Give me a Finlay double shift…

Every Last Fear was one of my top thriller picks last year so when I heard Finlay had a new release coming out my fingers immediately went to NetGalley. His writing has a retro, true crime feel that just excites my lady murder boner like no other. They aren’t really whodunnits, but rather a deep look into a community or cast of characters impacted by a horrific crime.

The book opens on New Year’s Eve 1999 at a Blockbuster, right there you have my Gen X heart. Four teenage girls were working the night shift, three were murdered only one survives. Flash forward fifteen years later, an identical crime takes place at an ice cream store and again only one girl survives.

Here’s my analysis:

Setting

​​🎬 Outside of the Blockbuster video store, there isn’t anything memorable about the New Jersey town that the two crimes take place. This isn’t an atmospheric thriller unless you still have PTSD abou late fees.

📖 Compulsive

As compulsive as a Dairy Queen blizzard. I ate this up in one sitting. Short punchy chapters with multiple character POVs keep this one moving.

🔪 The villain/motivation

There aren’t a lot of suspects and it isn’t entirely clear who the killer is, but you could make an educated guess. The motivation is spot on and feels very much like a true crime story. It's not convoluted like so many other thrillers, it’s straight forward even in its lunacy.

🔚 The ending

It’s very quick and to the point. Once the detectives figures it out there is a showdown with an interesting weapon! I appreciated there wasn’t a long dragged out scene where the killer sits down with a cup of tea for a therapy session.

✍️ The writing

Finlay’s writing is very straight forward, he doesn’t muddle it with laughable descriptions or repetition. The Night Shift is a tight story without any filler or fluff. He gives us the goods and gets the fuck out. He understood the assignment.

This was such an entertaining thriller! Reliving the 90’s movie store era was a treat. So nostalgic! The characters were magnificent, they were all multifaceted and deep. The twist and turns were fast paced and perfectly surprising. I did guess the killer pretty early on, but it did not take away from the thrilling twists that I DID NOT see coming. This is a must read for thriller fans!

Tʜᴀɴᴋ ʏᴏᴜ @minotaur_books, @netgalley, and @alexfinlayauthor ꜰᴏʀ ᴀɴ ᴀᴅᴠᴀɴᴄᴇᴅ ᴇᴄᴏᴘʏ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜɪs ʙᴏᴏᴋ ɪɴ ᴇxᴄʜᴀɴɢᴇ ꜰᴏʀ ᴍʏ ʜᴏɴᴇsᴛ ʀᴇᴠɪᴇᴡ. ♡︎

I now have a new auto buy author! Last year I read, and loved, Every Last Fear and the Night Shift was equally excellent. I got to 50% in the book and had no idea what where things were headed and not a single theory – and I LOVED it. Normally by then I have a bunch of ideas and start whittling them down through the last half of the book. The short chapters and multiple POV’s really kept the pace of the novel going at a breakneck speed from page one. When I wasn’t reading this, I was thinking about it. As for the ending, oof…pretty sure my blood pressure skyrocketed when everything started coming together. Well done Alex Finlay, hoping there’s another book in the works.

Thank you @minotaur_books and @netgalley for the complimentary digital review copy.

The Night Shift by Ale Finlay is a thriller about two night shifts going terribly wrong and ending with multiple murders. In 1999, at a Blockbuster video rental store, the staff in the night shift all got killed except for one lone survivor, Ella. There was one murder suspect but they fled the town— never to be seen again. Fast forward to present day and a very similar murder takes place in a local ice cream shop. Are these two murder sprees connected? When the suspected murderer disappeared in 1999 without a trace and another murder happens in the same town is committed, one starts to wonder… Is it the same killer? When a web of secrets and lies unfold, you won’t know what to believe.

I loved this book. I flew through this book and found that I couldn’t put it down. The short chapters and varying perspectives made for a fast, addictive read. I loved the perspectives of the story– an FBI agent working the case, Keller, the lone survivor from the 1999 Blockbuster massacre, Ella, and the 1999 murder suspects brother, Chris. The different perspectives weaved the story together seamlessly– each adding a different layer to the story. I really enjoyed the mystery behind the character, Vince and it turned out completely unexpected for me.

