Fast-paced and addictive - come along for the ride! I thoroughly enjoyed this thriller! The characters, dual timelines, tension, twists. Quick and satisfying! Will read more from Alex Finlay for sure.

4.5/5 stars, rounded up to 5

A brutal murder of employees working the late shift at Blockbuster video on New Year's Eve, 1999. A lone survivor. A fugitive on the run.

Fast-forward fifteen years, and final girl Ella is forced to relive that horrific night when there's another mass slaying with uncanny similarities to the Blockbuster massacre. This time, it's the employees at a local ice cream shop. Once again, there's a sole survivor . . . .

In the aftermath of the slayings, Ella's path collides with FBI Agent Sarah Keller and the brother of the prime suspect for the Blockbuster slayings. Something doesn't add up. And the stakes are higher than ever, as secrets come to light that call into question whether the police have been looking at the wrong suspect all these years.

This was SUCH a satisfying thriller. It kept me on the edge of my seat, kept me guessing, and kept me turning the pages. The perspective shifted between three protagonists--Ella, FBI Agent Keller, and the brother of the accused killer. Each was so well-developed. When I reached the end of the book, I didn't want to let any of them go.

Finlay kept me guessing until the reveal at the very end (I REALLY thought I knew). Highly recommend to anyone who enjoys what I like to call "Slashers with heart." There's no cardboard characters here. Just smart, multi-dimensional protagonists with a monster among them.

Half a star deducted because there were a few points I found myself thinking, "Hmm ... this is a woman being written by a man." In general, I was impressed by Finlay's nuanced and realistic characterization of the women in the book, but it did creep up a few times.

Overall, INCREDIBLE read. I loved it so much, and I'm diving into Finlay's debut novel now!

Alex Finlay's sophomore thriller clearly proves that this author is most certainly not a one hit wonder. The Night Shift keeps you guessing until the very end -- and everyone is a suspect with a plausible motive. Great pacing and character development keeps you engaged throughout the twists and turns. I highly recommend this read.

This was a very good book! I didn't love it entirely but I did like it a lot. It's set in New Jersey, my stomping grounds until age 22 (and yes, Robert Wood Johnson hospitals are a real thing). It followed a therapist/final girl, an FBI agent who was pregnant, and a lawyer whose brother was missing and presumed alive. They all interact very well and once you learn who everyone is, it's very easy to follow along. I had no idea who the killer was so I was shocked when it got revealed. Just so you know, there is some violence at the end, but not a huge or gruesome amount. All in all 4 stars and I will definitely read the author's next book!

New Year's Eve 1999 and the world is waiting to see what happens at midnight. Inside a Blockbuster at closing time three girls and the manager are stabbed leaving one survivor, Ella. Go forward 15 years and Ella is called to talk to another survivor where three girls are stabbed at a Dairy Creamer at closing time.

I felt the beginning was a bit slow and I was trying to keep all the characters straight. There were little twists and turns along the way that kept it exciting. My only complaint was the ending. While it was a page turner it just happened so fast and boom done.

I liked the characters. Chris's brother was the presumed murderer at the Blockbuster but he was adopted by a loving couple and became a lawyer. Ella became a therapist which was kind of strange considering her life was a mess but I liked her and her spunk and wished her character was more developed because she seemed very complex.


I enjoyed the author's previous book and look forward to reading more of his work.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with a copy.

Thanks to Minotaur Books, St Martin's Press, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
The Night Shift by Alex Finlay is an exciting thriller that sucked me right in as soon as I started to read it. The evening of New Years Eve 1999 (remember Y2K?), four people are murdered at a New Jersey Blockbuster Video. One person, Ella, survives the attack. Fifteen years later, three people are murdered at an ice cream store in the same town. Again, there is one survivor. Ella, now a therapist, is brought in to help the sole survivor, Jesse. The police, FBI, public defenders, and even Secret Service get involved along the way. I had an idea where this one was going (and turned out to be right) which made me feel successful 🤣 but it was a great story that was hard to put down.
This one comes out on Tuesday, 3/1. I can definitely see it as a movie 🎥 I also highly recommend the author’s previous thriller, Every Last Fear, which published last year!

🔪The Night Shift 🍦🎬

I think this is going to be a top thriller this year! Loved it 🤩Perfect for my interest in serial killers!

