Book Review: The Night Shift by Alex Finlay

My Rating: 
3.5⭐

On New Year’s Eve 1999 four teenage girls working the night shift are attacked in a Blockbuster Video store in Linden, New Jersey just as they are closing up for the night. Three of the girls and their male supervisor are found dead with only one survivor.

“Good night, pretty girl.”

Ella Monroe survives the ordeal but remembers the words whispered to her by the assailant as she lost consciousness. The suspect was the boyfriend of one of the girls, Vince Whitaker, who was arrested but later released for lack of evidence. Once evidence was gathered, he was nowhere to be found as has been absconding ever since.

Fast forward fifteen years: A similar incident in which four girls are attacked in a local ice cream parlor with one survivor, Jessica “Jesse” Duvall. Ella, now a therapist by profession, is called in by her former schoolteacher Mr. Steadman to help Jesse through the ordeal. After initial reluctance, Jesse opens up to Ella and shares that the killer whispered the same words to her. Is it the same killer? Are these murders connected to events from fifteen years ago? Is there a copycat?

FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller is assigned to assist local law enforcement and delves deep into the past and present murders trying to establish whether there was any connection. She is not impressed with the way the previous case was handled and identifies multiple discrepancies in the case records. With her colleagues, she meets the past victims’ families and interviews law enforcement officers who worked the case years ago. The present case becomes more complicated when evidence implicating Jesse is discovered and overnight Jesse becomes a suspect. A team of public defenders is assigned to her case among whom is Chris Ford who also has a personal stake in finding the murderer.

Multiple narrators take us through the present-day investigation with brief flashbacks of past events leading up to the murders. What follows is a fast-paced thriller that keeps you guessing till the very last page. I’ll admit that Alex Finlay’s Every Last Fear was not a favorite of mine though I did like Special Agent Keller a lot and I’m glad that we got her as one of the prime characters in The Night Shift. In my opinion, The Night Shift is an improvement over Alex Finlay’s previous book which was an average read for me. The chapters are short and crisp, the narrative flows smoothly between the multiple narrators without missing a beat with smart twists and red herrings that keep the reader absorbed throughout. Again, halfway in, not completely unpredictable but there are quite a few surprises along the way that lead to an action-packed finale. Special Agent Sarah Keller is amazing and does not hesitate to jump into action despite being over eight months pregnant –regardless of the risk (and foolhardy, let’s be honest here!). Well , the author is male, so I guess he really doesn’t get it , so I’ll let that one go. I would have liked a bit of closure, though and found the wrap-up a tad ambiguous but not completely abrupt, so I’ll let that one go as well. Would have enjoyed a little more backstory set in the 1990s but most of the story is actually set in the present day (or rather 15 years later), so that’s that!

Overall I enjoyed this smart, fast-paced thriller and was able to finish it in a day. I hope we get more stories featuring Special Agent Sarah Keller in the future.