I really liked all three of Gillian Flynn’s books and I enjoyed the movie made from Gone Girl.

Mary and I had a nice anniversary trip in Europe in April and one day in Paris

we saw that Dark Places was showing. It doesn’t come out in the US until August,

it stars Charize Theron and has a french director (maybe that accounted for the first showing in France).

Or maybe it is because isn’t all that good.

I liked this book a lot, a dark story about a family being murdered in their home

and the search for who did it. The book is set in the Kansas City area, mostly nearby small towns, and I was very curious to see how it was depicted.

The answer is it wasn’t depicted at all. Everything is in closeup and generic. Absolutely no midwest feel to the telling which I think is peculiar and a mistake.

Having said that, Theron is strong as a really damaged woman coming to grips with that night as the only survivor when she was a child. The suspense builds and I never lost interest.

I’ll be very interested how this movie is reviewed and does here in the US, and if anyone else is bothered by the lack of geographic atmosphere and condescension toward many of the characters.

I’ll give Dark Places a B- though. It was worth watching.