Summary of Dark Places: by Gillian Flynn | Includes Analysis

By Instaread Summaries

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn - A 15-minute Summary

PLEASE NOTE: This is a summary of the book and NOT the original book. 

Inside this Instaread Summary:

 Overview of the entire book

 Introduction to the important people in the book

• Language: English
• Publisher: Instaread, Inc
• Release date: May 18, 2016
• ISBN: 9781683782131

Book preview

Book Overview

Dark Places, by Gillian Flynn, is the fictional account of the murder of three members of the Day family in Kinnakee, Kansas in 1985. Libby Day’s mother, Patty, and Libby’s two sisters, Michelle and Debby, were all murdered in their home. Libby escaped from the house and later testified that her brother, fifteen year old Ben, was the murderer. Ben was convicted and imprisoned for the murders.

After the murders, Libby was passed back and forth between relatives. When she reached adulthood, she began living off money put aside for her by well-meaning people who heard about the murders and felt sorry for her. Now, at the age of thirty-one, Libby is running out of the donated money and must find a new source of income. When she is contacted by Lyle Wirth and asked to make a paid appearance at the Kill Club, a secret society obsessed with everything to do with notorious murders, Libby thinks she has found a way to make money.

The Kill Club members make Libby think that Ben might not have been guilty of the murders after all. They pay Libby to find and connect with several key people from the past who may have something to do with the Day family murders.

Ben was a troubled loner as a teenager. He was into drugs and alcohol, and often had violent thoughts. He got mixed up with the wrong crowd when Diondra, a girl two years older than he, became his girlfriend. Trey Teepano was a friend of Diondra’s with whom Ben also spent time. Trey and Diondra believed in devil worship and influenced Ben to join them. The night of the murder, the three of them drove to a field in the country and slaughtered a bull as a sacrifice to Satan.

Libby visits Diondra, and her daughter, Crystal, joins them.  Crystal lets slip some information that was contained in a diary belonging to Libby’s sister, Michelle. Libby suddenly realizes that Diondra had to