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    Black-Eyed Susans: A Novel of Suspense
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    Black-Eyed Susans: A Novel of Suspense
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    Black-Eyed Susans: A Novel of Suspense
    Audiobook10 hours

    Black-Eyed Susans: A Novel of Suspense

    Written by Julia Heaberlin

    Narrated by Whitney Dykhouse, Eric G. Dove and Karen Peakes

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    For fans of Laura Lippman and Gillian Flynn comes an electrifying novel of stunning psychological suspense.

    I am the star of screaming headlines and campfire ghost stories.
    I am one of the four Black-Eyed Susans.
    The lucky one.

    As a sixteen-year-old, Tessa Cartwright was found in a Texas field, barely alive amid a scattering of bones, with only fragments of memory as to how she got there. Ever since, the press has pursued her as the lone surviving "Black-Eyed Susan," the nickname given to the murder victims because of the yellow carpet of wildflowers that flourished above their shared grave. Tessa's testimony about those tragic hours put a man on death row.

    Now, almost two decades later, Tessa is an artist and single mother. In the desolate cold of February, she is shocked to discover a freshly planted patch of black-eyed susans-a summertime bloom-just outside her bedroom window. Terrified at the implications-that she sent the wrong man to prison and the real killer remains at large-Tessa turns to the lawyers working to exonerate the man awaiting execution. But the flowers alone are not proof enough, and the forensic investigation of the still-unidentified bones is progressing too slowly. An innocent life hangs in the balance. The legal team appeals to Tessa to undergo hypnosis to retrieve lost memories-and to share the drawings she produced as part of an experimental therapy shortly after her rescue.

    What they don't know is that Tessa and the scared, fragile girl she was have built a fortress of secrets. As the clock ticks toward the execution, Tessa fears for her sanity, but even more for the safety of her teenaged daughter. Is a serial killer still roaming free, taunting Tessa with a trail of clues? She has no choice but to confront old ghosts and lingering nightmares to finally discover what really happened that night.

    Shocking, intense, and utterly original, Black-Eyed Susans is a dazzling psychological thriller, seamlessly weaving past and present in a searing tale of a young woman whose harrowing memories remain in a field of flowers-as a killer makes a chilling return to his garden.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateAug 11, 2015
    ISBN9781501237386
    Unavailable
    Black-Eyed Susans: A Novel of Suspense
    Author

    Julia Heaberlin

    Julia Heaberlin is the internationally bestselling author of Night Will Find You, We Are All the Same in the Dark, Paper Ghosts, Black-Eyed Susans, Playing Dead, and Lie Still. Her books have sold in more than twenty countries. We Are All the Same in the Dark won the 2020 Writers’ League of Texas award for fiction, and Paper Ghosts was a finalist for Best Hardcover Novel at the International Thriller Awards. Before writing novels, Heaberlin was a journalist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Dallas Morning News, and The Detroit News, which fed her interest in true crime and the forgotten stories of victims, a theme she carries into her fiction. She currently lives in the Dallas–Fort Worth area with her family, where she’s working on her next psychological thriller.

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    Reviews for Black-Eyed Susans

    4/5

    400 ratings72 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I love reading mysteries and thrillers that deals with what happens after a traumatic accident. What happens to that person who was rescued or who has gone through some kind of terrible/horrific tragedy? How do they start viewing the world and how does that change things? Maybe it's the psychology student in me but I've always found this area to be fascinating. Throw in some more crazy plot twists, and I get super excited! So before I go on and on and spoil the whole story plot for this novel, here is my review:

      16-year old Tessa Cartwright was found buried in a field in Texas, barely alive and surrounded by scattered bones. She has no idea how she got there or who did this to her. Since she is the only survivor, she has become known as the "Black-Eyed Susan", a nickname given to the murder victims because of the yellow wildflowers that covered their grave site. After being hounded by the press for months on end, Tessa is finally trying to move on with her life. She even manages to give a testimony about those tragic hours, a testimony that puts a man on death row. Now, almost two decades later, certain events make Tessa believe that the wrong man is behind bars. It's up to Tessa to go back into her memories and find out what really happened all of those years ago.... before the real killer comes back for her.

