Where Stars Won't Shine by Patrick Lacey

So the characterization of the book really worked for me, setting up a compelling background to drive the action of the book.īecause once you get into the action, it is going to get crazy. It is so easy to make the killer the central part of the story because we want to know what makes them different, when it is really the victims that deserve the spotlight. And Zeke-he is the most uncomfortable character of all, because if you are interested in true crime, you probably see a little bit of yourself in him. It considers different perspectives, such as Ivy’s grief and loss and how that physically and emotionally manifests for her-very powerful! Ethan’s story is compelling too, and you see how easy it is for people to sink to a life of crime when it is for a good reason. You can bet they aren’t going to like it.

There is something wrong with the town of Marlowe, and Ivy, whose boyfriend was a victim of Ashton’s Ethan, who grew up in Marlowe and is now tangled in some bad business and Zeke, who is obsessed with the killer to the point of hero worship are all about to find out what is really going on. While Tucker Ashton’s world begins simply enough, things start spiraling out of control pretty quickly. If we can just figure out what makes people tick, maybe that will make everything make sense. Perhaps it’s a need to assert some balance in a world that is spinning wildly out of control.

True crime is having more than a moment right now as a culture we seem to be fascinated into obsession with killers, strange crimes, and finding out why. A world not all that dissimilar from our world. This intro puts the reader right in the thick of reality, in a world where evil lives and breeds and gets glorified, but also where traumatized people have to live with the consequences of that evil. I was instantly sucked in to Where Stars Won’t Shine, which begins with an excerpt from a book about infamous serial killer Tucker Ashton, who ended his reign of terror with a mass killing spree in a little Massachusetts town called Marlowe.

Where Stars Won't Shine by Patrick Lacey