Day One: A Novel

“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

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).