      Let me start by saying that the story plot is intriguing and it kept me going throughout the novel. I just had to know who it was and what was happening. I liked that the story switched from one time-point and POV to the other; it made it all the more fascinating. Reading about the trauma and the struggles that Tessa goes through as she tries to be "normal" was also very interesting and felt very realistic, which is something I always like. That being said, there were parts to the ending that definitely fell short for me. Although I would never have been able to guess who the real killer was nor how everything played out, there were a lot of unanswered questions. Also, I didn't like how the author just dismissed some of the behaviours that Tessa did as mere paranoia on the character's part; although it works with the story, it would have been better if there had been some significance to it all. It definitely kept me occupied and I was not able to put it down, so that is a good sign! Is it on Gillian Flynn's level? No. But it was definitely a good read and I would recommend it to anyone who likes light thrillers with a psychological flair.
    • 4/5
      This was more of a slow burn type of suspense/mystery as opposed to an edge of your seat read. I enjoyed it and had a few characters pegged for the murderer and was pleasantly surprised when none of them were correct. The ending was strategically left with just a few questions left unanswered as if the author just might continue on with the story, or she just wanted to leave you thinking what if. Solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
    • 4/5
      Review copy provided by NetGalley for an honest review. Review First published on my blog, Musings of a Bookish Kitty

      Black-Eyed Susan by Julia Heaberlin
      Ballantine Books, 2015
      Crime Fiction; 368 pgs

      I read Julia Heaberlin's Playing Dead a few years ago and really liked it. When I got the opportunity to read her latest novel, Black-Eyed Susans, I jumped at the chance.

      Right from the start I was hooked to this story about a woman who is revisiting her own kidnapping two decades before, when she was sixteen, trying to put a face to the man who left her to die in a shallow grave alongside his other victims, already dead. The narrative of the novel alternates between Tessie at 16 and her adult self, Tessa, which affords the reader the perfect view of the impact such a traumatic event can have on a person, both immediately following an event and years later.

      Tessie's last memory before waking up in a grave was of going to the store to buy a candy bar for the homeless man she always passed on her run. Not only does Tessie have no memory of those hours she was missing, but she also suffers from hysterical blindness. She finds herself in therapy yet again with the trial looming before her. Her best friend, Lydia, has stood beside her throughout, offering Tessie support and guidance. She's the only one who treats Tessie the way she always has, which is a relief given how everyone is so careful around her. Even in her traumatized state, Tessie is every inch a teenager: questioning authority, not quite trusting the adults around her, and needing to have some semblance of control over what is happening to her.

      Tessie doesn't have much to offer in the way of who kidnapped and tried to kill her. She does not know if it is the man arrested and being prosecuted is the one who did it. She can only testify to what she remembers.

      Fast forward to present day Tessa who is a single mother with a teenage daughter of her own. She has long doubted that the right person was convicted of the crime, and, with his execution fast approaching, she feels she must do what she can to save his life. Her doubts are heightened when she finds Black-Eyed Susans newly planted outside her bedroom window, Black-Eyed Susans being the type of flower that had covered the grave she had been found in at 16. It wasn't just that though. There had been little things over the years that make Tessa doubt the killer has been caught--and make her fear that he is still out there--taunting her.

      Working with the appellate team to help save an innocent man from death,Tessa provides what help she can as the team attempts to identify the other victims whose bones were found in the grave. DNA analysis is much more advanced now than it was in 1995 when the trial had taken place. And the hope is new evidence will come to light.

      This is an intensely suspenseful novel that I found extremely difficult to put down. I was particularly interested in the science of the investigation, especially in just how far we have come in being able to narrow down where a person comes from based on DNA and chemical markers. The author clearly did her research.

