"The sheep spends its life worried about the wolf, only to be eaten by the farmer."
I will admit that while reading The Night Shift by Alex Finlay, I went into full on “Detective Cinderella” mode trying to solve the case alongside the rest of characters because I was that absorbed with the story. This is a thriller that feels both fresh and nostalgic, and perfect for fans of Riley Sager.
The Night Shift begins on what is already an inauspicious night on the eve of Y2K at a Blockbuster Video store in Linden, New Jersey. The entire staff is murdered, with the exception of one survivor. The police quickly make an arrest until the suspect flees, leaving the case cold. Now, fifteen years later in the same town another murder occurs at an ice cream parlor, eerily too similar to what happened at the Blockbuster, that again leaves one survivor. What follows is an intense investigation into both cases that bring together the lives of three people: Ella Monroe, the survivor of the Blockbuster massacre, Detective Sarah Keller, who is assigned to the latest case, and Chris Ford, the initial suspect’s younger brother from the first murder.
There are a number of things I want to say, but that would be getting into spoiler territory. What I can say is that this is such a great thriller filled with twists, turns, and suspicious characters that it will have you guessing until the very end. The chapters are short so the pacing was fast adding to the intensity of the story leaving you hanging on where it could go next.
My only criticism is that I would have liked to have seen some of the characters fleshed out more, especially Ella. We only get an idea of who she is now in the present day, but I would have liked to have gotten to know more about her and how she got to this point in her life since the incident. I feel like there was more that could have been explored than the short snippets we got of who she is now and who she once was before.
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