Emma in the Night is an intuitive, introspective and highly quotable, but also fairly predictable, psychological suspense novel. Even though the reader can guess what's going to happen, the journey to the big revelation is still captivating. We follow Cass, who we can quickly identify as an unreliable narrator, and even though we know we can't believe her, we hang onto every tidbit she gives us, hoping for the clues that will lead us to finding out what really happened to her and her sister, Emma.

For those of you who understand narcissistic personality disorder, and the damage those masterful manipulations can inflict on those under the thumb of a true narcissist, this quotation should ring true:
"I think there are two types of people. Ones who have a scream inside them and ones who don’t. People who have a scream are too angry or too sad or laugh too hard, swear too much, use drugs or never sit still. Sometimes they sing at the top of their lungs with the windows rolled down. I don’t think people are born with it. I think other people put it inside you with the things they do to you, and say to you, or the things you see them do or say to other people. And I don’t think you can get rid of it. If you don’t have a scream, you can’t understand."

Two teen sisters disappear on the same night but under different circumstances and the case remains unresolved. Three years later, the younger sister shows up at her mother's doorstep. The story that unfolds as she's interviewed by investigators is precise in its details except for some telling inconsistencies. Pertinent details of Cass and Emma's life before their disappearance is slowly pieced together by an investigator tormented by her own demons. Bit by bit, the reader finds out what really happened that night and in the three years after.

This was an absorbing read.

Having read Wendy Walker's ALL IS NOT FORGOTTEN I had high hopes for EMMA IN THE NIGHT, I was sadly let-down, perhaps I set my expectations too high. EMMA IN THE NIGHT is a disturbing tale at best of an extremely dysfunctional blended family in a very slow moving book that did not catch my interest tile the very end, perhaps the last 50 pages.

Sisters Emma and Cass had to endure their mother’s narcissistic personality throughout their childhood. The author defined and describes a narcissistic personality ad nauseam. Emma and Cass, both teenagers, disappear without a trace one night. Three years later Cass returns home without Emma, leaving the reader to wonder where Emma is and what happened to her.

Cass relates the story of a kidnapping to a mysterious island where they were held captive for 3 years. Dr. Abby Winter, a psychiatrist, listens to Cass tell her heart rendering story and believes things are just not adding up though Cass is proficient in relating her story.. Dr. Winter unravels the tale little by little; though it takes a long time to get there, the conclusion is a surprise and was the best part of the book.

The reason I believe my expectations were set too high is this IS a good book, a readable book, slow moving in the middle but a very satisfying conclusion; just was not a page turner, I was not caught up in the story, I did not feel invested like I expected to.

That said, if you are not expecting the same suspense as ALL IS NOT FORGOTTEN this is a worthy book, a psychological study, not necessarily a thriller.

Can you say dysfunctional family? The Tanner/Martin family featured in EMMA IN THE NIGHT could be the primary players in any of the text books written by Sigmund Freud or Carl Jung.

Author Wendy Walker presents readers with a tale filled with psychological suspense, secrets, narcissism, arrogance, incest, kidnapping, betrayal and questionable sibling relationships, all part and parcel of a tale being told by narrators who veracity the reader will slowly called into question as the story progresses.
Two sisters disappear from their suburban Connecticut neighborhood, Cass age 15 and Emma age 17. After being missing for three years, and presumed dead, Cass has suddenly re-appeared to recount a disturbing tale of capture and isolation on an island off the Maine coast. Who were the captors and what were their motives?

Called in to resume her earlier investigation of the Tanner case, is forensic psychologist Abigail Winter, a woman whose early life closely parallels that of the Tanner girls. Dr. Winter has some uneasy feelings about Cass’s story that appears to be a little too propitious.

Wendy Walker develops her beguiling tale in layers, deftly disorienting and reorienting the reader as she takes them through the looking glass of perverse and memorable revelations.

Emma in the Night is written in journal-style, first-person format by Cassandra Tanner about her and her sister Emma's abduction. I am NOT a fan of this type of story-telling. It feels very limited, as if you are never getting the full story. But to add to that annoyance, occasional chapters are NOT in this style, they were third person by another character. But wait, there's more; in the middle of some of the third person chapters, the author reverted back to the first person narration by Cassandra. It was disconcerting and constantly pulled you out of the tension by the constant flipping back and forth.