The FBI is trying to solve 2 mass murders of teenage girls and looking to figure out if they are connected.

This is my first Alex Findlay novel and I love his writing style! The multiple points of view were great! And I loved the twists and ending!!! One of my favorite thrillers so far this year ⭐️

Big thanks to @minotaur_books and @netgalley for the ARC! Out 3/1!!!

I enjoyed the characters in this book. The pacing was a bit slow for me at the beginning but it picked up about 60% of the way. Ultimately, I enjoyed this thriller novel.

Thank you to the publishers at St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for this e-ARC of The Night Shift.

This was my first Alex Finlay book, but it surely won’t be my last!

The Night Shift is told in alternating POVs, revolving around a 15 year old murder. On New Year’s Eve in 1999, 3 female employees at the Blockbuster were brutally murdered, with only one lone survivor. 15 years later, at the Dairy Creamery, 3 female employees are attacked and killed again, with only one survivor. Both were told the same thing by the killer, something sinister whispered in their ear. The suspect from 15 years earlier disappeared into the void, but has he come back to finish what he started?

This is such a great, twisty novel! I loved the short chapters and the multiple POVs. Eventually all 3 characters meet together as they get closer and closer to finding the killer. I honestly can’t say I was shocked by who it was as I had them pegged early on, mainly just on a hunch. I was shocked to discover everything else though, so in that regard, this is an absolutely stunning novel! I highly recommend The Night Shift if you love loads of twists, stunning revelations, and short chapters!

Whoa--I seriously could not put this one down. There have been two terrible group murders in the same NJ town fifteen years apart with one survivor in each case. Are they connected? The story is well told through several different points of view and delivers several nice twists near the end. I'll definitely look forward to more from this author--in fact, I have his first book on my shelf which I can't wait to get to now!

I received an arc of this new thriller from the publisher via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to them for the opportunity. I had the Commodores singing The Night Shift in my head every time I saw the title of this book.

The premise of this sounded nostalgic and full of questions and I was interested in what happened but my interest waned once I realized the book mostly takes place in the present. Finlay writes female characters in a clumsy and awkward way and it’s clear that a man is writing a pregnant female character and does not know what he’s talking about. For example, an 81/2 month pregnant women who is pregnant with twins would not be out in the field or on a case.

It’s more procedural than I like my thrillers and there are a lot of moving parts that at times, made this hard to follow. I love the premise but for me, it didn’t deliver.

Alex Finlay does it again! I loved his debut novel, Every Last Fear, and he keeps up the thrills and masterful story-telling in The Night Shift. The prologue takes us back in time to New Year's Eve 1999. While the world was celebrating and waiting to see what would befall us when the clock switched over to midnight and a new century, a group of four teenager girls and their young manager are working the closing shift at Blockbuster. By the end of their shift, four of them are dead. Only seventeen-year-old Ella survives what was a bloody knife rampage.

The book then quickly moves forward to 2015. Emma is now a therapist, making a mere $30K a year. She's engaged, but still hooking up with strange men at hotels. That's where she is, in fact, when a call in the middle of the night from her old high school principal takes her back in time to 1999. He's calling because four teen-aged girls were attacked earlier in the night at an ice cream shop. Once again, only one girl has survived, and her principal thinks Ella may be the only one who can get through to the now non-responsive survivor (Jesse) to find out what happened. Also interested in discovering what happened at that ice cream shop is FBI Agent Sarah Keller, who happens to be 8 1/2 months pregnant!

Rounding out the cast of characters is Chris Ford, a young public defender. Chris's interest in the ice cream murders is very personal. Although he was raised in foster care and adopted by two loving parents, Chris grew up in the same town as the Blockbuster murder case. His given name was Chris Whitaker, and his older brother, Vince, was a suspect in the Blockbuster case. Vince escaped and has been a fugitive for the past 15 years. Chris loved his older brother and wants to believe he's out there somewhere living a good life. Lately he's been following a vlogger who travels the world in anonymity reporting on the adventures he's having. Although he knows it's a crazy longshot, Chris allows a small piece of his heart to believe that the anonymous vlogger is his brother Vince. Now with the new ice cream shop murders, the local police have called in Agent Keller (who we first met in Every Last Fear) because they want her to rule out Vince Whitaker as the murderer in this new case while he keeps his own detectives focused on the present.

