Someone is killing little girls in Wind Gap, Missouri. Hoping to scoop the bigger newspapers, an editor at the Chicago Daily Post sends reporter Camille Preaker to the tiny town to cover the story. Wind Gap just happens to be Camille's hometown, the very place she left the first chance she got and never looked back. After her return, Camille slowly comes to realize that the murders and her own hidden horrors are more closely tied than she could have imagined.

It's hard to describe this bone-chilling debut by Gillian Flynn (lead TV critic for Entertainment Weekly) without resorting to language that could be found in a horror movie trailer: "haunting," "shocking" and "skin-crawlingly creepy" are all apt terms. But the story—and the characters inhabiting it—are anything but clichéd. Camille's hard-edged hypochondriac mother and her manipulative, beautiful much-younger stepsister occupy central roles, but just as intriguing are the Kansas City cop called in to assist on the case and John Keene, the brother of the most recent victim, whose open grieving makes many see him as a prime suspect.

Camille herself is the most fascinating of the bunch. She has spent a lifetime trying to numb her pain by carving words into her body. Her left wrist bears the scar of "weary" while her back reads "spiteful" and "tangle," and her chest is branded with "blossom," "dosage" and "bottle." Camille literally ran out of room on her body before turning for help, and she now medicates her urge to cut with heavy doses of bourbon. Bringing the killer to light may be just the thing to liberate her own spirit.

Sharp Objects is incredibly disturbing, but Flynn's powerful prose shines a light on the beauty that can rise out of dysfunction. With this novel's perfectly picked, sinister details (the killer is plucking his victims' baby teeth) and well-established pacing, readers will find themselves helplessly hurtling towards the haunting conclusion.

Iris Blasi is a writer in New York City. Copyright 2006 BookPage Reviews.

Fans of psychological thrillers will welcome narrator/Chicago Daily Post reporter Camille Preaker with open arms. Newspaper editor Frank Curry hands Camille the stereotypically plum assignment of a serial-killer-in-the-making story, but the offer takes an unexpected turn when Camille learns that the scene of the crimes is her hometown of Wind Gap, MO, a place to which she has not returned in eight years. Although Camille's desire to cover the story quickly prevails over her trepidation, an icy welcome awaits her at her mother's home and in the beginning, at least she is unable to learn much about the case from police or from locals reluctant to reveal their secrets to a prodigal daughter seeking a career-boosting byline. However, as first-time novelist Flynn expertly divulges in this tale reminiscent of the works of Shirley Jackson, there is much more to discover about Wind Gap and, most of all, about Camille. Librarians can confidently recommend this title to readers of the genre, who will, no doubt, return asking for more. Highly recommended for all public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/06.] Nancy McNicol, Ora Mason Branch Lib., West Haven, CT

Flynn gives new meaning to the term "dysfunctional family" in her chilling debut thriller. Camille Preaker, once institutionalized for youthful self-mutilation, now works for a third-rung Chicago newspaper. When a young girl is murdered and mutilated and another disappears in Camille's hometown of Wind Gap, Mo., her editor, eager for a scoop, sends her there for a human-interest story. Though the police, including Richard Willis, a profiler from Kansas City, Mo., say they suspect a transient, Camille thinks the killer is local. Interviewing old acquaintances and newcomers, she relives her disturbed childhood, gradually uncovering family secrets as gruesome as the scars beneath her clothing. The horror creeps up slowly, with Flynn misdirecting the reader until the shocking, dreadful and memorable double ending. She writes fluidly of smalltown America, though many characters are clichs hiding secrets. Flynn, the lead TV critic for Entertainment Weekly , has already garnered blurbs from Stephen King and Harlan Coben. 5-city author tour; foreign rights sold in 10 countries. (Oct.)