I loved the setting and nostalgia of the Blockbuster and the 90s. Growing up in the 90s, I remember visiting video rental stores which also added another creepy layer to the story.

I did have an inkling throughout the story about who the killer was and it turned out to be correct.. Even though I kind of had an idea of who the killer was, I still enjoyed the story and how it all weaves together. One thing that I didn’t really love was the fact that one of the main characters was 8 1/2 months pregnant with twins. As an FBI agent, I can’t imagine they would put someone who is literally about to give birth to a very intense case. She also kept putting herself into these situations. Now, I don’t think just because you’re pregnant you cannot work or do anything someone else can, but this just seemed like a bit much. I did, however, love her partner Atticus as a character.

Lastly, I did love the epilogue. Even in thriller books, I enjoy knowing what happened to all of the characters and where they end up. I was satisfied with the ending for all the characters in this book.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this 90s thriller told through many different POV. When I saw a murder takes place during Y2k at a Blockbuster, this millennial needed to pick up this. Even though I had a correct hunch about the killer early on, there were some twists and turns that surprised me and still made this an enjoyable read.

Review of The Night Shift by Alex Finlay

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I really enjoyed this book. I liked the 90s nostalgia and the overall story. I really liked the flashback stories as the plot unfolded. It was a very quick read for me and I think the writing was excellent. I did guess the killer very early on but it didn’t take much away from my enjoyment but that is part of why I gave it four stars rather than five.

Quick synopsis: On New Years Eve 1999 there is a mass murder at the Blockbuster store. Four employees are murdered and one more is severely injured but survives. The killer is presumed to be a young man named Vince but he vanished after getting out on bail awaiting trial. Flash forward to the present time when there has been another set of murders this time at the ice cream shop. Once again there is one survivor. FBI agent Keller (surrounded by a great supporting group of characters to include the survivors of both attacks, the younger brother of the accused who is now a defense attorney, and a young rookie police officer) must get to the bottom of the new murders snd determine if they are connected to the Blockbuster slayings. Most importantly, she needs to find the killer… and fast.

I’ve seen mixed reviews on this one but I do recommend that you give it a try!

Big thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for my ecopy of this one!

#netgalley

Have you ever requested a book by mistake? That’s exactly what I did when I put in a @netgalley request for 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐅𝐓 by Alex Finlay. There was a very similarly titled February release that I actually thought I was requesting. What a dope! But…it turned out great because I really enjoyed 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘕𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘚𝘩𝘪𝘧𝘵 and since I’m picky with thrillers, that’s saying a lot.⁣
⁣
This is the story of two sets of killings, fifteen years apart. In both, three young people are stabbed to death and one teenage girl survives. The first, had a suspect who vanished. As the second killings happen, the survivor of the first, now a counselor, is called in to help the latest survivor. The story not only revolves around these two characters, but many more, some with connections to both killings, some only with the most recent. There’s a badass, pregnant FBI agent, a young, eager detective, a public defender with a past, and many more. ⁣
⁣
On top of all the characters, the story moved back and forth between the two killings. While all that might seem like a lot, it really wasn’t. Finlay expertly wove his cast of characters and the two killings together into a tense, compelling tale that had me flying through the pages. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘕𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘚𝘩𝘪𝘧𝘵 was definitely my kind of thriller!
⁣
Thanks to @minotaur_books for an electronic copy of #thenightshiftbook.

✨𝐑 𝐄 𝐕 𝐈 𝐄 𝐖✨

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐟𝐭 𝐛𝐲 𝐀𝐥𝐞𝐱 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐥𝐚𝐲

This story gave me all the eery, late night blockbuster store vibes 😍swipe for goodreads synopsis!➡️

👍🏼: I enjoyed the intertwining of stories between two similar murders taking place 15 years apart. The story was fast-paced, with short chapters 👏🏼, as secrets unraveled & connections were made. Lots of characters & suspects that kept me guessing until the end!

