The Darkest Corners

A thriller for young adult and adult readers, Kara Thomas’s The Darkest Corners begins as eighteen-year-old Tessa and her best friend, Callie, reunited by the terminal illness of Tessa's father, are forced to reckon with the events of their past and their own potentially faulty memories.

The novel opens, it has been ten years since Tessa Lowell left her hometown of Fayette, Pennsylvania. Now, eighteen years old and living in Florida, Tessa has no desire to return to Fayette. Having had a falling out with her former best friend, Callie, she has no desire to return to the town where she witnessed the brutal murder of her cousin Lori. Besides that, Tessa's father is in prison, and her mother and sister left her to be raised by her haughty grandmother, who barely provides a comfortable home for her. Tessa doesn't feel she has any reason to return to Fayette – unfortunately, fate has other plans for her.

Tessa discovers early in the novel that her father is dying in prison. She doesn't care much for her convict father, but she does feel an obligation to see him before he dies. Tessa isn't thrilled about making the journey north to Pennsylvania. Her past trauma, which she had hoped would remain buried, is certain to resurface when she is surrounded by the people she knew ten years ago; she is less than enthusiastic to confront Callie about Lori's killer. She and Callie never had a conversation about what happened that night with Lori, and Tessa is afraid that Callie will cause the doubts that she still has to this day about the murder to return with an uncontrollable vengeance.



Once in Fayette, Tessa finds Callie recklessly partying, claiming to enjoy the last few months before she heads off to college. Tessa is skeptical, believing that Callie is more likely using drugs and alcohol to avoid the trauma of their shared past. Almost immediately after Tessa arrives, trouble begins to arise in her narrative of the events on the night of Lori's murder. For years, Tessa has relentlessly tracked news stories relating to the Ohio River Monster, Wyatt Stokes, whom both Tessa and Callie helped put behind bars. She wants to believe that her sleuthing is just pure curiosity based on her involvement in the case, but Tessa knows that her memory of that night is foggier than she wants to admit – and that there are other potential subjects who could have been just as guilty as Stokes.

In Fayette, Tessa is confronted again with new, disturbing incidents. At first, she writes them off as just part of the troubled history of her hometown, but when they keep occurring, she starts to get suspicious. New details about the case and many members of Fayette begin to bubble to the surface, and Callie and Tessa are both concerned about the implications they had on Stokes's conviction. As more details begin to appear, Tessa and Callie soon realize that the man they thought was the killer might not have murdered Lori – the serial murderer called the Ohio River Monster might still be on the loose, hiding in the darkest corners of Fayette, waiting all these years for Callie and Tessa to return.

As the novel proceeds, the two girl sleuths plumb their own memories and the accounts of other people in Fayette to uncover the identity of the real killer, in the hopes of making their town safe again. In the process, they are forced to confront the evening that they hoped never to relive again, and to reconcile their lost friendship, their histories, and their dedication to each other.



Kara Thomas, also known as Kara Taylor, is the author of a number of young adult books, some of which have been optioned for pilots with Warner Brothers Television. Thomas, who was raised and still lives in Long Island, New York, has authored six books for teen readers: Prep School Confidential and it's sequels, The Darkest Corners, Little Monsters, and The Cheerleaders. She is primarily the author of true crime, crime, and thriller novels for young adults, many of which have female protagonists. The Darkest Corners was a Spring 2016 Junior Library Guild Selection.