This is a tale about three Women whose lives become entwined by violence, mystery tragedy,loss and survival.
On 07/June/2005 one of these Women goes missing. A decade later the story has become legend and gossip to most, and has left a few consumed with anger, guilt, and a resolution to get justice.
This is a well crafted book with characters so well constructed that they become alive on the page.
This book is so well written that .'Whodunnit' becomes less important as the book evolves, as what is to become of the main protagonist becomes of the upmost importance.
A great read, a real page turner.

We are all the same in the dark is a gripping thriller with an extraordinary ending. The novel follows two main storylines; Odette and her need to solve a murder from 10 years ago and Angel, a mute, one eyed girl found by the side of the road. The narrative moves between them both and slowly provides information about a girl and her father who went missing, believed dead while Odette’s father was the police chief.
I found this book to be a slow burn that I struggled to get into at the start. I’m pleased that I persevered as there was a sudden unexpected plot development that led to a fantastic ending. All too often with thrillers and crime novels, I feel dissatisfied with the finale, but this was both surprising yet convincing.

Non-stop action in this well crafted thriller. I have to say that I suspected the killer who is eventually revealed but this is still a good read for anyone who likes crime novels.

I had to take my time reading this book because it was so intense and fascinating that there were some paragraphs I wanted to re-read as I went. I LOVED It. I can't think of a single book to relate it to because it does something that I've never heard of in this genre and I really didn't see it coming, and really enjoyed it!

It was hard to overly like any of the characters but it really worked, you mistrust all of the main players the entire time which just added to how much I enjoyed the entire thing. It's smart, really smart.

I will definitely be looking up other books by this author next. 5/5

This book totally captivated me from start to finish and I had absolutely no idea of the killer til the reveal..
I can totally picture the dandelions in the field surrounding the girl in my mind's eye and other scenes from the book too.
It is beautifully written,a really mesmerizing read.
I loved it!

A fantastic police procedure story. I love this authors work and this was absolutely brilliant. Small town secrets xx

I think like most people, I have been really struggling to read in the current climate. Picking up and putting down so many books over the last three months. Until I grabbed this one – I did not/could not put this down.

The book is told from three perspectives. It opens with Wyatt, you immediately get the sense that things aren’t quite right there. He finds a girl on the highway and decides she is there as a message from God. He knows he shouldn’t pick her up, that he has been cleared of a crime but convicted by the town nevertheless. This sets off a whole chain of events for Wyatt and the others.

Odette takes over from here, she was Tru’s friend and Wyatts ex-girlfriend. She’s moved back to her small town with her lawer husband Finn. Now a cop following in her families footprints and determined to solve the mystery of what happened all those years ago.

In the final part of the book Angel takes over the narrative, The girl that Wyatt picked up off the highway. We start to see how the threads all get pulled together.

All the characters in this story are beautifully flawed, both in personality and physically. Wyatt is a very unreliable narrator due to his mental health and the loss of his sister. By the time we meet Odette she is running on empty, paranoid and unsure who she can even trust. Angel has suffered a lot of trauma in her past so you are unsure of her motives.

There is disabled rep in the story and I felt it was handled really well. Odette is an amputee and Angel has a missing eye, both the result of trauma. This isn’t brushed under the carpet or just mentioned in passing. Julia has included the PTSD they both suffer as a result of this. How they have overcome their disabilities to live their lives but it still has a daily effect on them both and how this becomes part of their personalities and how they view the world.

Right from the opening lines of this novel you get a sense of the oppressive summer heat of Texas which sets the tone and atmosphere. The small town mentality, the fact that everyone knows everyone else’s business makes it feel all the more overbearing.

I’m not going to say too much about the story, but the twists and turns kept me on my toes and left me reeling. Lots of ‘wait, what?!’ moments. The pacing is superb and I flew through the pages.

This is a tense, atmospheric read that kept me guessing and I certainly didn’t work out how it was all going to come together. I highly recommend you pick this up. I will be reading Black Eyed Susan, Julia’s other book as I am now totally hooked on her writing style.