      Heaberlin avoids going into graphic detail about what happened to Tessie and the other victims, and yet she does it in such a way as to leave no doubt that what they endured was horrific. I thought this was a nice touch, and says a lot for how talented a writer Heaberlin is.

      Several different theories went through my mind as I read about the who and why of it, but I was never quite sure enough to want to say out loud. I admit the ending (nothing to do with the who or why of it) gave me pause in terms of just how much I enjoyed this book in the end. I loved it while I was reading it, but once finished I wondered if the envelope of believably hadn't been pushed a little too far. But I could just be overthinking it. I probably am. Ultimately, I believe Julia Heaberlin proves yet again what a gifted storyteller she is, especially when it comes to psychological suspense.
    • 4/5
      Tessa Cartwright is the Black-Eyed Susan who survived. Kidnapped by a serial killer, found barely breathing in a mass grave, it was Tessa's testimony that cemented the state's case against the purported murderer.But as patches of black-eyed susans pop up around her, Tessa is forced to reckon with the thought that she may have doomed an innocent man to the executioner's chair. Forced to do what she has avoided for so many years--examine her memories and drawings that emerged during her therapy sessions--Tessa struggles to discover the truth.That twist ending!! This is how a twist ending is done. It took my breath away. The revelations in the last few chapters will leave your mind reeling and have you flipping back to see what you missed.I also really liked the use of flashbacks and trial transcripts. These techniques built up a lot of suspense as important information was gradually revealed.Also, Tessa is a strong and complex character you can't help but root for. She has gone through so much, and is so determined to put things right.It took me a little while to get into this book. I just felt like things were moving a little slowly at first, and thus it was taking me longer to read.Read this book! This is one of the best twist endings I have read in a while. Even if you find it a bit slow-going at first like I did, absolutely keep going. This book is definitely worth a read.
    • 3/5
      Engaging premise but the rest of the story didn't quite measure up - 2 1/2 stars.
    • 2/5
      The book started out strong enough, but I lost interest about a third of the way through and had to push myself to finish the rest. In the end, I kind of wish that I hadn't bothered. The "twist" was done in a pretty heavy-handed way, so I had already guessed most of what was going to happen way before it happened. The most positive thing I can say about this book is the cover is beautiful, and they always say not to judge a book by the cover. ;)
    • 4/5
      Slow start but a good story overall. Narrator was good.
    • 4/5
      I genuinely didn't see the ending coming, which is always a plus with a thriller.

      For a book about a serial killer of young women, it's wonderfully lacking in gore or the sort of voyeuristic zeal with which the bodies of mutilated girls are described in books like these.

