The Shining Girls

The Shining Girls is a novel by South African author Lauren Beukes. The book centers on a time-traveling Depression-era drifter who is compelled to murder the "shining girls" in order to continue his travels.

The Shining Girls was published on 15 April 2013 by the Umuzi imprint of Random House Struik in South Africa, on 25 April 2013 by HarperCollins in the United Kingdom, and on 4 June 2013 by Mulholland Books in the United States. HarperCollins had won the international rights to the book in a bidding war with several other publishers.

Unlike her previous novels, which are set in South Africa, The Shining Girls takes place in Chicago. Beukes said that because the story steps back and forth through history, she felt South Africa would not be a suitable setting because "then it would become an Apartheid story". Beukes added that race issues appear frequently in her work, but "Apartheid would have overwhelmed everything else I wanted to do with the novel".

In August 2013, The Shining Girls was short-listed for UK based Crime Writers' Association 2013 Goldsboro Gold Dagger award.

The novel is being adapted for television by the streaming service Apple TV+.

Premise
In Depression-era Chicago, a drifter named Harper Curtis finds a key to a house that opens on to other times. But it comes at a cost. He has to kill the shining girls: bright young women who burn with potential. He stalks them through their lives across different eras until, in 1989, one of his victims, Kirby Mazrachi, survives and starts hunting him back.

Plot Summary
In November, 1931, a man named Harper is running from a group of men after having killed one of their number in a fight during a game of cards. As he is running through the rain, he sees a thin blind woman with a large sport coat. He desires the coat and while he is forcibly taking it, happens to crush her windpipe, killing her. Now wearing the coat, he continues his escape from the men, but falls into a pit, rupturing his Achilles tendon.

The coat has a key in the pocket that seems to have some mystical power over Harper. Following the subtle urgings of the key, Harper is led to an old decrepit house where, upon entering it, finds that the inside is anything but decrepit. All the fixtures and furnishings are new, and upstairs, he finds some glowing, shimmering objects on the wall that have girls names written next to them. As he picks up one of the objects, Harper notices that the house seems to be moving through time as he watches through the window.

Harper learns that each one of the girls whose names are on the wall have a special purposem and burn with potential. He calls them "Shining Girls". THe objects on the wall seem to call to him, and when he touches them, he feels compelled to locate one of the girls and murder her. When he removes an object from the wall, the house takes him to a specific date in time that gives him access to commit the murders.

One of his young victims, Kirby, is seriously wounded by his attack, but does not die. Howeber, she is so badly injured that some of the newspapers mistakenly report her as dead. She only survives because her dog lunges at the killer and he loses his knife while stabbing the dog. After a few years and a painful recovery, her attacker has still not been caught, so when the police case goes cold she decides to investigate for herself. She takes a job as an intern at the Chicago Sun-Times, working for the reporter that wrote about her attack, Dan Velazquez.

Dan is now a sports reporter, burned out on the crime stories. At first he tries to convince her to let it go. But she spends a year pursuing the case on the side and he slowly comes around, partly because he believes she is onto something and partly out of growing affection. Kirby's theory is that the attack was not random but that it was the work of a serial killer who has been active for several decades in the Chicago area.

Meanwhile we see a different point of view, that of Harper Curtis, a sociopathic drifter with a long history of violence. It is in 1931 that he finds the key to the house and begins his time-traveling murder spree.

In 1993, Kirby investigates all the knife murders of women in the last two decades and finds several with odd similarities. The attack patterns are strange, though, not following the usual escalation patters of a serial killer. But at several of the scenes she notices that an out-of-place object was present, something relatives didn't recognize as belonging to the victims; a toy, a lighter, a baseball card, etc. However her investigation also brings up some unexplainable discrepancies like a baseball card from 1951 on a 1943 victim.

Harper Curtis settles into a pattern of traveling to visit a victim as a little girl and giving her one of the objects from the wall, promising to come back for it. He then uses the house to revisit the same girl a decade or so later, killing her and leaving a different object. He visits Kirby in 1976 and gives her a pink My Little Pony. He also gets a thrill from visiting soon after the murder to read the papers and see the aftermath.

After a new murder happens in 1993 Kirby makes the mistake of visiting the victim's mother, who complains to the paper causing her to be suspended. Desperate and sure that she is near solving the puzzle, Kirby goes home to her own mother. While home she finds an old photograph of her holding the pony and suddenly remembers the day the strange man gave it to her. She digs through her old toys and finds the pony, stunned to see it has a 1985 patent date stamped on it.

