The Familiar Dark

Reviews / Votes

A dark and beautifully written thriller with a haunting ending that will stay with you long after you've turned the last page. Engel's ability to conjure the harsh beauty of the Ozarks is spellbinding. An emotional & powerful read -- Catherine Steadman, bestselling author of * Something in the Water * Absolutely bloody brilliant. A down-at-heel mother burns with a need to exact her own brand of justice after the murder of her 12-year-old daughter. It's so well-written I felt like I was living her pain. Very highly recommended. -- Fiona Cummins, bestselling author of * The Neighbour * I was completely enthralled from start to finish. Very dark, moving, intriguing and such compelling characters. What a fantastic writer Amy is. Truly inspiring; a real talent at work and I hope this book receives all the success it deserves -- Susan Lewis, bestselling author of * One Minute Later * I'm such a HUGE Roanoke fan so my hopes were sky high and it delivered in every possible way. As visceral as it is gripping, the story packs the kind of haunting gut-punch that Amy is so good at. It's just beautiful and harrowing and everything in between. * Chris Whitaker, award winning author of All The Wicked Girls * The Familiar Dark is full of very bad people who occasionally do the right thing and seemingly good people who hide their own demons, every nuance of human nature is here wrapped up in a hugely addictive piece of storytelling. The end, when it comes, is extraordinarily horrific in its reality and leaves you melancholy and full of feeling. This was brilliant. All the way. Don't miss it in 2020. * Liz Loves Books * A harrowing thriller . . . This rural noir stakes Engel's claim to that dystopian terrain somewhere between Gillian Flynn's Sharp Objects and Daniel Woodrell's Winter's Bone * Publishers Weekly * This is fierce and brilliant * The Observer * From its gripping beginning to its sobering finale, Amy Engel's The Familiar Dark never fails to enthral with surprising twists . . . a perceptive story about women surviving against odds, a mother?s unconditional love, as well as grief, poverty and classism . . . Engel?s characters would have much in common with those in Gillian Flynn?s Sharp Objects * Daily Mail * Raw, powerful, beautiful - devastatingly good * TM Logan, bestselling author of The Holiday * Powerful, gripping, heart-stopping * Laura McHugh, award-winning author of The Wolf Wants In * This rural noir is full of twists and turns . . . Gripping and hard to put down * Hello Magazine * A story about grief, pretence and family, written by a former criminal defence lawyer, it tugs at the heartstrings with its raw emotional truth * Daily Mail * icily heartbreaking * The Metro * Engel's prose is sharp and often brutal, and result is a seriously impressive thriller * Spectator * I enjoyed it so much. A high quality, sharply written thriller whose motley cast of deviants and misfits delivers some breathtaking twists on the way to a bleak but very satisfying conclusion. This is the reality of motherhood - red in tooth and claw. -- Sarah J Naughton, bestselling author of * The Festival * An achingly raw, emotional story that was beautifully written. From the heartbreaking beginning to the shocking conclusion, it was a journey so powerful that it'll stay with me for a long time to come -- Alice Hunter, author of * The Serial Killer's Wife *