The Night it Ended
Katie Garner
June 27, 2023

Dr. Madeline Pine is called to help with a recent death at private school for girls in upstate New York. The victim’s mother requested more information regarding her daughter Charley’s murder. True the detective who came to the school to investigate was torn between a verdict of suicide or homicide. He chose to hire Parks if she was available to interview all the girls and staff at the secluded school. Parks is the best criminal psychiatrist available. He knew she could add to the investigation.
With her daughter and husband out of town for the holidays, she felt it would be a good time to spend the few days needed on the job. Upon her arrival she found the school to be almost inaccessible. Only a few girls and staff were there as it was a holiday vacation.
The Night it Ended will be published by MIra of Harlequin Digital Sales on June 27, 2023. I appreciate them allowing me to read and review Katie Garner’s latest novel via NetGalley. Once I got involved I did my best trying to figure out the solution to the suspense and who in was the perpetrator. Not an easy task. Definitely an excellent plot and very well written. This is a great mystery for the summer of 23 - do enjoy!

Wow. This thriller was exactly what I was looking for. Atmospheric and creepy. I always love A closed door mystery and this did not disappoint.

Dr Madeline pine is called by a PI To investigate a suspicious murder/death of a girl at an all girls school. Did this young girl walk to her death in the woods or was there something more sinister at play?

While she is looking into the death you will be taken on a creepy ride. Who is messing with dr pine? Someone keeps moving or stealing her things.

You won't be able to put down this Novel as you rip through the pages to see what is going on?

Pick this thriller up today. It is worth it!
I can't wait for her next novel.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for this novel.

I ended up DNF’ing at 41% and the reason why is based on two things. I found the pacing to be incredibly slow and had to force myself to get as far as I did. I also felt like the transcripts about the wife who cheated on her husband to be incredibly out of place and not making sense of how it fit with the story.

If the reason behind the transcripts were a bit more clear, and the writing more intentional or faster paced I would have been able to stick with it, but unfortunately this is absolutely not a book I can finish.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of this story is interesting: a criminal psychologist with trauma from her last case gets entwined in a murder investigation at a secluded girls' boarding school. Madeline's chapters are interspersed with transcription from an interrogation/interview that took place the year before with the identifying information redacted. As the stories unfold beside each other, the reader begins to see how they may be intertwined.

This book needed some heavy editing. Madeline's chapters were long with unhinged ramblings. I found myself skipping most of the words on those pages. The interview chapters were more interesting and straight to the point - they left me curious and wanting to know more! I found one of the twists to be very predictable, but I'll admit that was surprised by the last one. Great ideas but poor execution that left me bored and rolling my eyes throughout.

The Night it Ended is a Mystery/Thriller with a moody, tense atmosphere and a gothic vibe. A private detective, Matthew Reyes, asks Dr. Madeline Pine to help him look into the suspicious death of a student at an exclusive school for troubled girls. Madeline agrees, even though she is clearly dealing with a trauma in her own life. Most of the students are away for Christmas break, but Madeline questions the few girls and staff members that remain on campus to find out what really happened to Charley. It's clear everyone is keeping secrets and time is running out for Madeline to learn the truth - the head mistress wants her and Matt out of the school and there is a huge snowstorm on its way.

Mixed in with this narrative is a transcript from an interview with all the names redacted about an important event in the anonymous person's life. Who is the character in the transcripts and how does that tie in with the main plot about Charley's death? I kept changing my mind about this as the story progressed. I also changed my mind about who killed Charley because none of the characters at the school were really likable.

As the story progresses, it is very hard to put down. There are a couple things in the story that I was able to figure out from the clues given. However, even though I read a lot of thrillers, I was completely surprised when the final twist was revealed. I didn't see this clever ending coming and it changed what would have been a good book into a great one. I highly recommend this book and would rate it 4.5 stars.

I received an advance copy of this ebook at no cost from NetGalley and Mira Books, but my review is voluntary and unbiased.

This was a really interesting thriller/suspense novel, that I would definitely recommend to those who think the plot sounds good!

