Dark One: Forgotten

Dark One: Forgotten is a six-part audio drama set in the Dark One universe. It was developed by Mainframe and the rights are held by Recorded Books. The project is a collaboration between Dan Wells and Brandon Sanderson; Dan finished his work on it on August 30, 2021. The audiobook was released on January 10, 2023.
Forgotten is structured like a true-crime podcast in the vein of Serial, about a journalist tracking a killer whom no one can remember. It is planned to be six episodes with full cast, music, and sound design. It is being written as a shorter tie-in, and is not as long as a full novel. The story serves as a prequel to the first Dark One graphic novel.
==Synopsis==
Christina Walsh is the host of "Forgotten", a podcast in 2019. She explains in the first episode how she was introduced to Leona McPherson's music via her DJ friend, Gabriel Lopez. Lopez discovered a box of CDs with McPherson's music in a back room at the classical music radio station he worked at. She shares the information she's found, including interviews with Lopez and Steven Yates. Yates was shocked when he was made aware of McPherson, especially because of the lack of readily-available knowledge about someone who was so big at the time. 
When she talks to Tracy Clark, an archivist for the Los Angeles Police Department, she discovers that there were four initial contact missing persons reports: March 18 (two different reports), March 19, and March 22, 1994. Two filed by her mother (Katherine), one by the events coordinator at the Hollywood Bowl, and one by the Roosevelt Hotel. Three were taken by Detective Jimmy Ortiz, and one was taken by Detective Derek Malone. None of the reports referenced each other. Walsh believes McPherson was murdered by her mother.
Leona and her mother arrived in Los Angeles on March 17, 1994 for a concert at the Hollywood Bowl. They checked into adjoining rooms at the Roosevelt Hotel. The following morning, Leona was nowhere to be found, and her room appeared undisturbed. This information was found in the initial police report filed by Katherine on March 18. When the events coordinator at the Hollywood Bowl, Franklin Steinberg, called the hotel desk that evening, the hotel told them that they'd never heard of McPherson. Christina finds this weird because the police had been at the hotel all day questioning anyone who might have seen anything. Christina thinks that Detective Ortiz was lying and never actually questioned anyone. The desk clerks lack of knowledge about McPherson caused Steinberg to become concerned, and he filed a police report on the evening of March 18 as well (recorded by Det. Malone).
On the morning of March 19, Katherine checked out of the hotel, but balked at paying for two rooms. She claimed to have no knowledge of checking in with a daughter. After the desk clerk took her up to Leona's room, she recognized the luggage and filed a second police report. Detective Ortiz took this report without referencing the report filed previously. The fourth report was filed by the Roosevelt Hotel and recorded by Detective Ortiz. The hotel tried to assign Leona's room on March 22 but couldn't find the key, so they sent housekeeping up to the room and discovered Leona's luggage. They found her drivers license inside the luggage. Leona's body was found on March 23 in a Los Angeles neighborhood abandoned following the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
Detective Blake Hensley filed the report regarding the discovery of Leona's body. After Clark describes the location where the body was and details about condition of the body, she questions why Christina is trying to find out more about Leon's death. Her father's disappearance prompted her to investigate Leona's disappearance. She finds out Leona was probably murdered by being shot with a bow and arrow. Hensley stated that they were able to identify the body through a fingerprint taken by Detective Ortiz, but also stated that Ortiz and Malone were sabotaging the investigation. She points out that both Ortiz and Malone had excellent records on the job prior to the unusual activities surrounding Leona's case.
Christina has her friends, Sophie and Gabriel, dramatically read a transcript of a conversation between Police Chief Lyle Detmer and Sergeant Pablo Machado, where they describe the evidence that supports no wrongdoing by Ortiz and Malone. Christine then moves onto an interview with retired reporter from Columbus, Ohio, Greta Bennett. While she had covered her in an article, she had no memory of her, and hadn't heard of her death. Christina points out that everyone in Hilldowns, Ohio (Leona's hometown), including Leona's mother, maintains they have no memory of Leona. This, despite many articles being written about her in the hometown newspaper. Two years after Leona's death, an article was written about how all the previous articles were placed in the archives by hackers.