      Tessa was a great main character, both as a seventeen year old in 1995 and as an adult. Smart, compelling, and very human.
    • 5/5
      Loved listening to this thriller. Great shocking end to this wonderful book.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book I hope there’s a sequel loved loved it
    • 5/5
      An excellent psychological thriller! When you read a lot of these you get pretty good at guessing. I thought I had this one figured out—and that’s all I’ll say! Very well written; not a typical thriller.
    • 4/5
      For fans of The Silent Patient. Similar but different enough to be refreshing.
    • 4/5
      Definitely worth the read. I completely recommend!! It was an easy read
    • 5/5
      This was a good book, written with tremendous confidence and panache. I should have loved it unreservedly, but couldn't help being niggled by stuff like.....the main character being so apparently traumatised and yet still able to forge a highly successful and lucrative career. Did the trauma come and go somehow? And the way just about every section seemed to end on some kind of teaser, having you believe something was about to be resolved, only to find that the plot had been advanced no more than a millimetre or so. Having got that off my chest, however, I've got to admit it had me hooked, and however irritated I might have got, there was no way I would ever have left it half finished.
    • 3/5
      Goddammit, self, stop falling for the hype! At least download a trial sample first. OK, so Julia Heaberlin's novel isn't that bad - her research into criminal executions and DNA forensics is fascinating, and I did keep reading - but I didn't care about the main characters, especially cliched redhead Tessa and her cardboard cut out daughter, and the Gone Girl resolution was far too predictable. Also, fail on the first person narration, which always ruins a story for me when handled badly. In the words of the novel's nemesis: 'I like walking around inside a terrible novel, living it, getting up every day to write a new page, even if people always see Tessie as the main character'. When Tessa's story started sliding into some sort of Harlequin romance, with the caring ex and dysfunctional new relationship, I almost gave up - not that the ending was any kind of reward.The chapters, alternating between a young 'Tessie's counselling about her teenage ordeal and an older, though not necessarily wiser Tessa fighting for her accused attacker's life, are encouragingly short but also disjointed, dwelling on dialogue and skipping through key events. I got the feeling that Heaberlin was writing a screenplay rather than a detailed, fleshed-out novel, and Tessa's unravelling life would probably work better as a movie, like the very similar Gone Girl.A promising but plodding mystery, underpinned with the bones of some excellent research.
    • 5/5
      Can I give this book more than 5 stars? Wow. What an awesome, creepy book! Tessa was just a teenager when she was kidnapped and buried alive with the remains of the other "Black-eyed Susans" in a flower covered grave in Texas. Miraculously, she was rescued but severely traumatized by her experience. Now, 17 years later, the execution date of the killer is drawing near. But if Terrell Darcy Goodman really was the murderer, who keeps planting Black-eyed Susans in Tessa's yard? As Tessa agrees to help the attorneys who are trying to get Goodman a new trial, she begins to receive messages from someone in her past. And this time, Tessa has her own teen daughter to worry about, in addition to herself. Super creepy, gut-wrenching, nail-biting suspense. I strongly recommend it. Oh yeah, and it has a fantastic cover.
    • 4/5
      When she was sixteeen, young Tessa "Tessie" Cartwright was found, hanging on to life, in a field of Black-Eyed Susans. The other girls "dumped" with Tessa did not survive (in fact, some were just bones), and Tessa is doomed to live her life as the surviving "Black-Eyed Susan" in the press. Justifiably, the event haunts her life and her nightmares. Further, she is tormented by the fact that her testimony about what happened helped put the suspect, Terrell, on death row.

      Now, a grown woman and mother, Tessa is working with the Terrell's legal team to exonerate him. This includes a forensic scientist (the forensics in the book are detailed and excellent). Her main reason? It seems wherever she lives, a patch of Black-Eyed-Susans follows, forcing her to live in fear, and to wonder if the sentenced killer truly is guilty. But if he isn't, are Tessa and her daughter safe? Why can't she remember what happened nearly 20 years ago? Tessa fears she is going insane, but also can't live with herself if she doesn't try to find out what happened so long ago.

      This was a wonderful book; the subject matter is frightening, but the book itself was a captivating page-turner. The mystery is extremely well-plotted and riveting. Even when I was pretty sure I had things figured out, I was rapidly turning pages, still guessing and eagerly awaiting to find out what had happened to Tessa (and the other "Susans," as she calls them) back then. The book flips between present-day Tessa's point of view and to "Tessie," as a younger Tessa was known, talking about events leading up to and right after Terrell's trial. It's a suspenseful plot device that works well here; I was up late turning pages, desperate to know what happened.

