Critical Praise

"As a detective, Ms. Howard fails. She never learns the identity of her father's killer. But as a memoirist, she succeeds brilliantly. The Lost Night is enthralling, a skillfully narrated story that begins as a tale of detection but quickly becomes something more."

——The New York Times

"[T]urns out to be nothing like the narrowly focused true-crime narrative that the subtitle leads you to expect. Most of it is Ms. Howard's own story, and that part is at least as involving as the appalling tale of her father's murder, if not more so . . . Indeed, no small part of the force of The Lost Night comes from its author's startling lack of self-pity . . . a quintessentially American narrative of self-creation and redemption, a postmodern Gatsby with a hard-earned, doubt-tinged happy ending. I don't know when I've read a better first book."

——Wall Street Journal

"A stunning debut. Forgoing the true-crime treatment, Howard remains restrained, her focus on the broad emotional panorama of the story instead of lurid details and self-pity. In crisp, unadorned prose, she explores broken families, drugs, rural California, and the hard emotional work of remembering."

——Bookmarks Magazine