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Lucy Williams photo<\/p>\n
Set somewhere near Bath, Hannah Richell\u2019s latest thriller surpasses even her exceptional 2024 novel, The Search Party.<\/p>\n
A disaster for the school\u2019s cherished reputation, of course, says the authoritarian head of school with the weird husband, though the handful of down-to-earth people in Hannah Richell\u2019s extraordinary One Dark Night reckons it\u2019s a much greater disaster for poor Sarah, poor late Sarah.<\/p>\n
The forest is supposedly haunted by the ghost of Sally of the Woods, who found out to her dismay long ago that infidelity was exclusively the province of the husband.<\/p>\n
Still, spooky legends and all, it\u2019s exceedingly dangerous: dark woods with uncertain trails and long plummets, a ruined folly boarded up decades ago but breeched by young ne\u2019er-do-wells, spiral staircases with no railing and open at the top, old mines and tunnels theoretically closed off permanently.<\/p>\n
And creeps creeping in the creepy woods.<\/p>\n
Richell\u2019s most recent murder mystery, 2024\u2019s The Search Party, was one of that year\u2019s best \u2014 One Dark Night is even better and you\u2019ll learn no more of the plot. No, don\u2019t whine, it\u2019s not becoming.<\/p>\n
This is all happening somewhere near Bath.<\/p>\n
Our central protagonist is Rachel, who has a job at the school with a title a mile long that basically translates to non-academics as guidance counsellor.<\/p>\n
Her ex is Ben, a detective sergeant who\u2019s one of the senior officers investigating the murder. He\u2019s now partnered romantically with a much younger woman who\u2019s just announced she\u2019s pregnant.<\/p>\n
Rachel and Ben, all feelings between them gone, all ancient history. Hmmm.<\/p>\n
Their daughter Ellie attends the school and bounces back and forth between their homes, resentful of the world, totally thrilled that her mom works at her school. Both parents think she spent Halloween at the other\u2019s home \u2014 no way a 17-year-old would ever lie to parents and go somewhere she was forbidden to go, right?<\/p>\n
Sarah\u2019s father is dead and her mother has a high-roller job in Dubai, where Sarah didn\u2019t get along with the ex-pat kids and moved to England to live with her cousin, Olivia, who treated Sarah like a sister. What you see on the surface is all there is, eh?<\/p>\n