4.5 ⭐

Do you guys ever kick yourselves for not reading a book earlier?  Obviously, I've only had When the Stars Go Dark for a couple months, but if I'd known just how much I'd love this book, I would have read it right away. 

Something unique about When the Stars Go Dark is that it weaves actual missing person cases into the plot, and I'll be honest:  Before I read it, I wasn't sure how I felt about that.  It would have been really easy to sensationalize these cases, but thankfully instead, I felt like they were written respectfully and with sensitivity. And yet, that suspense factor was still very much there... it was a slow burn, but I didn't want to put it down until I figured out how it would end.  It's not often I come across books set in the 90's, and I thought reading a crime fiction book set in this period was especially interesting because readers get a glimpse of what solving missing persons cases looked like right before the age of the internet...and how the internet changed certain aspects of solving these crimes. Another thing I especially loved was how McLain delved into the psychological aspects of profiling. What makes a criminal a criminal?  What makes said criminal seek out a particular victim?  Again, this was delved into gracefully and delicately. The character of Anna had a lot of empathy due to past experiences, and she was the perfect narrator to take on these sensitive topics. Snippets of her past are interwoven with the present, and we as readers get to see how she came to be so passionate about her job as a missing persons detective, how she came to have so much empathy and raw emotion and dedication. I loved her character.  This was an emotional story that was so beautifully told.