convince the sheriff she has no reason to kill anyone, she must remain in town while the police try to sort through the evidence and leads they uncover. When it appears someone has attempted to murder two other members of the group, the sheriff grows even more suspicious of Eden. She attempts to put her fragmented memories into some semblance of order to try to unmask the killer. At the same time, secrets about Eden’s husband are revealed and Eden is forced to confront the truth about Bix.

      With unanticipated twists, shocking turns and fantastic red herrings, Under a Dark Sky is an intriguing mystery that is absolutely spellbinding.  Eden becomes increasingly unreliable due to her lack of sleep and her troubling realizations about Bix. The plot is rife with clever misdirects, an atmospheric setting and plenty of suspicious characters.  Lori Rader-Day keeps readers guessing the identity of the perpetrator and the reason for the murder right up until the novel’s dramatic conclusion. A brilliantly executed mystery that fans of the genre do not want to miss!
    • 4/5
      It seems to be the fad these days, having thrillers written with unlikeable heroines. Eden Wallace is that in this book set on the shores of Lake Michigan, under summer's starry nights. Eden is a widow who lost her husband in a car accident 9 months before the story begins in this book. She's had a rough time of it, and we finally find out near the end of the book just how far off the rails her husband Bix was when the accident happened. Eden has never come to terms with anything from her ten year marriage and her sudden widowhood. She is a damaged soul too - one who can't face the dark, can't sleep and has to have all the lights on in the house when it is dark. As a last resort, she takes a trip to a dark sky park when she finds a reservation for this in her husband's affects after his passing. She hopes it will help her heal, and also aid her in finding a way to get on with her life. Instead she is drawn in to a very complicated college friend reunion. These are six people she doesn't know, but she is drawn into the maelstrom of their shared past and, more dangerously, their shared secrets. It all comes to a head with a scream in the night in the house that they are all sharing. There are lots of twists and turns to the plot, and lots of eye-opening revelations throughout the book. I found the book a touch too long for my liking. I started to tire of poor little Eden's muddled up mind and I had figured out the killer about 2/3 of the way through, but I have given the book 4 stars anyway because the writing is captivating and the character development is quite good, even if I didn't care for poor little Eden. This book attempts to be a modern-day "And Then There Were None:", and it almost achieves this, but falls short somewhere along the way. I should never have been able to figure out the killer quite so easily. Ms. Rader-Day just didn't obscure the killer as well as the killer should have been.
    • 3/5
      Eden Wallace plans to spend a week in northern Michigan to sort out her life. When she arrives at the sky park, she realizes that the reservation, made by her now dead husband, was simply a bedroom in a house that was going to be shared by several other couple friends. Not up for socializing with strangers, Eden decides to spend the night, then head home to Chicago the next day. However that night one of her housemates is murdered and she is forced to stay for several days while the murder is being investigated. The investigation brings out various motives and character flaws of the other house guests, including Eden who is scared to death of the dark.
    • 4/5
      A page turner with interesting characters and psychological suspense.
    • 3/5
      A special thank you to Edelweiss and William Morrow for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.Eden Wallace is a widow that is suffering not only with grief, but suffers from a phobia of the dark. She is a shell of her former self—she doesn't work, has given up on photography, and experiences night terrors so severe that she cannot sleep unless all of the light are on. In her late husband's effects, Eden finds paperwork for a reservation at a dark sky park. She decides to face her fear of the dark and go on the anniversary trip he had planned for them. But when she arrives at the cabin, instead of a private retreat, she finds herself among a group of friends that have gathered for a reunion. Eden can't believe her bad luck and decides she will leave first thing the next morning. In the middle of the night, a scream wakes the group, one of their friends has been murdered, and everyone is a suspect. Eden must unpack her fears to learn who is lying, who is telling the truth, and to find out who is the killer.I enjoyed The Day I Died and was thrilled to be among the first to read Under a Dark Sky. Rader-Day pens some interesting characters in an Agatha Christie type story. Eden is a flawed character dealing with a traumatic event that has left her damaged and fragile. Her complexity and fear, coupled with grief and vulnerability make her the perfect unreliable narrator.The story unfolds and exposes secrets and lies about all of the characters—none of them are who they appear to be. The narrative plays out with the blame and focus shifting from one person to the next. Beyond the thriller/mystery aspects of the story, Rader-Day explores relationships, grief, loss, and how dangerous perception is.
    • 5/5
      Review of Uncorrected ProofThe death of Eden Wallace’s husband, Bix, has left her shattered and caught in the clutches of nyctophobia. This debilitating fear causes her to make certain she’s inside before darkness settles and to turn on all the lights to make her space as bright as possible. Sleep is elusive and everyone around her has grown weary of her all-consuming grief.While going through Bix’s papers, she finds a reservation for a week at a guest house in a dark sky park and, seeking a way to move past her fears and grief, Eden decides to claim the reservation and spend a week at the dark park. But her expected-to-be-private place of retreat also houses six young adults coming together for a reunion. Upset, Eden plans to leave, only it’s late in the day and darkness is near, so she decides to remain overnight and drive back to Chicago in the morning. But there’s a scream in the night and someone lies dead in the guest house kitchen . . . .Filled with unexpected twists, pervasive underlying tension, and ever-building suspense, the narrative focuses as much on Eden’s coming to grips with her loss and finding a way to move on with her life as it does with the who and the why of the murder. Despite Eden’s occasional tendency to overthink things [coming to terms with grief is different for every person], readers will find much to appreciate in this thoughtful look at moving on and dealing with the hard truths we’d prefer to ignore. The mystery is first-rate; readers will find this to be a compelling read.Highly recommended.