I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

"It doesn't remind me of any school I've ever seen.
It reminds me of a prison."

DNF at 13%. It felt like the author just finished watching Wednesday and decided to write a murder mystery based on the Addams Family reboot. Super formulaic and cringey.

This book was a slow burn for me. I generally enjoy an unreliable narrator but could not connect with the main character or the storyline… although by the end I understood why! The ending was excellent and had me gasping. Overall, a quick and mysterious read, full of thrills!

This book was a really great, creepy thriller, that left me stunned long after I had closed the book. It really has everything needed for the classic creepy story: a mysterious, Gothic boarding school for troubled students; a tough, unhelpful headmistress; disappearing students; and a narrator who can't tell if she's going insane or not. Oh and did I mention there's a massive snowstorm raging outside?!

So yeah, the scene is set for an absolutely banger of a story, and Garner really delivers, with a really great narrator who adds to the confusion and creep factor of the story as she tries to solve this mystery, but her mental state won't really let her sort things out cleanly. You can really feel the tension as she tries her best to navigate through the mystery of Charley's death at an isolated boarding school in upstate New York.

And when all is said and done, the final solution to the mystery is really exciting and surprising. And then there's even more twists and turns that are jaw-droppers. I really enjoyed it! All the hints and and breadcrumbs that had been dropped along the way all came together and BAM! there is was. Perfect.

If you're into creepy thrillers with good mysteries, definitely put this one into your TBR pile. It's well worth the read!

WHAT A DEBUT NOVEL!

***Readers who are struggling with this book: I advise you to please keep reading until the very end***

First and foremost, a huge thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

SPOILERS BEWARE:

From the get- go of reading this book, something felt OFF and I couldn't put my finger on what it was exactly. Was it the characters? The setting? Or was it the writing? The entire book I was .02 seconds away from parting ways with it altogether and was going to give it a 2-star rating and be done with it, but I'm very glad I didn't.

For starters, Dr. Madeline Pine is consistently in a space of self-doubt and self-reliant on medication for her entire stay at the all-girls boarding school. In my honest opinion, I wouldn't have even wanted her as a psychiatrist in the real world - let alone hire her as a criminal psychiatrist. She just could not keep herself together - someone breaks into her room, and she decides to TAKE A BATH instead of, I don't know, getting out of there? I wasn't sure if it was Katie's inability to write a character with this profession, or a character in general - but boy was I wrong, and I am sorry for ever doubting her.

A lot of the premise is tangled between the case that she is hired for, and her own personal shortcomings. Personally, I was more invested in Dr. Pine herself, because SOMETHING was just OFF and I just chalked it up to her grief of an event that we piece together throughout the book.

There were so many people that would have made it an obvious "whodunnit". However, NOTHING prepared me for the ending of who Dr. Madeline Pine really is. After I had finished reading - I went back to the beginning pages of the novel and, sure enough, everything made sense.

This book left the reader wondering if it's just who Dr. Pine is, or if there was something more to her than meets the eye, with just the right amount of suspicion of what's really going on at the all-girls boarding school to keep you reading till the end for everything to FINALLY make sense.

The chilling moment of her telling the detective that she was "going to go see her family" and the connection of what that really meant at the end of the novel - just wow.

A pretty impressive debut novel - I would definitely read something else of hers again.

Okay!!!

So I admittedly don't read many thrillers, but I wanted to branch out and this sounded really intriguing. And for me, it delivered! It's a great page turner with twists and turns and WOW that ending got me.

A weaving mix of narrative and interview transcript, THE NIGHT IT ENDED follows an acclaimed criminal psychiatrist -- a troubled narrator with DUM DUM DUM elusive secrets of her own -- who is called upon to help investigate a mysterious death at a boarding school for troubled girls. What unfolds is a spooky unraveling that has you questioning who and what to believe.

This book was hard to put down and felt pretty satisfying, narrative-wise. I'm excited for what Katie Garner will write next!

