THE NIGHT SHIFT

4 stars out of 5

Same town, same gruesome scenario, 15 years apart: Four teenagers working late - one set at Blockbuster Video and the other at an ice cream shop, both in Linden, New Jersey - are brutally attacked. In each instance, only one of the four survives. The aftermath of the first attack in 1999 devastated lives of family and friends as well as that of Emma, the surviving girl. Now a therapist, Emma is called in to help calm the survivor of the ice cream shop murders; that plus her status as the lone survivor of the 1999 incident, she's thought to be eminently qualified.

Turns out the survivor, Jesse Duvall, is quite the handful; she's belligerent, refuses help and generally uncooperative - albeit a bit less so when she learns Emma is a survivor like she is. And suspicions that the two attacks may have been done by the same person are solidified when Jesse shares with Emma the words the attacker spoke to her when he left her for dead: "Good night, pretty girl." Shockingly, they're the same words Emma's attacker said to her.

Enter Sarah Keller, a very pregnant FBI agent who's trying her best to get the case solved before her twins decide to enter the real world, and a public defender who, unbeknownst to everyone else, is the traumatized brother of the man believed to be the Blockbuster murderer - and the man who got away.

Chapters switch from perspectives of various characters as well as time frames, with each adding bits of information that give readers insights into what's to come - which includes plenty of surprises (I did guess the culprit early on, but I'm always delighted when that happens). My only question? All the characters are referred to by their first names except the FBI agent, who's always "Keller." If that is supposed to mean something, it went over my head.

That puzzlement aside, I heartily recommend this action-packed book that I truly had trouble putting down. Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review a pre-release copy. Another excellent book by this talented author!

The Night Shift by Alex Finlay (Minotaur Books, March 2022); 368 pp.