GONE TONIGHT

4 stars out of 5

When I started this book, I was thrilled with the unique plot potential. Catherine, a recent nursing grad who's headed for a new job at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, lives with her mother, Ruth. Their relationship leans toward dysfunctional - to say Ruth is overprotective would be an understatement. But Catherine's attitude softens quite a bit when she learns that her mother most likely has early-onset Alzheimer's (and Ruth confesses that her own mother had it as well). As a many years long-term care ombudsman who spent considerable time with residents in various stages of dementia, I was super-interested and considered that to be a great angle for a psychological thriller. I even made some guesses as to how that might play out as the story progressed. 

But quite a few chapters later, plot shifts left me very disappointed (to avoid spoilers I can't explain that any further). That's because thereafter, the plot became not too different from many others I've read; one character can't (or doesn't think she can) reveal past experiences to the other, with both constantly on the run because the secretive character fears that those experiences will catch up to them in a very not good way. And of course, the character from whom those secrets have been withheld begins to catch on - unbeknownst to the other one.

So it is that Catherine, who has always wondered about her mother's background, begins to dig around and unearths facts that contradict what Ruth has told her all these years. Why, Catherine wonders, have we moved around so often and so hastily? How much of what my mother has told me is the truth, if any - and why has she withheld it? For the most part, Ruth is oblivious to Catherine's investigations, continuing to stick the story she's told in the apparent belief that she's doing it all to protect her precious child.

For her part, Catherine suspects far more sinister motives; and the more she digs, the more the trust gap widens between the two and her actions threaten their very lives. Toward the end, of course, those threats turn into reality. There's no shortage of action throughout the whole thing, and it all comes to a bang-up end (just not one that involves what I'd hoped it would involve). Still, it's a solid and entertaining book, and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review a pre-release copy.

Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen (St. Martin's Press, August 2023); 337 pp.