As for the story itself, it started out intriguing; how did Cassandra get back? And where is Emma? Unfortunately, instead of increasing the tension with these and other questions, the plot became too overwrought, over-garbled, overwritten and unbelievable. About midway thru, I found myself wishing the narrator would just get on with it for gods sake, and I started skipping paragraphs, then chapters.

I did finish the book, but the ending was as big an unrealistic let down as I had figured it out to be. The actions by the returned sister Cassandra made no logical sense, the FBI officials did nothing that a normal average joe would have thought to do to further the investigation along. There is very little dialogue and a lot of prose, and what dialogue there was, often just repeated the prose: "I'm working this case..." "Okay... They said you had some counseling..." followed by six prose paragraphs of introspection, past reflection, recap of current events, then finally "I'm working the case...". AGH! Give us something that moves the story along!! Please.

Sadly, it never happened. I've read worse books, but I've also read a lot better.

I have to hand it to Wendy Walker. Emma in the Night was a fabulous surprise of twists and turns. I was barely able to put this novel down to go to work, and when I wasn’t soaking up the words, all I could do was think about finishing it and learning the truth.

This novel revolves around the disappearance of two sisters. Except, three years later, one of the sisters, Cass, returns to her parents’ doorstep. Her mysterious appearance and story baffle not only the law enforcement who have been working the case for years, but also her family. This leaves the question, where is Emma, the other sister?

Much of this novel revolves around the family dynamics before the girls vanished. The mother exhibits Narcissistic Personality Disorder, leading to a rocky and troubled upbringing for both Cass and Emma. Having personally dealt very closely with individuals suffering from this same disorder, Walker hit the nail pretty darn close. At times, however, the description of the affliction seemed to dominate the narrative, even though a shorter description would have sufficed. I wonder if those who have not had experiences with such individuals would have appreciated or been alienated by such incorporation into the story? Regardless, I loved the story, and will be hunting down a copy of Walker’s previous work.

From the bestselling author of All Is Not Forgotten comes a thriller about two missing sisters, a twisted family, and what happens when one girl comes back...

One night three years ago, the Tanner sisters disappeared: fifteen-year-old Cass and seventeen-year-old Emma. Three years later, Cass returns, without her sister Emma. Her story is one of kidnapping and betrayal, of a mysterious island where the two were held. But to forensic psychiatrist Dr. Abby Winter, something doesn't add up. Looking deep within this dysfunctional family Dr. Winter uncovers a life where boundaries were violated and a narcissistic parent held sway. And where one sister's return might just be the beginning of the crime.



* * * * *



The first thing that comes to mind when I think about this book is Wow!. This has to be one of the surprising thrillers that I have ever read. There are so many twists and turns that take to a conclusion that I didn't and wouldn't have expected.


I found both Cass and Abby to be extremely interesting characters and the pressures that they grew up with make them even more surprising. Not only are there great, well fleshed out characters but the way that their story unfolds will keep you glued to the screen.


I highly recommend EMMA IN THE NIGHT to any of my readers who enjoy a well written thriller with a surprising conclusion. There is some violence and sex but nothing over the top so no need to worry about teenager enjoying this book.


*** I received this book at no charge from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions expressed within are my own.

3 or 3.5 stars. A psychological thriller about two teenage girls who disappear one night and then, three years later, one of them returns. I enjoyed the psychological aspects of it: the characters' motivations, the mother's narcissistic personality disorder, and the way things were often not as they seemed. Wendy Walker definitely keeps the reader guessing here! However, in order to make that happen, the plot is rather convoluted and the way Cass caused her story to unfold was just too farfetched to be believable. It's definitely an entertaining book and I was caught up in it while reading, but once I finished and looked back on it, Cass's behavior just didn't ring true.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me a free eArc of this book.

My Opinions:
I was convinced from the beginning that something was off with Cass’s story, but I couldn’t quite figure out what it was. She is an intriguing character, and the more you learn about her backstory, the more you will both sympathize with her and suspect that it must have twisted her in some way. I was captivated by the unfolding of events, because for the longest time I could not figure out where it was going, even though different clues are peppered into the dialogue and in Cass’s thoughts and actions. I admit that I did figure part of it out, but not the entire thing. The way Abby puts those clues together and melds them with her own background and experiences in order to figure out exactly what happened is as much a part of the story as the mystery itself.