      Tessa is a well-formed character, even with her angst and anxieties resulting from her horrific past. Her supporting cast - her daughter, Terrell's lead lawyer, the forensic scientist, a quirky neighbor, her best friend from her youth - are all well-done, too. At times, the book is confusing due to Tessa's unreliable narration; she is suffering from memory loss and anxiety, after all, but it only adds to the book's suspense and intrigue. Perhaps the only thing I can find to complain about is that the ending is a bit too pat: it pops up suddenly to resolve things, but there's still a door left open, and it does nothing to diminish how enjoyable the book and the story is. Overall, an excellent thriller and a worthy read.
    • 5/5
      The story line feels very much like a lot of similar novels out there.Nevertheless I was hooked from page one and read on to the end.Essentially the plot is about Tessa who is Surviving victim of a serial killer. This is written in the first person. Gruesomely she was found in a grave with other dead victims .a man named Terrel, is convicted partially on the evidence of Tessa is on death row awaiting the inevitable execution.Medical teams try to sort out her post traumatic disorders and just what happened trauma in Tessa.The psycho analysis for me was really insightful and fascinating. She is convinced Terrel did not commit these terrible murders and battles against the clock to stop him going to his death.The book thunders on and the reader is gripped as to whether Terrel is the murderer or if not who the murderer is.Although the subject matter is familiar the slant the author takes is different and it s all about Tessa and how she can solve this.The book is tense and at times quite scary but a recommended great read.
    • 4/5
      Good suspenseful story, didn't figure out the ending until close to the end. Jumped back and forth between the past and the present and it took me a bit to get used to that; otherwise well written.
    • 4/5
      The Black-Eyed "Susans" were a group of ladies that were murdered by a serial killer and left in a field of the same named flowers. Only one survived. Tessa was captured by the monster when she was 16 and was traumatized by the attack. She is missing most of her memory of that time and was even blind after she was found. The book alternates between today and when she was 16. The killer is serving time on Death Row, but is he really the killer? A great, fast read. I will be adding her to my TBR pile. Thanks for the ARC, LibraryThing!
    • 5/5
      This book is being favorably compared to Gillian Flynn's "Gone Girl", and rightfully so, and also to books by Laura Lippman. But I feel "Black-Eyed Susans" (BES) is much better than anything I've read by Lippman. Both GG and BES have well-done and very interesting alternating chapters but I give higher marks to Flynn for her prose, and to Heaberlin for tension and that "don't want to put it down" quality. GG has a better climax and twist but BES has a race against the clock with a man's life at stake. The BES story line is somewhat novel for crime fiction though it seems to appear fairly regularly on TV and at the movies. A Texas execution for a crime committed several years ago is to take place soon. What is different about BES is that the reader is not sure of the convict's guilt or innocence until the very last moments. The protagonist Tessa survived, however she was found in a field of black-eyed susans along with the remains of other girls not so fortunate. Tessa has memory issues and was unable to identify the killer at trial. Patrick Anderson in the Washington Post last week exhorted his readers: "don't miss it!" and I strongly recommend the same. I will read Heaberlin's next and likely at least one of her two previous books.
    • 4/5
      Only a few chapters into this psychological suspense and I was hooked! Tessa, the lone survivor of a serial killer's attack, is found in a grave amid Black-eyed Susans where she was dumped with the bodies of other victims. She is 16 when the attack happens and has no memory of what happened. The story is told by Tessa and chapters alternates between the months after the attack and the present day, 17 years later. Terrell Darcy Goodwin was convicted of the crime and sentenced to death row. As his execution date nears, Tessa has doubts about his innocence and works with lawyers and a DNA forensics expert to find the truth and remember what happened. This book is very well written and is definitely difficult to put down. I would have given it another star if the ending had been tied up a little more neatly. I feel like there were too many unanswered questions and some of the explanations a bit weak.
    • 4/5
