Sign me up for anything labeled "suspense" that takes place on Halloween. There was a lot to unpack the one but it's well worth the read.

The local detective's daughter goes to a party on Halloween night that goes from a good time to a crime scene. The adults are questioning what the kids are hiding but the adults have their own secrets they're trying to keep hidden.

This was full of great suspense and a decent amount of tension between the characters. I really thought i had this one figured out but boy was i wrong. This was my first book by this author but it won't be my last.

One of the best atmospheric thrillers I've read in a while with a twist that I never saw coming. I gave 4 stars instead of 5 because the pace was a little slower than I prefer. The creepy setting in the woods is one of the best. In the beginning we get bombarded with a bunch of different characters and what they are currently doing, but as the story goes on it makes sense on who is who. It was a little confusing at the start. Overall a great thriller with a little bit slower build up to an explosive ending.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Out August 19th 2025
On Halloween night, a group of teens gathers in the haunted woods near “Sally in the Wood,” a road steeped in local ghost stories. (swoon). By morning, one of them is dead—her body eerily posed at the base of an old stone folly, dressed in white like the ghost from the legend.

The murder sends shockwaves through the tight-knit village of Thorncombe. Detective Ben Chase is assigned to the case—until it’s revealed that his daughter, Ellie, was at the party. His ex-wife Rachel, a school counselor, is also drawn into the investigation as secrets begin to surface.

Told from multiple perspectives, this book explores how folklore, privilege, and buried trauma can twist into something deadly. It's set on Halloween Night, perfect read to cap off the night!!

Thank you NetGalley and Atria books for this spooky good ARC!

Synopsis:
On Halloween, a group of teenage students meet in the woods near Sally in the Wood, a road steeped in local lore and rumored to be haunted by the ghost of a murdered girl. By the end of the night, one student will be dead.

Thoughts:
This was everything I wanted in a psychological thriller! I was actually surprised by the ending which doesn’t happen often. Highly recommend if you’re looking for a good thriller!

Let me just say, this was my first read of Hannah Richell.. and WOW, I was not disappointed!!! What a page turner, filled with so many twists!!! I was absolutely hooked from the very beginning.. if you are like me and love suspense and mystery all wrapped into one book, then you must add this one to your TBR!!!

Thank you to #AtriaBooks and NetGalley for the advanced copy in return for my honest review!

One Dark Night was an emotionally layered novel that unravels the events of a single, life-altering evening. Richell changed almost seamlessly between POV and timelines (the time stamps helped a lot) and took her time revealing secrets little by little,

I definitely stayed engaged throughout this book, just have a lot of run on sentences that need to be addressed.

Thanks so much for the opportunity to read and review this early. I truly enjoyed it!! An author who will be staying on my radar for sure.

3.5 stars - One Dark Night was a well thought out and thorough murder mystery. Something about a private school murder makes me want to immediately read. The author did a great job, although there were so many runon sentence that drove me crazy! There are three point of views, but the date and time at the beginning of each chapter made the different POVs easy to follow.

Overall, I enjoyed this although I think there were others in the genre that may have done it a little better. I didn't expect the twists at the end, but I was still a little underwhelmed.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me with an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Sally in the Wood has been a ghost story told for generations and can still be spotted haunting them. On Halloween night the students at a private school meet in the woods to drink and have fun. The next morning one of the students is found dead. Now Ben, one of the detectives working the case and the father of Ellie one of the students is trying to find the answers on why this girl was pushed out of the tower. Rachel is the guidance counselor for the school and also Ellie's mom, while she is sitting in with the students while they are being questioned by the police wonders what her daughter Ellie is not telling her. This book is told from different view points and had me on the edge of my seat until the very last page. Just when you think you have everything figured out the plot takes a turn again. I would like to thank both NetGalley and Atria Books for letting me read an advanced copy of this novel.

In the small village of Thorncombe, a student at a prestigious local school is discovered dead after a teenage Halloween party in the woods. Local legend claims that the ghost of a young woman murdered on her wedding day haunts the area. Amidst this mystery, Rachel, the school counselor, grapples with her own personal struggles. Her daughter, Ellie, a student at the school, is harboring secrets, and her ex-husband, Ben, is the local detective investigating the case. There is no shortage of suspects.

This five-star thriller is a compelling read. The masterful plot keeps readers guessing until the very end. It’s suspenseful and atmospheric, with elements of spookiness, dark academia, and Gothic flavor. The characters are believable and well-developed.