The pacing of Emma in the Night is excellent, as it moves forward with the past and the present at the same time, never getting too bogged down in one or the other, which is a difficult thing to balance. One thing that might grate on certain readers is that the story is told to us mostly from Cass’s point of view, we never actually experience the story as it is occurring. Abby’s observations are also colored by how and what is told by Cass. While this is sometimes a deal breaker for me in a novel, for whatever reason, it worked in this particular book. Part of the enjoyment of the story is learning just how much Cass wants to reveal to those who are listening (or reading), and then those listeners (the FBI, Cass’s mother, the reader) sifting through the information and deciding what is real and what isn’t, and why it is being told that way.

The addition of Cass’s mother’s narcissistic personality disorder gives the book an additional dimension, and adds to the twisted nature of the novel. It is not a subject I’m familiar with at all, I thought it was just someone being only concerned about themselves and no one else, but there’s a large amount more to it. This gives Emma in the Night depth and really gives a unique twist to the story.

Bottom Line:
Emma in the Night is a twisty thriller with surprises on every page. Cass’s character is multi-faceted and the reader doesn’t know whether or not to trust what she is saying–we know she has deep secrets, but it’s not clear until the exciting conclusion the breadth of those secrets and why she is hiding them. Highly recommended as a fresh, intriguing psychological suspense novel that will keep you up late into the night in order to discover the truth.

This one kept me guessing, but it did drag at times. Overall, I enjoyed learning about narcissistic personality disorder. That part was very interesting to me.

I was excited to get the chance to read Emma in the Night because I enjoyed her previous work so much. As good as All is Not Forgotten was, I expected to be blown away by this one. I kept reading and expecting it to start getting as twisted and memorable as her previous work, but I was disappointed. I started to just get bored with it towards the end once it revealed itself to be completely underwhelming.

I know this book has great reviews, but reviews are opinions and everybody has one. This book wasn't for me. It jumped around too much and it felt like a story I had already read.

A wonderful, dark, insightful read. Impossible to put down.

Super compelling - I raced through this thriller to find out the answer! The focus on narcissism as the psychological thread running through the tale was novel and genuinely interesting to learn about; the dual perspectives of Abby and Cass helped move the plot along without the frustrating suffocation you can sometimes feel as a reader with an unreliable narrator. Pacy, twisty, intriguing.

Cassandra Tanner and her sister, Emma, disappeared on the same night three years ago. Cass was fifteen and her lovely, enigmatic older sister seventeen. Suddenly, Cass shows up on her mother's doorstep, desperately begging her family to find Emma, whom she claims is being against her will on a remote island in Maine. Immediately, the FBI is called back to the case, including forensic psychiatrist Abby Winter, who has been haunted by the investigation since Emma and Cass went missing. Abby had a lot of theories about Emma and Cass' case--and saw similarities in their mother to her own--but kept most of these thoughts to herself. But now that Cass is back, with a story that doesn't completely add up, Abby realizes she might not be so off track after all. And that there might be a lot more to Emma and Cass' disappearance then everyone thinks.

This book is a tough one for me. It started off in great fashion--completely sucking me in. It's an interesting novel, as in some ways it seems like a rather straightforward tale of two missing girls, but it's also incredibly puzzling and keeps you guessing from the start. I think my brow was probably actually furrowed as I was reading. It's hard to trust anyone in this novel, or know who to believe, and that has you frantically turning pages, trying to figure out what on earth is the actual truth.

The story flips between Cass' point of view and that of Abby's. I was intrigued by Cass' story, though not particularly attached to her and while I sympathized with Abby, wasn't really drawn to her as a character, either. I actually sort of wanted to rush through her sections so I could get back to Cass and what was actually happening (or had happened) to her, and by proxy, Emma.

Make no mistake--the Tanner/Martin family saga is a twisted one. This book will shock and bewilder you--this is not a nice set of characters. Emma and Cass' mother is hateful and downright despicable, as are many of the supporting characters. Even Emma--via stories--is tough to care for at times. The premise is that Ms. Martin, the mother, has narcissistic personality disorder--the same disorder that affected Abby's mother as well. At first, this works, as you're shocked by the treatment of Emma and Cass and what it's done to each girl.

But, admittedly, after a while, I grew a little weary of this plot device. The disorder and its effects are explained repeatedly. If Walker could have explained it and moved on, I would have enjoyed the novel a lot more. I found myself skimming over some of the repetitive psychological descriptions, so I could get on with the story. As the story continues, the family almost seems too fractured and horrible; I was shocked at the continuing tale of horror regarding her mother, stepfather, stepbrother, and sister that Cass kept weaving. Goodness--they come across as diabolical, but not real.

