Review: The Night Shift by Alex Finlay

Title: The Night Shift

Author: Alex Finlay

Genre: Adult, mystery thriller

Publication date: March 2022

Published by: Minotaur Books

Source: Borrowed form library

Add it on Goodreads

Buy it: Amazon | B&N | Thrift Books

Synopsis: 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.

My rating: ★★★★★

I love a mystery thriller, but more often than not they turn out to be mediocre at best. This book, however, was one of the good ones! I was honestly surprised at how much I liked it!

This took place over only three days... it was insane! I love a fast-paced book! But this actually wasn’t as action-packed as I was expecting, which is not a bad thing at all because I was hooked regardless. Even though there weren’t that many thrills in the beginning, I didn’t mind because I was enjoying unraveling the mystery! It was just so intriguing! I mean, we had two killing sprees 15 years apart that were eerily familiar, and the survivor of the first series of murders is dragged into the present-day killings bringing up all sorts of trauma. It was just a really interesting story and it was executed so well!

There were some plot twists that I guessed but that didn’t deter my enjoyment because they were plot twists that made sense, and they were honestly shocking all the same. The plot twists, by the way, were SO good!

This book had a couple of different POVs, some of which, at first, made me go, “Who are you and how are you relevant to the story?” But they were relevant! The way everything tied together at the end was so good! And I actually really liked all of the characters! Often when I read a mystery thriller, I find that I sometimes don’t care for the characters, but that was not the case here! I really liked them and felt for the terrible things they were going through. I think something that helped was that we had a couple of flashbacks here and there, which, when done right, I enjoy. Plus, it made for some very short chapters, which I am a huge fan of! Lol.

And omg that ending... I kid you not, this was literally me:

I remember I was eating dessert and coming THIS CLOSE to tears 😂 It was ridiculous! I was ridiculous, let’s be honest. But the end of the book got me right in the feels. After finishing this book I had to go and watch something to make me happy... and by that I mean I put on Supernatural because I’m insane and that’s what makes me happy 😂 (You obviously couldn't tell by all the Supernatural gifs I use 😆)

But I just really enjoyed this! The mystery was intriguing, the overall story was good, and I really liked the characters! I am really looking forward to reading more books from this author!

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! 😊