I have been following Sarah Pinborough for decades. I fondly remember being introduced to her through the US releases of her early horror work via Leisure Books before her rise as a mainstream bestselling thriller writer.

Pinborough’s latest effort, THEY SAY A GIRL DIED HERE, is a welcome return to her horror/dark thriller roots. Brilliantly conceived and designed from start to finish, it may be her most complex and surprising novel since BEHIND HER EYES (which became a compelling series on Netflix). In a creepy prologue, a corpse has been left on a Midwest farm located in the town of Harper’s Creek. But the story behind this morbid occurrence has yet to be explained and will be well worth the wait.

"There is not a single moment that does not ring authentic, and you will root for Anna throughout, even when it might seem that she is not the most reliable narrator."

Anna Maybourne and her family have recently moved to Harper’s Creek, and she cannot miss the postings that seem to be up everywhere with titles like 6 Years since Lila, 3 Years since Bonnie. Who will be next? This makes her naturally curious, and she quietly learns about the murders of 16-year-old Lila Clarke and 19-year-old Bonnie Buchanan. The man who police insisted committed the crime was killed in an act that many believe was done to prevent him from identifying the actual culprit.

These mysteries are enough to make Anna wish to seek out the truth. She lives in a bizarre household where she has a strained relationship with her mother and little interaction with her younger sister. The most interesting character is Anna’s grandmother, Evelyn, who lives with them and bounces between bouts of dementia and moments of strange cognition where she seems to be urging Anna to do something and keeps referring to the fact that, in her own words, “they say a girl died here.”

Evelyn also mentions a “clown” somehow being involved, which drives Anna to find answers. She becomes instantly suspicious of everyone in town, from the sheriff to the pastor, and befriends Jamie, a known junkie who has been hanging the postings all over town. Otherwise, she has made very few friends and is looked upon as a boat rocker who even scares off the handyman who is interested in her mother. She blackmails him after she considers him to be a potential murder suspect.

The beauty of this novel is what we are not being told. There are references to what happened with Anna when she was in college that may have caused her family to move to Harper’s Creek in the first place. Then there are the cryptic lucid ramblings from Evelyn that will make more sense during the highly unexpected reveal, which is probably the best twist from Pinborough since BEHIND HER EYES.

THEY SAY A GIRL DIED HERE is full of suspense and scares that border on the supernatural and is incredibly enjoyable. There is not a single moment that does not ring authentic, and you will root for Anna throughout, even when it might seem that she is not the most reliable narrator.