Night Shift - Alex Finlay

Thriller

Rating: 8.5/10

Two women, separated by years both in age and maturity, are the only ones left standing after a pair of brutal assaults that leave friends and coworkers dead.

The cops think that a degenerate teenager that disappeared after the first set of killings, surely an attestation of guilt, has returned to perpetrate the latest slayings.

The survivor of the first crime is now a therapist called on to talk to the survivor of the second, and she, along with some savvy detectives, start to unravel secrets that are more complex than anyone would have thought possible.

This authors second book, after a standout debut thriller, does not disappoint. He builds plot and character in a complex pattern of dominoes and then tips over the first, leaving the rest to fall at a breakneck speed.  I tried to draw out this read as long as possible in order to savor it, but my fingers would not listen to my brain as I furiously flipped the pages!

P.S. The first murder takes place in 1999 as employees at Blockbuster close up for the night.  As I worked for over ten years at Blockbuster, I enjoyed reliving the store descriptions. Not so much, as that might be unseemly, given the blood letting and all. Gives a whole new meaning to “make it a Blockbuster night”.

My thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and the Author for the advanced readers copy.

Book Pairing(s): Final Girls Support Group by Grady Hendrix, Survive The Night by Riley Sager, Girl Gone Mad by Avery Bishop