The story unfolds in three compelling acts, each carefully crafting a web of suspense and mystery that questions the darkness that can reside within a person and explores the depths a mother will go to protect her child. Ruth Sterling has lost her keys, a twenty dollar bill, her train of thought and her way home from the drugstore. Her 24 year old daughter, Catherine, was about to move to Baltimore to start work as a nurse at John Hopkins, having graduated cum laude. Her specialty is geriatrics, and she is currently working in the Memory Wing at Sunrise, a high end facility where people with dementia, Alzheimer’s or traumatic brain injuries reside. Catherine is well aware of the sobering, heartbreaking statistics of the disease, and since it’s always been just the two of them, she and her Mom, her future plans may have to change. They have never lived apart, and they don’t have the money for Ruth to live in a facility like Sunrise. In fact, they moved frequently throughout Catherine’s childhood, whenever her mom became too far behind on the bills. Imagine the plot like a game of hide-and-seek, only Ruth is hiding secrets from her past and unbeknownst to her, Catherine is seeking to uncover them. Unfortunately, Catherine doesn’t realize that uncovering these secrets will put both she and her mom in danger. The story unfolds and reveals a plot twist as well as events leading up to the moment that will have the reader bobbing their head in understanding?!

Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publisher.

Pretty good domestic thriller. A bit slow paced at first but it picks up as you go along. Not my favorite by this author and a little bleak but it kept me engaged which is what you want from this genre!

Gone Tonight will capture your undivided attention. This excellent psychological page turner encapsulates so many elements of a great suspenseful story, such as mystery, anticipation, surprise, and shock!

Ruth, the mother and Catherine the daughter each explain their own thoughts and background in their own chapters. Ruth is the single mother to Catherine who is now an adult. She has graduated nursing school and has been hired by a hospital so she will be moving away from her mother. Ruth has a problem with this. And a terrible secret.

Ruth’s childhood was miserable. She had an alcoholic mother and a father who tried his best to keep her and her brother safe from the turbulence she caused them. She was also bullied at school. But when she was a young teenager, Ruth’s life is turned upside down and she finds herself in danger, pregnant and alone. She decides to run away. And she makes a promise. She will always protect her daughter Catherine from the horror she witnessed.

But now with Catherine ready to move on to a new job and a new apartment, Ruth becomes terrified of what might lay ahead for them both. Then, Catherine discovers Ruth is in the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s. Now, Catherine feels as if she must put her own plans aside and take care of the mother who has sacrificed so much for her over the years.

Ruth begins to create a journal of her memories for Catherine so she can understand what happened to her and why she must always be careful. But Catherine begins to suspect something is going on. Knowing her mother will begin to forget, Catherine tries to get her to talk about her past, but Ruth does not seem to give her any answers to where she came from and who her family is. When Catherine tries to do a bit of investigating online, she cannot find anything about her mother’s life. What could she be hiding? And why?

Ruth can see what’s happening. Catherine is looking at her differently. How does she handle this? She must protect her daughter. Then out of the blue, Ruth’s world which she has so carefully built comes crashing down! And now Catherine is in danger!

Secrets it seems are always exposed no matter how hard you try to distance yourself from them. Now Ruth must not only put a plan into action she has been preparing for years, but she must tell Catherine what she has been hiding her whole life. And now they must try and work as a team to protect each other.

Gone Tonight is a chilling story of bullying, domestic violence and abuse, fear and so much more. With a twisty ending, this story will haunt you for awhile!

Thank you #NetGalley #St.Martin’sPress #SarahPekkanen #GoneTonight for the advanced copy.

Catherine Sterling has always seen her mom, Ruth, as a quiet, hardworking woman who at times has felt a bit over-protective of Catherine but they have been able to form a close bond with just the two of them. Just as Catherine is about to spread her wings, Ruth is diagnosed with early onset, quickly progressing Alzheimer's disease. But, as Catherine adds up all the times that Ruth has uprooted her life just when she was forming her own bonds with others, she begins to question Ruth's diagnosis and true intentions! Is Ruth really sick? Does she have an unhealthy attachment to her daughter? What is Ruth afraid of?

