In the Beautiful Dark

A woman investigates a friend’s long-ago murder in a haunting and hopeful novel about the weight of secrets and regrets by the bestselling author of The Wild Road Home and A Light in the Forest.

At Sunny Pines Retirement Community, where the “Sixty-Two and Better!” share their golden years, secrets abound. Some scandalous, some haunting, and some dangerous. For Birdie Allen, a retired business owner and grandmother, her secret is the only thing she’s got left. Getting old isn’t the hardest part about life. It’s the memories from more than fifty years ago of the death of her unrequited love. And Birdie’s abandoned quest to root out the killer.

With retirement comes a lot of time to revisit old ghosts, so when Birdie ties together a string of recent murders, and a woman disappears, she’s drawn into the same chase she gave up decades earlier. But this time she has the help of an eccentric community of eager new friends. And they’re not alone. Restless souls are watching, including Birdie’s lost love, and they sense the danger that lies ahead. They’re not leaving Birdie’s side until she finishes what she set out to do. But will Birdie’s pursuit of a killer finally free her of regrets and allow her to embrace the beauty of the life she’s created?

Melissa Payne is the bestselling author of six novels, including The Wild Road Home, A Light in the Forest, and The Night of Many Endings. After an early career raising money for nonprofit organizations, Melissa began dreaming about becoming a published author and wrote her first novel. Her stories feature small mountain towns with characters searching for redemption, love, and second chances. They have been three-time Colorado Book Award finalists and Colorado Authors League 2020 and 2023 winners for mainstream fiction. Melissa lives in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains with her husband and three children, a friendly mutt, a very loud cat, and the occasional bear. For more information, visit www.melissapayneauthor.com.