Review – The Night Shift

From Goodreads:

It’s New Year’s Eve 1999. Y2K is expected to end in chaos: planes falling from the sky, elevators plunging to earth, world markets collapsing. A digital apocalypse. None of that happens. But at a Blockbuster Video in Linden, New Jersey, four teenage girls working the night shift are attacked. Only one survives. Police quickly identify a suspect who flees and is never seen again.

Fifteen years later, in the same town, four teenage employees working late at an ice cream store are attacked, and again only one makes it out alive.

Both surviving victims recall the killer speaking only a few final words… “Goodnight, pretty girl.”

In the aftermath, three lives intersect: the survivor of the Blockbuster massacre who’s forced to relive her tragedy; the brother of the original suspect, who’s convinced the police have it wrong; and the FBI agent, who’s determined to solve both cases. On a collision course toward the truth, all three lives will forever be changed, and not everyone will make it out alive.

Twisty, poignant, and redemptive, The Night Shift is a story about the legacy of trauma and how the broken can come out on the other side, and it solidifies Alex Finlay as one of the new leading voices in the world of thrillers.

I read this as one of my Twelve thrillers and it was such a good choice. I really liked how this played out. The way the various perspectives are set up and then how they come together is really intersting and I found it really drew me into the story.

The nostalgia at the start going back to the dawn of the millenium was really good at setting the scene and developing the mystery before the modern day replica shadows it in a fantastically subtle way.

The plot was engaging but the characters were fantastic. There was a really good variation in the perspectives but I didn’t feel any of them detracted from the story. All of them are really engaging for different reasons. Each perspective gives us a different side to the investigation. We have an FBI agent, a lawyer and theripist/other final girl that really gives us differnt viewpoints into each aspect, which is what made this a realy good read. I found myself so investied in the characters and there were moments in this book that just killed me.

It was just so well sructured in its plotting with reveals perfectly paced and a fantastic rush at the end that kept me on the edge of my seat. Overall it was an interesting twist on the final girl trope.

This has definately encouraged me to add Alex Finley’s other books.