Dark Places

by Gillian Flynn

Libby Day, the novel's narrator and protagonist, is the sole survivor of a massacre in Kinnakee, Kansas, a fictional rural town. On January 3, 1985, somewhere around 2 A.M., Libby overhears the murders of her 10-year-old sister Michelle, 9-year-old sister Debby, and mother, Patty, in what appears to be a Satanic cult ritual. Libby escapes through a window, experiences severe frostbite that leaves her with missing fingers and toes, and later testifies in court against her teenage brother, Ben.

Twenty-four years after the massacre, Libby, in need of money, meets with a group of amateur investigators led by a man named Lyle Wirth who believe that her brother is innocent of the crime. At their coaxing, she meets her brother, Ben for the first time in jail. She also meets with her father Runner, who is now homeless and is constantly asking for money; a girl named Krissi Cates, a stripper who accused Ben of molesting her as a child; Trey Tampano, a former acquaintance of Ben's who was accused of being a Satanist as a teenager; and Diondra Wertzner, Ben's former girlfriend who may have had a hand in the massacre. Through her investigation, Libby learns of her brother's secrets and how the murders unfolded that evening.

Interspersed with the modern day investigation are flashbacks to the day of the massacre. These flashbacks are told from the points of view of Libby's mother, Patty, and her convicted brother, Ben. Patty's viewpoints discuss the difficulties of trying to keep the family farm while raising four children alone; Ben tells the story of a troubled teenager as he falls in with a bad crowd. These viewpoints paint a picture of a grim life of desperate poverty, marital abuse, and abandonment that characterize life on the farm prior to the murders.