Dark Circles

Dark Circles is a suspense novel by Caite Dolan-Leach, author of Dead Letters, about fame, violence, and the public's morbid fascination with murder. Olivia Reed is an actress in trouble. Tabloids are plastering her name everywhere, and she is still reeling from a recent public meltdown on a Manhattan street. Her controlling publicist sends her to a remote retreat in upstate New York called the House of Light.

It is not rehab, Liv is assured, but a Spiritual Center for realignment and personal growth. She can expect yoga, morning meditation, soft bamboo-blend clothing, and plenty of crystals to cleanse her energy. Before long, though, she finds that the place holds a great deal of darkness.

A prickly local named Ava tells her something twisted lies behind the Light's polished surface. Several women connected to the center have died in apparent suicides, and no one Ava talks to believes the center had a hand in it. Hoping to learn the truth and make use of her celebrity, Liv starts a true crime podcast to connect the dots and expose what the Light is really after.

She begins to suspect that the radiant people around her hide rotten souls, and she wonders whether anything, even her own life, is what it seems. The novel is driven by atmosphere and populated by a cast of devious, absorbing characters.