I actually really enjoyed Walker's previous novel, ALL IS NOT FORGOTTEN - particularly because the ending lived up to the earlier parts of the novel and shocked me. Here, I am pretty sure the intent was the same, but it didn't quite pan out. By the time we reached the end, I was tired of the psychological drama and ramblings. I hadn't exactly figured out what had happened--I'll definitely give Walker that--but I knew something was up. I also felt so much of all of this could have been avoided from the start by Cass, but I won't go into that for spoilers sake.

So, alas. As I started this one, I really thought it was going to be a novel that I was going to recommend to everyone. By the end, I was a bit let down. I'll go with 3 stars overall, since it certainly did keep me flipping the pages.

I'm so glad that I started this NetGalley book on my off day, when I decided not to go out because this book was un-putdownable!

Emma in the Night starts when Cass comes back after having disappeared three years ago. But right from the start, one can tell that Cass is an unreliable narrator, because she talks about how she has to make people believe that Emma is alive.

The other narrator is Dr. Abigail Winter, a forensic psychologist working for the FBI. Cass and her sister Emma's disappearance has always haunted her because she recognises that Cass and Emma's mother is a narcissist, like hers. So when Cass reappears and claims that her sister is still being held captive, she knows that she has to get to the bottom of the case.

The book alternates between Cass and Dr. Winters and this leads to constant tension. Cass reveals a bit of the past, Dr. Abigail shows where the investigation is going, and bit by bit, the truth starts to come out.

Where this book excels is in its depiction of Cass and Emma's family and how dysfunctional they are. Cass is not the perfect character, but as I read on, I really felt for her. In most cases, I would probably dislike her because come on, her first action is her lying to her family and that is not a save the car moment, but because I saw how damaged she was, I ended up rooting for her even through her worst actions.

Despite the fact that I really enjoyed this book, I'm finding it hard to write to put this into words. It's quite hard to write details about the plot or characters without giving spoilers away, so I'm just going to end by encouraging everyone who loves thrillers to give it a go.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.

The story is very compelling.. It was like everything is real and not.. and will make you think who among the characters are crazy.... or is it you, the reader who can't follow the story.

It isn't often that I'm compelled to stop everything to finish a book the day I start it. This book was a captivating read. The plot is well done and characters very well developed. The complex play between family members with their lies, half truths and power struggles caught my interest and never let go. I highly recommend giving this book a try. It's now compelling me to add this author to my list of favorites.

Given that I ended up DNFing , All is Not Forgotten, I was a bit skeptical going into Emma in the Night. I'm always willing to give an author a second chance. I was pleasantly surprised at what I found in this book. Sisters, Cass and Emma, disappeared three years before and now Cass has returned with an unbelievable story. The hunt for Emma is still on, but can Cass be trusted?

At times, I did find that this book dragged in places. But for the most part, I thought it was a solid mystery. The story did keep me engaged and I wanted to finish it to see what the truth was. The entire time you read this book, you are unsure if Cass is a reliable character. The was the story told between Cass's first person account and Abby's third person Point of view. The plot is laid out well, revealing information at just the right time. I thought I had the ending all figured out, but I was mostly wrong.

There is a lot of dysfunction in this family. The mother, Mrs. Martin was sickeningly narcissistic. That just touches the surface of what is wrong with this family. How that all plays into the disappearance of the girls is something you will have to read to find out. I do recommend this book. It's one that will make you want to keep reading to find out the truth.

Emma in the Night looked interesting so I thought I'd give it a shot, especially because we tend to stay in Romancelandia for most of our reviews. This novel was what I call a palette cleanser-- it's job is to take me out of the romance genre for a few days so that when I go back in I've missed it and I'm ready for more. I think Emma in the Night did that for me. It was an interesting read--full of psychology and psychology jargon, the dynamics of a really fucked up family, and some really astute observations about how people manipulate and use and or succumb to the machinations of others. As much as this was fiction, it felt equally real. It was that realism that drew me in and repelled me. I liked how observant this writer is and yet I found myself so overwhelmed by the truths she offered through her characters that it almost felt like it was too much. The redemptive qualities of the characters and plot were few and far between. The idea of hope? Just a glimmer on the page.

While I wasn't blindside by the ending, I did find myself curious as to how our characters would get to the conclusion I'd figured out --and it was that journey that kept me interested and reading.

*Link to review will come when review is live*