Book Summary and Reviews of Day One by Abigail Dean

Day One by Abigail Dean

Day One

A Novel

by Abigail Dean

  • Published:
  • Mar 2024, 368 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

A village hall, a primary-school play, a beautiful Lake District town in England.

Into this idyllic scene steps a lone gunman whose actions set off a chain of events that will have devastating consequences for the close-knit community of Stonesmere.

In the weeks following the cataclysm, conspiracy theorists start questioning what happened. Two young people find themselves at the epicenter of the uproar: Marty, the town's golden girl and daughter of a teacher killed that day, and Trent, whose memories of his brief time trying to fit into Stonesmere fuel his attachment to the conspiracies.

But what really happened at the Day One assembly? What secrets is Marty keeping and what blind spots does Trent miss? In this world where news travels fast and videos and gossip travel faster, how does a community move forward together?

Opening with a gripping moment of terror and then jumping forward in time to show how secrets, trauma, miscommunications, and unrequited feelings reverberate over a lifetime, Abigail Dean once again delivers "a riveting page-turner, full of hope in the face of despair" (Sophie Hannah, The Guardian).

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Day One has the bones of a cozy mystery but the flesh of a thriller." —The Washington Post

"An emotional page-turner full of heart-pounding shocks and heart-wrenching insights, is an unforgettable book." —The Wall Street Journal

"A gripping examination of a community devastated by a school shooting and the 'truthers' who deny it ever happened. Within that story is a girl who's hiding what she knows about what happened that day. A chilling, thought-provoking read. Brilliant." —Shari Lapena, New York Times–bestselling author of Everyone Here Is Lying and The Couple Next Door

"Superb! Day One is what brilliant thriller writing is all about: living, breathing characters, a nonstop plot, and—as we've come to love about Dean—a voice that is rich, evocative, and, dare I say it, literary. And given that the novel wrestles with a subject that has been wrenchingly close to many of us, the tale will stay with you long after you read the final page." —Jeffery Deaver, New York Times–bestselling author of The Bone Collector and The Watchmaker's Hand

This information about Day One was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Abigail Dean

Abigail Dean started her career as a bookseller, then worked as a lawyer for ten years, most recently for Google. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller Girl A and is at work on her third novel. She lives in London with her husband, son, and cat.

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