      Tessa is a survivor of the Black Eyed Susan murders. Years later things start to happen to suggest that the killer on death row for the crime is innocent and the real killer is out there. This story switches from Tessa present day to Tessie in tbe past. It did take a little while for me to get into the book but I was then drawn in and I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen.Tessa has a childhood friend who she has lost touch with. Lydia for me was like a Rebecca type character. Shes very prominent in the story but shes not there. Not until tne end does the reader get to hear from Lydia. Lydia for me was a very good character who made the book.A very good read and once I was into the story I quite enjoyed it. I would recommend this book very highly.
    • 4/5
      I won a copy of this book from LibraryThing - it was a fantastic thriller/suspense novel. I couldn't put it down. It is the story Tessie, age 16, who was kidnapped and left for dead in a field of black eyed Susans with the bones of several other victims and Tessa (adult Tessie) in the present day as she tries to help lawyers free the man she helped to convict years ago. The novel alternates chapters between Tessie and Tessa - I had to keep reading because I constantly wanted to find out what was going to happen next to Tessie/Tessa . It kept me guessing the entire time and the ending was definitely a surprise.
    • 4/5
      Suspenseful mystery. Well written. Kept me
    • 3/5
      ***Review Copy***The writing style waxes poetic but drawn out. The entire book is vague with very few solid confirmations at the end. The overall impression being for me that the author wanted to keep the suspense going as long as possible and succeeded in doing so she also lost my interest.
    • 4/5
      Written in flashbacks, this book tells the story of a young girl, Tessa Cartwright, the only survivor of a killer whose victims were discovered under a patch of Black Eyed Susans.Alternating between the time just after she was discovered and the present and between the "Tessa" of before she was seized and "Tessie" after, this book starts off slowly, and it takes a while to adapt to the rhythm of the writing style.Her friend, Lydia, is her rock before and immediately after the incident, but their friendship ends around the time of the trial of the suspected killer. Lydia betrayed their friendship, but the extent of this betrayal is not revealed until much later in the book.At the center of this story is the attempt to prove that the person that they've arrested for the killings is not the real killer--that the wrong man has been imprisoned for the crime. With time running out before he is put to death, the legal team has recruited Tessa to help them find the truth.I thought the plot was good, but the back and forth happened too frequently for my taste. I'd just become engaged in one time period when the author would switch to the next. If you can handle the flashback writing style, it's worth the read.I received this book from LibraryThing Early Reviewers
    • 3/5
      I've had a little time now to think about this book and I have to give it a 3. I liked it but it wasn't the best book I've read. I had a very hard time with the first 30% or so, I thought it was choppy and hard to follow. As the details were revealed and the mystery evolved, it got better and better. When I got to the end, I don't know... at the time I read it I thought it was okay but the more I think about it, the more I don't really understand.This is a story about a girl left for dead in a field of Black-eyed Susans (along with 3 others). It's told in therapy sessions from back in 1995 and present day life. You never really know what's what until the end. And again, the more I think about it the more I'm left scratching my head about some of the details or the who done it and why.Thanks to LibraryThing for the Early Reviewer copy!
    • 4/5
      This book certainly kept my attention! I actually found the first part creepy (doesn't happen often). Tessa's character was well plotted out and written.Most of the book written in the voice of 16 year old Tessie and then her older self who goes by Tessa. The back and forth is very easy to follow and I never got that feeling that I just wanted to stay in past or the present. The author really lets you get into Tessa's head, unfortunately Tessa's head isn't really a place you want to be most of the time. I didn't feel Tessa got much closure at the end and there were still loose story lines, but it was still a good, fun read.
    • 4/5
      This was a great read. I started and was immediately caught up in the story and characters. The book focuses on Tessa, who barely made it out alive from the clutches of a serial killer at the age of 16. At the time the evidence and her attorney convinced her, that she put the correct man behind bars. Now 17 years later, this man is about to be put to death and Tessa begins to believe that the real serial killer is still out there and the wrong man is behind bars.I really enjoyed the relationship between Tessa and her best friend Lydia, who stood by her while Tessa was recovering from her near death experience. However, something occurs and Lydia and her family seem to disappear. Tessa has never heard from Lydia again. It was interesting to have this "second" mystery in the book, as well. Well written, fast paced book! I received a complimentary copy from Librarything Early Reviewers.