Meanwhile, Harper Curtis is reading a 1993 paper an sees an article written by Kirby in the Sun-Times, meaning she didn't die in 1989 like he thought. He knows he has to kill her so goes to the newspaper's offices under a pretense, but she is not there.

Kirby has gone to Dan with the new information about the toy with the odd date on it. He's skeptical about it but agrees it could be a clue. He agrees to help her continue the investigation and together they go to the newspaper to look up the toy company in order to figure out the date discrepancy, hoping it might be a sample or prototype and rare enough to connect to an employee of the toy company. While they're there someone tells Kirby that a man was just in looking for her and when they describe him Kirby recognizes it's her attacker.

Kirby runs off to pursue him, and Dan follows on her heels but loses her. Kirby manages to get a glimpse of Harper and follows him to the house. With the help of Mal, a vagrant drug addict, she sneaks in, the pony in her pocket serving as a key that allows her to see it for its real self. She sees the wall of names and trophies, and the weird flickering out the windows and realizes what it means. She escapes and calls the cops but when they go to the house the interior looks abandoned to them.

Unwilling to let him get away Kirby convinces Dan to break into the house with her, he agrees and brings a gun. Once inside they confront Harper who almost escapes to 1929 while struggling with Dan. He stabs Dan severely and rushes back inside only to find that Kirby has made a pile of all the objects from the upstairs room and doused them in kerosene. Kirby drops a lit match on the pile and then unloads the entire clip into Harper, killing him.

This Summary in part from Allreaders.com

The Shining Girls

 * Kirby Mazrachi - Born on August 8, 1967, an intern for the Chicago Sun-Times. Visited by Harper when she was 6. Stabbed and left for dead by Harper on March 23, 1989.
 * Jin-Sook Au - Killed by Harper on March 22, 1993.
 * Jeanette Klara - Known as "The Glow Girl", killed by Harper on December 28, 1931
 * Zora Ellis Jordan - A welder. She's 28 years old when she is killed by Harper on January 28, 1943. She dislocates Harper's Jaw while he is attacking her.
 * Willy Rose - An architect. First visited by Harper sometime in 1950. Killed by Harper in October 15, 1954
 * Margot - A Teacher. Killed by Harper on December 5, 1972
 * Julia Madrigal - A student from Canada studying economics, killed by Harper on July 30, 1984
 * Catherine Galloway-Peck - An artist, she stopped shining as an adult. Killed by Harper on June 9, 1993
 * Alice Templeton - Transexual, real name is Lucas Ziegenfeus. Before Harper can kill her, she jumps off the roof of the Congress Hotel on December 1, 1951
 * Mysha Pathan - A biologist, first visited by Harper on March 28, 1987, killed by Harper on June 12, 1993

Others

 * Harper Curtis - A drifter and time-travelling serial killer
 * Klayton - Leader of a group of thugs in 1932 Chicago
 * Rachel - Kirby's Mother, a prostitute and painter.
 * Fred Tucker - Kirby's first love, the older brother of Kirby's friend Grace "Gracie" Tucker
 * Malcolm (Mal) - Vagrant drug user that spots Harper on April 29, 1988 when he comes out of the house for the first time. On July 16, 1991, he breaks into the house. Mal later helps Kirby break into the house on June 13, 1993
 * Dan Velasquez - Reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times who Kirby works for. He helps her find the person who attacked her.
 * Matt Harrison - Editor at the Chicago Sun-Times
 * Jackson, the Security Guard - Killed by Harper June 12, 1993
 * Etta Kappel - Nurse who took care of Harper after Zora dislocated his Jaw. Killed by Harper on August 20, 1932

Harper's Victims

 * Kirby Mazrachi - A Shining Girl. Stabbed and left for dead by Harper on March 23, 1989.
 * Jin-Sook Au, A Shining Girl, killed by Harper on March 22, 1993.
 * Jeanette Klara - A Shining Girl, killed by Harper on December 28, 1931
 * Zora Ellis Jordan - A Shining Girl, killed by Harper on January 28, 1943.
 * Willy Rose - A Shining Girl, killed by Harper in October 15, 1954
 * Margot - A Shining Girl, killed by Harper on December 5, 1972
 * Julia Madrigal - A Shining Girl, killed by Harper on July 30, 1984
 * Catherine Galloway-Peck - A Shining Girl, killed by Harper on June 9, 1993
 * Jackson, the Security Guard - Killed by Harper June 12, 1993
 * Alice Templeton - A Shining Girl. Before Harper can kill her, she jumps off the roof of the Congress Hotel on December 1, 1951
 * Mysha Pathan - A Shining Girl, killed by Harper on June 12, 1993
 * Etta Kappel - Killed by Harper on August 20, 1932