“The night was expected to bring tragedy.” So begins one of the most highly-anticipated thrillers in recent years.

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 New Jersey, four teenagers working late at the store are attacked. Only one inexplicably survives. Police quickly identify a suspect, the boyfriend of one of the victims, who flees and is never seen again.

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

In the aftermath of the latest crime, three lives intersect: the lone survivor of the Blockbuster massacre who’s forced to relive the horrors of her tragedy; the brother of the fugitive accused, who’s convinced the police have the wrong suspect; and FBI agent Sarah Keller who must delve into the secrets of both nights—stirring up memories of teen love and lies—to uncover the truth about murders on the night shift.

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 Finlay as one of the new leading voices in the world of thrillers.

Book Type:

Psychological Thriller

Review: The Night Shift

New Year’s Eve 1999. Four teenagers attacked at a Blockbuster Video in Linden, New Jersey.

A sole survivor.

The suspect—another teenager—is captured then released.

Then vanishes.

Fifteen years later, more teen girls are once again attacked at an ice cream store in the same town, and again, only one girl makes it out alive.

So is the construct of Alex Finlay’s latest—a propulsive, unputdownable thriller rife with surprises.

In this tangled tale of trauma and secrets aplenty, we meet the FBI agents who pull together threads from the past, the surviving women, the local police, and those who continue to reel in the aftermath of the murders.

Finlay thrusts us into a nightmare, atmosphere heavy with suspicion and distrust, as truths emerge which tangle the mystery even tighter.

This is the kind of book you can’t help but binge. Told from multiple, alternating points of views, this intricately knotted thriller probes the ties that bind, the many crimes of its characters, and the secrets they hide.

It’s wildly entertaining and immersive with breakneck pacing—a ‘whodunit’ procedural with nostalgic underpinnings perfect for those of us who relish the 90s.

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