Gone Tonight keeps the suspense up and is full of surprises! Where it falls short is in it's unreliability, the author spends whole paragraphs trying to convince the reader of how the plot can work when in reality, it can't.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Gone Tonight is a dark domestic thriller by bestselling author Sarah Pekkanen. The book started a little slow for me, but once I hit the midpoint, I couldn't put it down. The story is not very twisty but still intense (especially the ending). Some aspects reminded me of my favorite thriller, Jar of Hearts. Overall, I enjoyed Gone Tonight and would recommend it to thriller and mystery readers.

Another excellent book from Sarah Pekkanen. This story is told in alternating chapters between a mother and daughter. As the novel progresses, layers are peeled away and you discover many truths the pair are hiding from each other. There is also a throwback timeline, to give you a view of the mother's backstory and helps explain her current situation.
I love a story with twists and turns and this book definitely had them. I felt like a few of the twists were pretty easy to predict, but there were some others that definitely surprised me.
Overall a great book for summer reading that you won't put down. 4/5 stars
Thank you Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Many thanks to my friends at @stmartinspress and @macmillan.audio for the #gifted copies of this book.

Compulsive. Addictive. Bingeable. This book came in the mail on Saturday, and I closed the last page on by Sunday!

Deception abounds in this unique storyline, and Pekkanen adeptly plots each reveal creating a propulsive read.

A mother and daughter against the world, until secrets start to crack that once firm foundation, begging the question: just how well do you know those you love?

Many thrillers beg that question. And yet, Pekkanen manages to do it in a fresh and innovative new way, creating a unique balancing act between love and deception that thrills.

This was a perfect summer read for me- fast paced, cleverly executed, and fully entertaining. I can’t wait to see what Pekkanen does next!

Sarah Pekkanen will wow you with her newest book! Hold on for the big twist in the plot! It will take you by surprise, and have you turning the pages. The author has a writing style in all of her books of doing this and is fast becoming one of the authors that I really look forward to reading her books because I know I’m in for a real treat! Run and grab a copy of this book.. it’s a not to be missed book!

i devoured this book! so happy to be reading more from Sarah Pekkanen again—the co-author of THE WIFE BETWEEN US and AN ANONYMOUS GIRLS.

this was really captivating and i loved the dual POVs. the moms was my favorite. there were so many good themes in this one about family and survival and womanhood. it is not a “thriller” though—definitely more of a suspense with lots of family drama.

it starts off super interesting and kept my attention the entire time, i was very invested to figure out how it would end and how each timeline would overlap in the present and finished it in two sittings.

despite the 4 stars, this is one of the better thrillers i’ve read this summer. it brought me out of a book rut which was a god send lol!

there were a few things that i would change to make it a 5 star. one is a big thing but would be a spoiler so i’ll omit that from my review. the others were minimal. i did want the ending to be a biiiit more open ended bc i personally don’t love when thrillers wrap up really nicely but there was a slightly sinister allusion at the end which i enjoyed.

all in all—i definitely enjoyed this and reco to others! excited to see what else Pekkanen whips up on her own :)

thanks to St Martins Press for the gifted copy ❤️

I enjoyed this fast-paced thriller! I found it really fun to see alternating perspectives between mother and daughter. It was rather unique to read, because as the mother reveals the crazy secrets she has kept for so long, her daughter begins to figure some of them out on her own, and then questions every detail of her life. I found myself unsure how I would feel if I were in her shoes. I truly had no idea how this book would end, and liked the unsettling feeling it left me with. Great thriller!

This was a fun audiobook!
I have read a few Pekkanen books that she cowrote with Greer Hendricks, and loved them. This is my first solo Pekkanen book.
The book has two different POVs, and two timelines. This was not hard to follow whatsoever, and reminded me a little of What Lies Between Us, one of my all time favourite thrillers, from John Marrs.
If executed well, this format is so gripping, as the past and present clues start to fall into place.
I think two different narrators would have helped some readers though.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an e-arc of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

To her daughter Catherine, Ruth seems like a quiet woman with a small life. She's anything but. The scant details of her history? It's easier not to slip up if you don't share anything. The lack of a social life? Part of her deception. Her wariness about Catherine's social media? The internet is just another place her daughter might unwittingly reveal something about her mother's identity.

