Dark August

Dark August is an impressive, 'I can't believe this is a debut' kind of novel. 

I didn't realize author Katie Tallo was Canadian until, within the first few pages, she referred to Highway 401 and the Rideau River. Hold my Timmy's and m'toque, eh! Oh Can-a-da! I love that she kept her story in Canada because recognizing several towns in eastern Ontario and locales in Ottawa, made this eerie tale of tragic pasts, secrets and murder even more chilling. 

This is a slow burn read and I'm glad I was warned beforehand - I like slow burns if I know about it upfront so I can be patient.😏 I appreciate how Tallo takes time to build the eerie atmosphere, set up her plot and introduce her characters (Levi was my favourite). I did have one wee peeve though - the main character went by both Augusta and her nickname Gus and there's a lot of back and forth between the two names, sometimes within the same paragraph, making it a bit confusing.

The plot is compelling and twisty, with short chapters that kept the story flowing - particularly after the one-third mark when the energy picks up substantially. There are some edge of your seat scenes and the way this book is written (quite skillfully, I might add), I could easily see this book being made into a movie. This isn't a huge leap since Tallo was an award-winning screenwriter and director before writing this book. 

As an avid suspense reader, I guessed the culprit, but I really enjoyed the ride. This was a delightfully chilling, impressively intricate, and well-written debut. Katie Tallo, I will definitely read more from you.

My Rating: 4 stars

Author: Katie Tallo

Genre: Suspense, Canadian

Type and Source: eBook from public library

Publisher: Harper

First Published: June 30, 2020

Opening Lines: Her gaze slips out of focus, turning the 

valley of purple loosestrife into a lavender sea that ebbs 

and flows in the hot breeze. Smells like cat piss.

Book Description from GoodReads: An electrifying, page-turning debut about a young woman haunted by her tragic past, who returns to her hometown and discovers that there might be more to her police detective mother’s death—and last case—than she ever could have imagined.

Augusta (Gus) Monet is living an aimless existence with her grifter boyfriend when she learns that her great grandmother—her last living relative—has just died. Ditching her boyfriend, Gus returns to the home she left as a young girl. Her inheritance turns out to be a dilapidated house and an old dog named Levi. While combing through her great grandmother’s possessions, Gus stumbles across an old trunk filled with long-lost childhood belongings. But that’s not all the trunk contains. She also discovers cold case files that belonged to her mother, a disgraced police detective who died in a car accident when Gus was eight. Gus remembers her mother obsessing over these very same documents and photographs, especially a Polaroid of a young ballerina.

When Gus spots a front-page news story about the unearthing of a body linked to one of the cold case files from her childhood trunk, she can’t resist following her mother’s clues. As she digs deeper, determined to finish her mother’s investigation, her search leads her to a deserted ghost town, which was left abandoned when the residents fled after a horrific fire. As Gus’ obsession with the case grows, she inadvertently stirs up the evils of the past, putting her life in danger. But Gus is undeterred and is committed to uncovering long-buried secrets, including the secrets surrounding a missing geology student, the young ballerina in the Polaroid, a prominent family’s devastating legacy, and a toxic blast that blew an entire town off the map. 

But is Gus ready to learn the truths that culminated on one terrible August night, more than a decade earlier, when lives were taken, and secrets were presumed buried forever…? 

Dark August introduces a bold new voice and will leave readers guessing until the final startling conclusion.