My thanks to Penguin for a copy of the book via Netgalley in an exchange for an honest review.

Wyatt finds a lost girl by the road. Police officer Odette needs to solve who this person is. However, it also ends up opening an old investigation into the disappearance of Trumanell Branson 10 years previous. Will two mysteries be solved. I liked the story however I wasn’t so keen on the writing style.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the arc in return for an honest review

The first book I read by Julia Heaberlin was Black Eyed Susans, and I loved it, so I was thrilled to be able to read this. We Are All The Same In The Dark does not disappoint. I became invested in the characters almost immediately and found the plot wonderfully intriguing. We find our protagonists dealing with grief, disability, violent histories and plenty of secrets that are yet to be discovered, and the writing leads us through these with a lyrical prose that just adds to the atmosphere of the story.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a solid, well-written psychological thriller. The characters are real and believable and the plot hung together well. But I wasn't blown away by it. It felt too slow and heavy in parts.

A good psychological read. However, there is a lot to follow and sometimes you can lose the thread if not concentrating. The style of writing took some getting used to but eventually it was fine to follow.
The human cruelty described so well yet also gave a great sense that some of the characters have kindness under their exterior. I liked the strong female characters coming to the fore having overcome adversity in their earlier lives.
The story line kept me questioning and guessing throughout and at times not trusting most of the characters.
I would recommend the book but would say you need to stick with it to get into it.

Ten years ago, Trumanell Branson disappeared, leaving only a bloody handprint behind. Her Father also disappeared at the same time.
This left behind Wyatt, Trumanell's brother who has been searching for his sister ever since. Then, he finds a young girl and is convinced it it a sign.
Odette Tucker is the policewoman involved in both cases. Her father was the policeman in charge ten years ago.
As Odette tries to solve the mysteries she finally finds out who is to blame and what happened to Trumanell . Is she safe and will the truth finally be revealed

An excellent psychological thriller, full of suspense which builds up steadily as the story unfolds.
I am not going to reveal the plot, as this book deserves to be read.
I enjoy Julia Heaberlin's books, and I personally think this is her best work yet.
I want to thank NetGalley, Penguin Michael Joseph UK and Julia Heaberlin for a pre-publication copy to review.

Ticks every box a good murder mystery should.
It's not often a book seems to be trundling along a well-worn path (well worn because it safely and steadily leads the reader just to where they want to be) but this one throws in quite the surprise just as you think you know what's going on. Other than that, this novel breaks no new ground and is nothing really out of the ordinary run of the murder mystery genre. But then that's why we choose and keep reading these books - we want to see how clever the author is in creating the storyline and then telling it to us in a gripping fashion. I would say Heaberlin scores very highly on all counts, though a few more clues wouldn't have gone amiss - that way the final reveal would have been more of our favourite "I knew it!! Yes!!" and less, "Well I guessed that, but whatever..."

A dark and haunting story about the way a small town clings to its past, creating heroes of some people and villains of others. The book centres around three women: Trumanell, a teenage girl who has become the stuff of local legend in the years since her sudden disappearance and assumed murder; Odette, who dated Trumanell’s brother in her teens and is now a local police officer, determined to solve the mystery of her disappearance; and Angel, found lying in a circle of dandelions by Trumanell’s brother at the start of the book and quickly taken under Odette’s wing - silent, one-eyed, and running from something. I loved the strength of the bond between these women and the way they seemed to support each other, even though Trumanell is absent throughout. The depiction of small-town life, rumours, secrets kept and lives destroyed is powerful, and the imagery throughout is intense.

