Anna Maybourne has just moved to Harper’s Creek, a small, struggling farming community haunted by the unsolved murders of two young women who died three years apart. The suspected killer is dead, but Anna isn’t convinced the right person was caught. When her grandmother, who is battling dementia, starts saying things about the victims that she shouldn’t know, Anna realizes the answers might be closer to home than anyone thinks. With the 3- and 6-year anniversaries of the deaths coming up, the danger might not be over.
I listened to this on audio and it was the perfect way to experience it. Saskia Maarleveld narrated and she’s phenomenal. She’s one of those narrators who makes every character feel distinct and handles the emotional weight of a story so well. She absolutely elevated this one for me.
The creepy factor here is strong. Pinborough nails the claustrophobic feel of a town where everyone is barely scraping by and no one wants to dig up the past. I was constantly second-guessing whether Anna was spiraling or whether she was the only person paying attention, and that push and pull kept me completely engaged. The grandmother stole the book for me. The way Pinborough writes her shifting between confusion and sharp clarity was masterful. You genuinely can’t tell what’s real and what’s the disease and that ambiguity was fascinating.
Anna is a prickly protagonist. She runs hot and her temper flares at pretty much everyone around her, which made her hard to root for early on. But as the layers of her backstory peeled back, I understood why she’s wired that way even if she sometimes directs her frustration at the wrong people. The family dynamic between Anna, her sister, her mom, and her grandmother felt grounded and messy in a very real way.
It’s a longer book but I never felt like it dragged. The pacing is slow and deliberate in a way that builds dread rather than boredom. Pinborough kept me guessing the entire time and the final reveal was something I genuinely did not see coming. There’s an unexpected genre-bending element toward the end that I won’t spoil, but it caught me off guard in both a good and slightly unresolved way. I was so invested that I actually found extra things to do around the house just so I could keep listening through those final chapters.
Four stars. Great on audio, atmospheric and unsettling, and a mystery that keeps you off balance the whole way through. I’ll definitely be reading more Pinborough after this.
Other Sarah Pinborough reviews
AMAZON | GOODREADS | BOOKSHOP |★★★★
They Say a Girl Died Here comes out August 25, 2026. Huge thank you to Flatiron for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion. If you liked this review, please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my Instagram @speakingof.books.