The novel is told through the POVs of Ella, Keller, and Chris, and each page and chapter manages to ratchet up the tension and suspense. There is no shortage of twists and turns in The Night Shift. Even though I thought the killer was easily identified as a reader, I couldn't wait to get to the next chapter. All of the characters were fully developed, and the pacing of the book was right on point. I loved it.

My thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for providing me an eGalley in exchange for an honest review. This is sure to be a big hit.

I really enjoyed this. Twisty. Lots of twists that I didn’t see coming. Super fast-paced. I devoured most of this while in a plane. Hard to put down.

I’d definitely recommend this to others.

I received this book free of charge from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

This book was PHENOMENAL! I loved how the two crimes ended up being interconnected in the most random of ways, and really liked all the characters. I was heartbroken towards the end when the truth came out about Vince and wished his story had a happier ending. I was also sad that another character I loved seems to have been killed towards the end. I was happy to see that I accurately figured out who the real killer was at about the halfway point of the book, and also correctly suspected what really happened to Chris and Vince’s mom. Overall this book was amazing and I couldn’t put it down!

Thank you so much to NG and the publishers for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!

I really loved Every Last Fear by Alex Finlay last year that I was so excited to get my hands on The Night Shift. My expectations were high to say the least. He knocked it out of the park! I enjoy the short chapters, and his character development is top notch!

This thriller brings me back to my teens and younger with all the blockbuster video descriptions. Just loved it! This was an easy read thriller that looks at a group of murders in the same town, very similar, 18 years apart. Didn’t see the ending, great couple last chapters. Definitely read if you like thrillers and murder mysteries. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the arc of this book. Must read book for March 2022!

Omg you guys. #thenightshift #alexfinlay is seriously the bomb dot com. From start to finish this had me blown away. Alex is a phenomenal writer. And a new favorite. This is told from multiple point of views. When a murder occurs at the local Blockbuster store everyone thinks they know who did it. One girl survived. When it happens again at an ice cream shop many years later. Again. With one survivor. The two survivors meet. And the story that plays out. Thinking you know all the details. But. You don’t. Comes out March 1st and I highly recommend this be grabbed asap. It is so good. Thanks to #netgalley #stmartinspress for the early read. #bookstagram #netgalleyreview #readersofinstagram #bookrecommendations #netgalleyarc #readingaddict

Well, I have to start honestly, I had a hard time not dropping this one after the first half. The chapters are really short and told from multiple angles and I didn't find the writing style combined with the short chapters gave me enough to engage with the story or the characters. There was also a part of the story told via YouTube clips from a travel blogger that I really could have done without.

HOWEVER, he made a comeback. I devoured the second half of the book and loved reading it. If you like shocking endings and don't mind that it's unrealistic that the author added 27 "twists", then this is definitely for you! The second half was very quick and it was just event after event. I don't quite understand the need for each of them, but it was great fun!

I LOVED this book. As a child of the 90s, born in the mid-80s, as soon as I read that one of the settings was a Blockbuster in 1999, I was hooked. The prologue was the perfect opener, and really set the tone and vibe for the book. The characters were all well developed and felt real, and the subplots were just as good as the overall arc of the book. Some great little twists and turns, and I am so looking forward to reading more from Alex Finlay!

An entire night shift at Blockbuster is attacked, ending with 3 murder victims and 1 survivor. Fifteen years later, a eerily similar attack happens to the closing shift of an ice cream shop. Now they are investigating whether or not they have a copycat murderer in their midst or if the same one has returned.

For me, the best parts of the book were the subplots or the smaller twists. I really enjoyed Jesse's whole arc, from how creepy and suspicious she seemed to the reveal of why she was invested. The entire Whitaker storyline was fascinating and painful, and I loved the sort of closure that Chris ended up getting, even if it was far from ideal. The revenge plot from the fathers was wild!

I knew who committed the murders the first time that character was introduced. However, despite insistence by investigators that they would look into anyone who had any connections to both murders, they didn't actually look into this character at all into the end? That was incredibly frustrating. I think that it all brought the whole book down a few notches. It basically introduced the perp, went deep into really good subplots and ignored that prime suspect (to me), and then was all resolved quickly enough once they went back and looked where they had promised to but forgot in the very beginning.