We Are All the Same in the Dark

Prologue


It takes about eight to ten hours to hand-dig a grave, more if you was doing it in the dark. Five to six if you have a helper. It ain t like the movies. You need more than just a spade with a good blade. You need a chainsaw for splitting the roots. A pick. Even if you don t hit rocks, you got Texas clay, which can be as bad as rocks. I always carry a measuring tape and a yardstick, because you ve got to make a hole a lot bigger than in your mind s eye. And you ve got to go deep enough that folks and animals walking by can t smell the body rotting. I d go eighteen inches of soil on top to be safe. Bottom line, if you re asking me my opinion, I don t think that Branson girl will ever be found. I never saw anything like the search for her body. Every farm. Every bit of lake property. The cops got a color-coded map and took it inch by inch, year by year, until it was all done. I ll tell you this: If that girl was buried around here, and buried fast, she was buried by someone who knows his dirt. That might be a farmer. That might be a person who s killed a lot.

Albert Jenkins, 66, cemetery gravedigger

Excerpt from The Tru Story crime documentary 

Julia Heaberlin is the author of the critically acclaimed Black-Eyed Susans, a USA Today and Times (U.K.) bestseller. Her psychological thrillers, which also include Paper Ghosts (finalist for the ITW Thriller Award for Best Novel), Playing Dead, and Lie Still, have been sold in more than twenty countries. Heaberlin is an award-winning journalist who has worked at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Detroit News, and The Dallas Morning News. She grew up in Texas and lives with her family near Dallas/Fort Worth, where she is at work on her next novel.

Tense, darkly atmospheric . . . Gracefully written, with characters that leap off the page and into your imagination, this takes your breath away with its sudden twists. Daily Mail

We Are All the Same in the Dark succeeds because Heaberlin is working on three levels offering a fast-paced thriller centered around Angel and a slow-burning mystery focused on Trumanell, while never losing sight of her characters humanity. Texas Monthly

Elegant prose, headstrong heroines, and gorgeously wrought Texas atmosphere . . . a splendid ride with a jaw-dropper of a twist in the middle. NJ online

The author of Black-Eyed Susans returns with an elegantly written tale, set in a world where women are vulnerable and men are dangerous, the finger of suspicion pointing at them all. Daily Express (UK)

[Julia Heaberlin] once again brilliantly captures the atmosphere and rough beauty of a strange and divided state. CrimeReads

Exceptional . . . After a devastating twist halfway through, the intense plot builds to an emotional finale. Heaberlin sensitively addresses issues of survival and vulnerability in this heart-wrenching gothic tale. Publishers Weekly (starred review)

One of my favorite reads of the year . . . [Heaberlin s] beautiful prose propelled me through this spine-chilling novel. . . .The book is absolutely mesmerizing. Heather Gudenkauf, New York Times bestselling author of The Weight of Silence

I loved this book: gorgeous writing, interesting characters, a unique setting, and an unsettling, surprising mystery. Everyone needs to put this book on their to-be-read list right now! Amy Engel, bestselling author of The Familiar Dark

A gripping, richly layered exploration of haunted souls in a haunted place . . . a story that keeps you guessing at every turn.