But Catherine is starting to catch on that things aren't quite as they seem, and she pulls us along for what begins as a slow burn mystery and turns into a wild ride.

This book was just okay for me. It started off REALLY well. I was drawn in right away. I was so excited for the book! The plot line was really great, the idea itself was fresh. Where the story lost me is that it was kind of drawn out. There is so much that could be cut out and you’d still have the main plot line. It drives me nuts when there is so much useless filler in a book.

The story is told in dual POVs – Ruth, the mother, and Catherine, the daughter. I like that Ruth was writing in a journal and that is how we learn about her past.

Another issue that I had is that I didn’t really feel any thrills or suspense. I wasn’t gripped or on the edge of my seat. I really think with some additional editing this book could have been 4+ Stars.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an e-ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Told between the point of view of mother, Ruth, and Catherine, daughter, this novel has all the twists and turns that you would love in a book. There were a couple that I didn't even see coming!

Highly recommend for anyone that loves a good thriller with twists.

Ominous, tense, and clever!

Gone Tonight is a sharp, compulsive, psychological thriller that delves into all the deep, dark secrets people keep even from those closest to them and highlights just how easily people can be emotionally manipulated, controlled, and exploited by those they love.

The writing is crisp and edgy. The characters are distressed, unreliable, and vulnerable. And the plot, told by alternating perspectives, unfolds subtly into a murky tale full of twists, turns, surprises, familial drama, lies, secrets, manipulation, love, dysfunction, wickedness, deception, mental illness, and murder.

Overall, Gone Tonight is a crafty, sinister, engaging tale by Pekkanen that kept me engaged from start to finish and was a fantastic reminder of all the complex bonds and emotional ties that bind mothers and daughters.

This was an immediate "need to read" - and it did not disappoint! I was intrigued from the first chapter, and the storyline definitely took turns I didn't see coming. I loved the cat-and-mouse game throughout and the mother/daughter dynamic. Also, THAT ENDING?! I didn't see it coming - very well done by the author. Also, the audiobook is narrated by Kate Mara, which made this book even more incredible! Overall - give this one a try!! Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the gifted copy.

I read mostly thrillers and mysteries, and Gone Tonight is the only one in recent times to leave me with a vague unease and eeriness.at the completion of the book. I literally had trouble sleeping when I finished it, and not because of blood and gore, but for the hanging questions at the end of the book and the mood it created. I consider that to be good writing!.

Author Sarh Pekkanen uses the now common device of telling a story from two points of view, but rarely have I seen it carried out so skillfully and smoothly. It's like being on a train that moves you forward in the story, yet each chapter unsettles some of what you thought you learned in the last chapter. Rarely is the unreliable narrator handled so well. I can't stand books with truly unreliable narrators, ones that you can't trust anything they say. That is not what is happening here. We have the viewpoint of Catherine and her mother Ruth. They love each other very much, maybe obsessively. But they each have concerns about the other, and as we slowly unwind past history, we begin to understand why that is. They are not necessarily unreliable in that they are lying, it is just that they are showing their different points of view, and we have to figure out who we most agree with.

Although there is not much real danger to the characters until the end of the book, the author still manages to create a sense of foreboding. I raced through this book in a couple of days because I found the characters so compelling and wanted to see what happened.

Thank you to author Sarah Pekkanen, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for allowing me to read an ARC of Gone Tonight in exchange for an honest opinion.

This one had so much potential and ultimately just petered out. I was so excited to be reading a thriller book where I wasn't predicting every little thing until everything just got so easy to guess and boring. There could have been some excellent twisty endings here but no. No more of this author for me.

This is a suspense thriller about a mother and daughter, told in each of their voices. I'm a little tired of the dual timeline in thrillers, but this was executed well. There's secrets, lies, a bit of a twist, and it's all quite entertaining.

The latest book by Sarah Pekkanen does not disappoint if your looking for a good thriller/mystery. The story introduces us to a mother/daughter team, and we quickly learn that certain instances that we thought to be true in the book are not. The story is told in alternating timelines, and the story of the mother, Ruth, to me, was by far the more interesting story. Regardless, the story moves quickly and comes to a satisfying conclusion. I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a good thriller read. Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for an advanced copy.