Dark August

I chose this book for my August entry in the Calendar of Crime Reading Challenge.  The author is a successful screenwriter and this is her debut novel. I am a little confused, though, about the publication date of her next book Poison Lilies. It was published in Canada on May 22, 2022 while Dark August was published on June 30, 2022. Why is Dark August her debut novel? Is it a debut novel in the U. S.?  

The publisher's summary:

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…? 

I loved this novel! It is a tightly paced, engrossing mystery with a captivating cast of characters. Gus is a fantastic female investigator so I hope that this book will become a series. She is a strong enough character who can anchor a series. The plot was pretty amazing as well. It had a couple of huge surprises that floored me. In fact, there is absolutely nothing negative that I can say about the story. It is the perfect mystery. The Ontario, Canada setting felt somewhat international to me because I am not Canadian and I would love to continue to read stories set here.

I am rating this book way over 5 out of 5 stars!  Mystery fans are definately going to want to read this one.