Dark Places by Flynn, Gillian Gillian Flynn has a genius for writing compelling stories about repellent characters. As in her previous novel, Sharp Objects, an Edgar Award finalist, Dark Places focuses on a deeply flawed protagonist, who over the course of the novel, wins some measure of reader sympathy if not empathy. Told alternatively in Libby Day's current search for the killer of her family, which occurred when she was a child, and flashbacks to the events leading up to this horrific event, Dark Places mesmerizes even as it horrifies. An unflinching look at a seldom seen side of America -- the raw struggle of the rural poor, far from the ideal of the family farm. This exceeds the promise shown in Sharp Objects.--Joe, Anderson's Bookshop (Naperville, IL)