The second episode of the podcast picks up with their arrival in Hilldowns. They failed in their attempt to interview Katherine, who asked them to leave. They begin to methodically attempt to interview other people who should have memories of Leona, including her middle school orchestra teacher. While Leona was in several yearbook photos as well as various news articles, her teacher claimed to have no memory of any of the events shown in the pictures. Christina and Sophie decide to go to a cult recovery treatment center to see if they can find a cult that could be responsible for Leona's death. They speak to George Hadley, who tells them that it was unlikely a nationwide cult could exist with no one leaking secrets, especially of a murder of someone who was apparently really well known.
Depressed, they go back to the hotel and do a bunch of internet searches and eventually find another college student, Lamar Davis, who is in much the same situation as they are, having rediscovered a famous abstract artist, Gordon Spillane, who was murdered in 1995, also in Los Angeles, and with the same modus operandi details. Spillane was completely forgotten following his death, too. Lamar even talked to the same archivist at the LAPD. Based on this, they decide to go to Los Angeles.
The third episode begins with them in Flagstaff, Arizona, and on the way to Los Angeles. They arrive in Los Angeles the following day and meet up with Davis in order to better compare notes. They weren't able to reach Tracy Clark, but another officer at LAPD was able to show them the case files that verified the information. At their meeting, the three decide to split up to gather more information: Christine decides to go talk to Josué at the LAPD, Sophie goes to research the hotels, and Lamar goes to research the eyeball link.
==Main Characters==
These characters have "speaking" roles in the story.
;Christina Walsh
:The narrator and host of the podcast and music history major at NYU. She grew up in Los Angeles. Her mother died in 2010 during the Somalian civil war as a foreign news correspondent, and her father disappeared in 2017. She feels guilty about leaving her father home alone in order to go to NYU, and then not noticing he was missing for 2 weeks. She investigates the mysterious disappearance and mass forgetting of Leona McPherson, a violin prodigy. 
;Gabriel Lopez
:A friend of Christina and DJ for a classical music radio station at NYU. He discovered, buried in the dusty archives of the radio station, a box of CDs by McPherson.
;Steven Yates
:A music professor at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia since the 1970s. 
;Tracy Clark
:An archivist for the Los Angeles Police Department. She's shocked when she is interviewed by Walsh and discovers multiple initial contacts reports from people reporting McPherson as missing. 
;Blake Hensley
:A detective for the Los Angeles Police Department who investigated the discovery of Leona's body.
;Sophie Qwan
:Christina's roommate. She helps narrate information about Malone and others.
;Pablo Machado
:A sergeant with the Los Angeles Police Department.
;Lyle Detmer
:Police chief in the Los Angeles Police Department.
;Greta Bennett
:A resident of Sarasota, Florida, and a retired reporter for the Columbus Dispatch. 
;Ms. McDowell
:Leona's middle school orchestra teacher in 1985. 
;George Hadley
:Vice president and co-founder of Elevation, a cult recovery treatment center. 
;Lamar Davis
:A college student who was investigating the disappearance of Gordon Spillane.
;Josué Aguinaldo
:An officer at the Los Angeles Police Department.
;Detective Josie
:AKA Detective Funshine. An officer at the Los Angeles Police Department.
;Gabby Ramirez
:Scientist in the Digital Forensics department.
==Other Characters==
Other characters mentioned include:
;Leona McPherson
:A world-renowned violinist who mysteriously disappeared in March 1994. Her disappearance is discovered by Christina Walsh, the protagonist of the series. She was a guest on Sesame Street, played with the Three Tenors, and Yanni. She headlined for the Chicago Symphony. She grew up in Hilldowns, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus.
;Katherine McPherson
:Leona's mother.
;Detective Jimmy Ortiz
:Took three of the four initial contact missing persons reports about Leona.
;Detective Derek Malone
:Took one of the four initial contact missing persons reports about Leona.
;Gordon Spillane
:A world-renowned abstract painter who mysteriously disappeared and was murdered in 1995. His method of death and other details about the murder matched those of Leona McPherson.
==Audiobook==
The audiobook was released on January 10, 2023. It was narrated by Rachel Jacobs, Sophie Oda, Keith Szarabajika, Kaleo Griffith, Avery Waddell, Kelli Tager, John H. Mayer, Mia Barron, Luis Bermudez, William Elsman, Nan McNamara, Jim Meskimen, and Rozanne Hernandez. The audiobook was 6 hours 33 minutes in length.
== Notes ==