We are all the same in the dark by Julia Heaberlin is a brilliant read. If I’m honest, it’s one I could do with reading again to catch the clues, nuances and to use a different lens (no pun intended) to better understand. It’s interesting that a couple of receivers have alluded to this in saying the book requires concentration and patience at the start and that is very true. It can be a slow and somewhat confusing start but persevere as it unfolds very well.
Julia packs all the ingredients in. Along with a great storyline, rounded characterisation, and insights into human weakness and strengths. This book is uplifting in glimpses of kindness and people overcoming adversity but also a little heartbreaking in the permeating human cruelty and selfishness demonstrated. The powerful message of the positive, enduring impact that acts of honesty and human connection can have on those who are a little broken by life remains long after the story has been told. I definitely recommend

Set in Texas and covering a period of around 10 years, #WeAreAllTheSameInTheDark is a thriller with notes of police drama and mystery. This is the first time I have read a book by Julia Heaberlin. I have had Black Eyed Susan's on my TBR pile for a couple of years. I will definitely go back and read it now.
The three main characters were intriguing, as were those no longer around but constantly referred to. The history of the Texan town, its residents and the disappearance of one of it's teenagers years before is the thread that winds through the story. Both Odette and Angel were flawed but likeable characters that I cared for and felt compassion for. They were well written and strong female characters that did not let their adverse childhood experiences hold them back.
I can't say the book is going to stay with me and I didn't have any 'wow' moments at the twists and turns. I am glad that I read it however and I did enjoy the writing style, the characterisations and the descriptions of the town and the countryside around it,
Thank you to the author, the publishers and to #NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book, which is published on 6 August 2020.

A small Texan town is overshadowed by the disappearance of a popular teenager and her abusive father ten years previously, and her brother Wyatt has always been suspected of murder. Local police officer Odette is obsessed by the case, not only because her father was the investigating officer, but because she was the suspect’s girlfriend and the incident coincided with a terrible tragedy of her own. Then another terrified girl appears in a field near Wyatt’s farm in need of help and protection, and the persecution intensifies.
First person, present tense narration gives immediacy to the events and builds the tension and suspense, with the viewpoint split between two strong female characters, each overcoming adversity as they try to solve the mystery five years apart.
This is a tautly plotted, enthralling thriller with characters that stay in your memory long after you have finished the book. A totally absorbing and thoroughly satisfying read – highly recommended.
The only reason I will not be buying this book for our library is that our oldest readers are eleven; I will however, be recommending it at my book club and to fellow adult readers.

5+ Stars

I just love it when a book takes hold of your mind, body and soul, and completely takes over your life and you never want to put it down; this is that book. It is a suspenseful thriller, very much a slow burn but still so addictive; I was desperate to find out all the answers to the twists, shocks, devastating events that had me turning the pages well into the night. The characters had me hanging off every word they uttered, they were written extremely well, so much so I felt I was in this story with them, it felt that real.

I thought this book was researched really well; it was deep and very meaningful. This author was very clever with her words because she took me down a long and winding path of never-ending questions that had me second-guessing every person in the town, even the good guys, and still, she keeps you guessing until the very end.

With secondary characters that are very important in this story, wonderful writing skills and an ending I wouldn't have guessed in a million years, this book was superb in all ways. It is one I can't recommend enough.

This book was a slow burner to me, it tells a story from three different point of views, which I struggled with at first.

It starts with Wyatt who finds a girl with one eye on the side of the road surrounded by dandelions. Wyatt has his own story and issues, he struggles with mental health since the disappearance of his father and sister 10 years before. I found his view quite rambling and not always very coherent.

Then we have Odette, a police officer who is investigating a tip off that Wyatt has a young girl at his property, she was Wyatt's girl friend 10 years ago, and on the fateful night, was in an accident where she lost part of her leg.

Lastly we have Angel, the girl, we don't find out her back story for quite a while but is centre to the story.

Once I got to grips with the book I couldn't put it down, the suspense really built up for me, there is an absolute twist that I did not see coming.

One small criticism for me was the formatting, it was very off putting to have the author's name and the title of the book repeated nearly every page, did not help in trying to get the book to flow.

Recommended and look forward to reading more by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Michael Joseph UK for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.