👎🏼: The ending wrapped up too fast for me, leaving a few things open for interpretation. Also- there were SO many characters that I honestly started to forget who was or wasn’t a suspect, however, was still surprised by the ending overall! It may be just me but I have a hard time keeping track of 10+ characters, especially when you put down the book & pick it back up- anyone else?

Overall, this was an enjoyable fast-paced mystery with some nostalgic blockbuster vibes 📼🙌🏼 but unfortunately, won’t be that memorable for me.

Thanks to @netgalley @stmartinspress @minotaur_books for the e-ARC! This one is out NOW! 📚✨

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

This was a wild ride! I felt genuine grief and fear reading this, and even though it was easy to figure out the ending early on, it was done really well. The writing was great, I am excited to check out Finlay's previous novel and anything they come out with in the future!

The Night Shift was my first book by Alex Finlay, but it won’t be the last.
Overall I enjoyed the premise of the book and felt mostly entertained. What I didn’t like where the characters whose alternating POV we followed. They were neither the most likable nor the most interesting characters. I really wanted more Atticus! However, the main issue was that I didn’t find them believable, and not in a “unreliable narrator” kind of way, just as in, I don’t think they would exist in this form in real life.
However, I liked the story, so I suspended my disbelief and just went along with it… but yeah, highly pregnant (with twins none the less) FBI agent storming into houses… hmm, seems unlikely.
If we ignore the fact that the author has clearly never been pregnant, or an FBI agent, he still managed to write a well paced thriller with an overall plausible storyline and a satisfying (albeit a little rushed) resolution. Could have done without the epilogue, tho, as I didn’t feel like it really added to the book. In the end I’d love to give this 3.5 stars, but as that isn’t possible I will round up to 4.

“𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝐼 𝑤𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑙 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑑, 𝐼 𝑓𝑒𝑙𝑡 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑎 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛. 𝐿𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝐼 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑛 𝑚𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑠 - 𝑚𝑦 𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑦 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑛 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒.”

I overall enjoyed Alex Finlay’s debut suspense novel, Every Last Fear and when I saw that he had another novel out, I knew I had to read it.

The story is told in two timelines: New Year’s Eve (and the weeks leading to it) 1999 and 2015. 1999 deals with a mass murder at a Blockbuster, while 2015 deals with an eerily similar murder at an ice cream shop. This book is steeped deep in nostalgia for me; I spent many weekend nights going to Blockbuster to pick out a movie. This book had me thinking back to that time, which added to my overall enjoyment of it. I LOVED being reunited with Agent Sarah Keller, her husband, Bob and her boss, Stan from Every Last Fear, with this book acting as a prequel to those events. The story was also told from three well developed perspectives: Keller’s, Ella (the sole survivor of the Blockbuster killing) and Chris (a public defender and brother of the accused of said crime). I loved the side character of Atticus and his work relationship with Keller, along with how Finally dives into the complexities of trauma through Ella, Jesse, and Chris. Finlay created short chapters that payoff with twisty reveals; certain end of chapter reveals give snippets that make you wait a couple more chapters for the full reveal (like arresting someone then waiting a couple chapters to find out who it is), drawing out the tension in a VERY good way. The only downside for me was the epilogue - it seemed a bit too rushed; I could’ve used a few more pages to wrap things up.

The Night Shift presents a shift in the “final girl” trope, with a riveting dual timeline story, badass characters (especially females), and page-turning reveals. I hope we get to see more of Agent Keller and this world from Finlay in the future. Thanks to St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur & NetGalley for the ARC!

This was absolutely amazing! I knew the minute I saw the blurb and the cover that it would be. I felt like I was traveling through places and time.

I couldn’t get enough of the nostalgia. I mean, it’s Y2K and Blockbuster! I actually thought we’d spend more time on NYE 1999, but that passed quickly and we were left in 2015, which was fine.

We’re introduced to 3 different narrators. I loved the passionate public defender and the drunk, inappropriate therapist. I could take or leave the Fed and of course she played a pivotal role but that didn’t take away from the story. I did have to roll my eyes at her quite a lot, being big and pregnant and putting herself in so much danger. The book takes some subtle digs at cops which made me laugh but then idolized a federal agent so I was like ???

