The Night Shift by Alex Finlay

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.

 Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks | Genre: Crime Fiction| Source: Purchased  | Rating: 3.5

When this was first release, it had me curious then I had more than a few reviewer friends say that it was a bit of a letdown so I ended up passing on this one. Then I spotted the paperback copy a few weeks a back and decided to give it a go.

 

Here’s what’s going on. It’s December 31, 1999 and there’s been a mass murder in Linden, New Jersey at Blockbuster with only one survivor. Fast forward 15 years and another mass murder has occurred in Linden, this time at the local ice cream shop. Again, there’s only one survivor but the killer whispers the same words to her the Blockbuster survivor heard. As the past collides with the present 3 people: the first survivor, the brother of the original suspect, and an FBI agent are thrown together as they attempt to unwind the events and look for solid connections.

 

Going to be honest, I thought there was going to be a bit more from 1999 in this given the way the synopsis read, so I was a little disappointed with the short little snippets that were included. I did get the briefest hints of nostalgia but I wanted a bit more of 1999.

 

This book is told through 3 POVs. Ella is the first survivor and she has some issues due to both the traumatic event she’s lived through and the way she was raised. There’s the brother of the original suspect and there’s some secrets he’s keeping, which prove to be interesting but also has me questioning just how he’s hidden certain things for so long. The third person is Agent Keller, she’s a heavily pregnant FBI agent that been sent to work on the original case and figure out possible connections. They were an interesting and flaw group and they seem to do a lot of questionable things. We also get the briefest snippets from the most recent survivor who seems to have a very interesting story to tell.

 

The investigation aspect almost becomes its own character, which isn’t surprising considering this is labeled as ‘crime fiction’ but I found myself questioning how some clues were overlooked, especially when it came to the evidence that could link the cases together. I also questioned the reality of how much evidence was concealed from the files. While I did like the investigation aspect, I was a little disappointed that I had this figured out from the start.

 

For a mystery/thriller/crime book, this was okay. The chapters are short and quick. The pacing is fast although the start does linger a bit, especially when reading from Ella’s POV, but the pacing does even out. There were a few twists, which I did see coming but one was slightly surprising. While this was a quick read, it wasn’t the most thrilling of books and I found I was slightly bored in spots and I think that had to do with the amount of repetition it had. I didn’t need to be constantly reminded that Agent Keller was pregnant. I didn’t need a recap of what happened two chapters before.

 

I did give this one a 3.5 although this would be one that I would round down because, while it wasn’t bad, it was just a bit meh, I feel like it could have been better and there could have been more to the story. I also would have liked more of what happened after the mystery ended. There is a snippet but I don’t feel like it went into enough detail to really close out their stories.

 

Overall, this was a slightly nostalgic, final girl’s type of police/crime fiction with a slight mystery. It wasn’t the worst but it wasn’t the best. It reminded me a lot of a Lifetime movie.