On its face, they are a  family to be envied; instead it is bordering on self destruction. Kate some eight months prior had been brutally raped and although physically recovered, she has not made any strides toward a psychological recovery. This impacts her entire family as she and Ian have become strangers, and her daughter has withdrawn into the Goth world involving herself with every parent’s worst fear… the dangerous, debauched, older, rich boy Damien.

Grace very much resents the move as she has had to leave Damien in his ritzy New York apartment for the small little town with the only action being the lazy conflict between “town and gown.”

Hiding there is a serial killer who tortures his victims and then poses them for photographs. The killer then manages to display his art work in some manner. The latest young girl who has disappeared from their small college is finally declared dead when Kate discovers a photograph of her that mysteriously appeared in an antique store’s front window.

This novel more than anything is truly about psychological trauma sustained from rape. Kate’s anxieties, her thought processes as she justifies her withdrawal from the world are exquisitely and empathetically drawn. Her discovery of the dead girl’s photo wrenches her anxiety level up another notch and she becomes very suspicious of her next door neighbor, believing him to be the serial killer. One day she sees a girl enter his house and never come out so she calls the police. They find nothing and she takes matters into her own hands by breaking in to find her. She is caught and becomes known as the crazy lady within the town. This completely estranges Ian.

Suddenly Grace disappears and after initially believing she has run away with Damien , Ian finally joins Kate in hunting for her. The reader will slowly realize that this is a very sophisticated story. The author balances the triggers of Kate’s non recovery with an intricate plot line that has many unexpected twists.

Although the story starts slowly, the suspense builds relentlessly as each young girl becomes missing culminating with Grace. Character development is good, and anyone with a rebellious teenager or who has worked with one knows that she has caught that image perfectly in her rendition of Grace, both in dialog and action.

While perhaps a bit too dark for everyone’s taste, The Dead Place is definitely a memorable read.

--Thea Davis