Something I found particularly interesting was that this fictional book takes some inspiration from true crime. It reminded me a lot of the Yogurt Shop murders. I believe they were never solved. Luckily we have a good resolution in this story.

Another thing I appreciated is the nuance. There are characters in the story that you found believable. They gave a reasonable excuse for behavior and it turned out to not be the case. I really enjoyed that because so often as readers, we already know. Now we think we know but perhaps we do not. People are layered and this author always takes that into account and it keeps things unpredictable.

Also, a story with 3 narrators can be tedious because you’ll be left on a cliffhanger between their chapters. To be quite honest, it gets annoying. That didn’t happen here! It was so refreshing. Though the subject matter was intense obviously, it was still an easy read/listen. I switched between ebook and Audible. The audiobook narrators were excellent.

This is a 5 star book if I’ve ever seen one and already one of my favorites of this year. As a millennial, I was so excited by this. Their are little nuggets of nostalgia placed throughout the book and it was awesome.

I’d like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of the ebook. I had a recent issue with my eyes unfortunately so I finished it on Audible upon release. Definitely worth the credit and it was great to be able to switch between the book and audio.

I found this to be a very entertaining thriller! Two mass murders, one town, and 15 years between incidents. The suspect of the original murders was released after his initial arrest and never seen again. Is he back? Is it a copycat?

Emma Monroe is the only survivor from the first murders, and now that she is a therapist, she is called in to speak to the survivor of the most recent attack, Jesse Duvall. The two connect over their shared trauma, though Emma is highly suspicious of Jesse and her background.

There are multiple story lines propelling the action forward, but it isn't confusing and the back and forth in time helps give context for the current setting. It's a little tough to share more without hinting at the twisted truth of how these characters intersect each other's lives.

The only part I didn't care for was the pregnant FBI agent. It didn't seem believable that she would be doing all the things she does while 8 months pregnant with twins. But if you set that fact aside, she's a cool character. I just don't think the author needed to make her pregnant.

All in all, a solid, entertaining read. I was guessing all the way to the end.

This novel features a fast placed plot that grabs the reader from the first page. The varied cast of characters is developed enough to be interesting. The plot is twisting, suspenseful and complex. I recommend it to readers who enjoy a good mystery.

The Night Shift by Alex Finley is a character driven thriller that will grab your attention from the very first line. The multiple perspectives and traveling back and forth between the two crimes made me care about each of these characters. An added bonus to this book is there were a few twists that I didn’t see coming. If you love the final girl trope, this is definitely the book for you.

The synopsis of this book peaked my interest because it gave me slasher movies and Final Girls vibes. I didn't finish his last book because the story wasn't for me but I liked his writing style. Every story isn't for every reader so I wanted to try another book and I'm glad I did because it was impossible to put down. It is mainly set in the present but we do get moments from the past surrounding the first murders. I liked that the timeline wasn't constantly switching from past to present. The shorter chapters and multiple view points made this fast paced and intense. I liked the different perspectives and didn't find them hard to keep straight. Overall, I thought it was a well crafted mystery and I highly recommend it. I am looking forward to reading more by Alex Finlay in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free eARC to review.

From the description, The Night Shift seemed like a book I would devour in one day and love. However, the twists were obvious, information was repeated over and over, and I didn't find any characters worth rooting for. If you like detective thrillers, I would give this book a shot, but unfortunately it just didn't work for me.

Many thanks to Netgalley for providing me an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to love this one… but sadly, I did not. The chapters were short but I felt like the story was dragging and I was pretty bored throughout. The main twist was pretty obvious to me, but I did not see the secondary twist coming! I did not like the ending because I feel like I need more closure. My favorite character was Jesse and she is barely even mentioned in the epilogue. I do love this author’s writing style though and I’m looking forward to seeing what he writes next.

Twisty, twisty, twisty! The prose is workmanlike, sometimes awkward, but that’s not why we read fun junk like this. I admit that whenever I thought I knew where the plot was going I was usually wrong. But the coincidences and convolutions never seem contrived.

This book was okay. I was definitely expecting more fr0m this author. It took me a while to get through it and I felt like it was a little hard to follow at times