In Dark Ugly Places, trauma isn't something you survive—it's something that survives you.
Some wounds don't heal. They fester. They whisper. They take over.
In Dark Ugly Places, trauma isn't something you survive—it's something that survives you.
Thirty-four-year-old Nicola Holiday loses everything in a hit-and-run: her husband dead, her body broken, her fourteen-year-old daughter Emmy forever changed. With no one held accountable, she spirals into grief, panic attacks, and financial ruin—awakening a hereditary darkness she's spent her life trying to outrun.
That darkness has a voice now. Her name is Martha, and she aches for revenge.
As Nicola's grip on reality loosens, Martha slips into another life—one of wealth, glamour, and moral rot. When she crosses paths with the wife of a famous actor, Nicola's suspicions ignite.
Pulled between vengeance and annihilation, Nicola and Martha collide with a woman whose secrets may be the key to everything—or the thing that destroys them both.
Dark, provocative, and deeply unsettling—a haunting psychological portrait of female rage, obsession, and the terrifying lengths the mind will go to survive unbearable pain.
Because sometimes the most dangerous place isn't the past. It's inside your own head.
"Mansour has created a grim, claustrophobic world, populated by people struggling against their bonds, and these battles give the characters an unexpected depth... The sunny skies of Los Angeles also mask an underlying spiritual bleakness... A suspenseful and relentless tale of troubled Californians."
- Kirkus Reviews
"A tense, viciously readable psychological thriller about the violence that lurks beneath polished surfaces. … Mansour writes with sharp cinematic intensity. … Dark, propulsive thriller of the terrifying places rage can take root."
- BookLife Reviews