A thank you to MIRA and Netgalley for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest, unbiased review. THE NIGHT IT ENDED is out June 27th, 2023!

I DNFed this one halfway through. It isn't a bad book but there is nothing especially compelling about it. Nothing to entice me to want to keep reading it. Just a very average thriller. I did however enjoy the setting at a girls boarding school.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #HarlequinTradePublishing for the read and review of #TheNightItEnded by #KatieGarner. This book was very clever and good. I enjoyed the secrets and the disturbing ending.

It’s very rare that a book can pull off two interesting story lines at one time. This book is about a criminal psychologist heading to a private, remote boarding school to work with a private eye and try to discover if a students death was an accident or a murder. She was called into this case due to her popularity from a previous case. The story line keeps you questioning what is going on now and what was going on in the past. It concludes with such a shocking twist that you could never see coming! The suspense and confusion starts fairly early on in the book and you don’t have all the information until the last few pages. If you want to be gripping at the edge of your seat for an entire book, then this book is definitely for you!

Criminal psychologist Dr. Madeline Pine is called to assist a private investigator with the recent death of a student, Charley, at an all girls boarding school. Detective Matthew Reyes is hoping that Dr. Pine, who recently helped with a case that involved a girl around the same age as Charley, will be able to help him bring closure to Charley’s family.

Some of the chapters were transcripts from an interview between two people whose names, and all other identifying info, have been redacted.

I thought the premise was interesting and love a good storm secluding our characters. I didn’t love the unreliable narrator trope, and found Dr. Pine’s chapters long and harder to get through. There were some good twists, especially the last one. I definitely didn’t see that coming and thought it was clever how the two POVs were related.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the eARC on exchange for my honest review.

Dnf at 20% for one main reason: this book felt like I’d read it 10 times before. The dark, spooky exclusive school in the middle of nowhere? Check. The unreliable, female narrator because she’s on meds and can’t trust her own judgments? Check. A girl from the school found dead and nobody knows who did it, it’s probably one of the students? Check.
This trope has been done many times before, and this one didn’t stand out to me as being different.

Let me begin by saying that campus thrillers are my favorite, so having this story take place at a troubled all-girl’s school was what intrigued me right from the start. And I had to frantically run to Katie Garner’s Goodread’s page as I was reading to confirm this was actually a debut because the writing and twists felt like something you'd see from only the most experienced thriller authors.

Right from the start, this book sucked me in and I ended up binge reading it in one sitting! The unreliable narrator angle was a fun way to add an element of mystery and the small cast of characters acted as a red herring because I kept thinking I knew who the culprit was and then another twist would unfold.

Speaking of the twists, I was so certain I had it all figured out. I even started to get annoyed when I thought I figured it all out *too* early on, confident that the flashback transcripts were confirming all of my thoughts, but wow…I was wrong and pleasantly shocked!

The only parts I struggled with were character growth, which I don’t think this book particularly needs. But it made it hard to root for the protagonist or care about what happened to her.

Overall, this was such a stunning debut and I’ll be highly recommending it to my fellow crime thriller addicts leading up to its release!

Wow, I don’t even know what else to say. Definitely took the words out of my mouth. Thanks for such a great book.

Thank you, Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley, for the advanced copy.

The Night It Ended did not keep me on the edge of my seat. It left me thinking that our main character was inept at her job. While there were supposed to be a couple of twists, I was left thinking that the twists were more plausible than what the author was trying to make the reader think. I felt like the main conundrum of the story, solving the murder of Charley Riddle, took a backseat to our MCs own issues of which there seem to be plenty. This felt like it could have been a very compelling novella but just not enough for a full novel.

Right away, Katie's writing caught my attention as the challenge of unmasking what really happened to Charley and finding out what was going on with Dr. Pine began. This was an impressive read, especially considering it was a debut novel. Although twisty and suspenseful, I found myself quickly skimming through Dr. Pine's solo chapters as it was irritating trying to understand what was actually happening to her vs. what was happening in her mind. Overall, this was a solid read but I was a bit underwhelmed with the ending due to a few odd plot holes.