We Are All the Same in the Dark

Heaberlin, herself a Texas native, frequently uses Texas as the backdrop for her psychological thrillers. As a former journalist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and The Dallas Morning News, her experience writing about crime and cold cases in the state permeates her novels. However, We Are All the Same in the Dark is set in neither of these metropolises but rather in a small, unnamed Texas town. Although the overwhelming majority of Texas’s residents—over 80%—live in urban areas, the state’s sheer size means that it has the largest rural population of any US state (Brannen, John. “After Census Redefines Urban and Rural, Texas Remains Steadfastly Both.” Urban Edge, Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2023). The novel’s setting thus reflects a significant subset of the state’s demographics. 

Many aspects of We Are All the Same in the Dark’s portrayal of its small-town setting are common to literary depictions of rural life broadly. Heaberlin uses the novel’s tight-knit community to heighten the suspense and tension, highlighting how small towns can birth local legends and persistent, harmful rumors. Wyatt’s response to the trauma of Trumanell’s death is read as suspicious by the locals, leading him to be unjustly suspected of her murder. Thus, the novel’s small-town setting creates an atmosphere not of safety but of surveillance; the fact that the locals are all familiar with each other makes it all but impossible to shed a negative reputation. It also makes the townsfolk wary of newcomers and strange happenings—something Odette is acutely aware of in her efforts to help Angel. 

Likewise, the novel’s explorations of trauma and abuse within families like the Bransons comment on how dark secrets can hide in plain sight within such communities. In this, it touches on some elements of rural life that are more unique to Texas. Compared to the state at large, rural Texas is more conservative and more religious; polls of rural areas show that more than half of those living there attend religious services on a weekly basis, for example (Douglas, Karen M., Gene L. Theodori, Cheryl L. Hudec, and Sarah S. Beach. “The 2013 Texas Rural Survey: Respondents’ Demographic Profile.” Center for Rural Studies: Research & Outreach, Sam Houston University, 2014). Such details contextualize the novel’s twist ending, when it is revealed that two of the community’s most trusted members—the pastor and the top policeman—were behind the cold cases that haunted the town for 15 years. Their ability to avoid suspicion for so long speaks to the community’s reverence for both the church and the law. 

Heaberlin also uses the rural Texas landscape to enhance the dark atmosphere of the narrative. An example of this is the sudden storm that occurs in Chapters 43 through 46; this occurs in the middle of the novel and leads up to the climax, and it mirrors the growing tension in the plot. Additionally, the starkness of the natural landscape, with vast empty fields and its apparent separation from city life, lends a feeling of isolation to the setting. This isolation can spell danger; for example, both Odette and Frank Branson are fatally shot in the Branson field, a secluded location without witnesses.