Give me a murder mystery set in England, and I am in! This was a page turner, and I read it quickly. The story is dark & eerie, not-too-fast paced, and the characters were complex and unique. The twist at the end also got me, but I was fine that I didn't guess correctly. A great read, will definitely look for more Hanah Richell books.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for this e-ARC. This is my honest reveiw.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

Hannah Richell’s One Dark Night is a masterclass in atmospheric suspense, where the ghosts of the past—both literal and emotional—haunt every page. Set in the small British town of Thorncombe, the novel opens with a chilling Halloween gathering in the woods near “Sally in the Wood,” a place steeped in eerie folklore. By dawn, a teenage girl is dead, her body arranged with unsettling precision. What follows is not just a murder investigation, but a slow unraveling of a community’s secrets, fears, and fractured relationships.

Told through the interwoven perspectives of Rachel, a school guidance counselor; her ex-husband Ben, the detective assigned to the case; and their teenage daughter Ellie, the story pulses with emotional tension. Richell excels at portraying the quiet desperation of parenting a teenager who’s slipping through your fingers, and the ache of trying to protect someone who won’t let you in. Ellie’s secrets—about bullying, belonging, and that fateful night—are the novel’s most potent undercurrent.

Richell builds dread through character and place. The legend of “Sally in the Wood” adds a spectral layer, but it’s the very human failings—guilt, grief, and the corrosive power of silence—that give the novel its weight. The pacing is deliberate, even meditative at times, but the payoff is worth it: a resolution that is surprising and emotionally resonant.

This is a story about how trauma echoes through generations, how privilege can obscure truth, and how one dark night can cast a long, unforgiving shadow.

One Dark Night is a tense, emotionally layered novel that unravels the events of a single, life-altering evening. Richell skillfully shifts between perspectives and timelines, revealing secrets piece by piece, and keeping the reader on edge until the very end of the book.

Really enjoyed this thriller! I did guess the killer/situation very early on but it was a fun ride watching the characters figure it out. Read it in two days! Will recommend to my book club.

This was my first Hannah Richell and I loved it! It is a suspenseful page-turner that kept me guessing until the very end. It mixes the legend of Sally in the Wood with the death of a real girl from the nearby school. Parents and students in crises mix with incompetent police, environmental issue and so many red herrings; it keeps your interest on every page.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for this DRC.
#OndDarkNight #NetGalley

When I read the description of this book, I thought the plot would have more to do with the ghost that haunts the road known as Sally in the Wood, so I expected something spookier. What I got is more of a combination of domestic drama and whodunnit.

A party in the woods ends in death for one teen in a murder mystery told from multiple points of view.

Ellie has been withdrawn ever since her parents split up, but after that party, she is keeping even more secrets. What really happened that night, and why is there blood on her clothes? Her father Ben, is a detective investigating the murder, and her mother Rachel, is the school guidance counselor who in trying to deal with so many students, is missing some signs from her troubled daughter.

A lack of communication between Rachel and her ex-husband Ben felt contrived rather than natural, in order to keep those characters in the dark for longer than necessary, before they finally learn what the reader already knows from the start, that their daughter Ellie was at the party on the night of the murder.

While I was not the target audience for this book, and I did not care much for any of the characters, it did succeed in pulling the wool over my eyes in every attempt to guess who the murderer was, which led to a satisfying reveal at the end.

My thanks to Atria Books for the invitation to read an e-ARC

One Dark Night intrigued me from the start. A thriller set in the woods, a spooky urban legend, and a mysterious murder makes for an exceptional backdrop for this twisty (and dare I say cozy?) story. The main characters are solid, the suspects are creepy and numerous, and the twists are surprising, but believable. I really enjoyed this and will definitely be picking up more of her books!

First off, I want to thank SS Atria Books for the ARC of this book. It is a thriller with so many possible suspects, each with a dark and twisted motive. The book begins with an urban legend - who doesn't love a murder mystery haunted by a ghost from the past?! It is exciting to see the townspeople both joke about the legend while also having a general fear of its basis. The classmates of the victim may be young, but what teenager doesn't have an explosive side buried away with all of their other secrets?! The book is exciting, scary, and also heartfelt as you see Rachel and Ellie struggling to maintain footing considering their situations. The multiple points of view round out the story while also adding to the suspect pool. This is not a simple murder, and the investigation will crack the foundation of this little town! We take many dark turns before all the secrets are brought to light. This is a thrilling nail-biter of a mystery!

One Dark Night had me gripped from the start, with the discovery of a gruesome crime on Halloween in a forest that is the subject of urban legend. 🎃

The story is told from a few different perspectives, weaving them in perfectly to keep the anticipation building and peeling back the layers with each chapter. While the crime investigation is underway, there are also sub-plots between the characters and their relationships unfolding and I found myself equally invested in both— a rare thing for me when it comes to the thriller genre! Highly recommend if you’re looking for a captivating thriller, with detective procedural elements and real human stories at the heart of it all. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you so much to the author, Simon and Schuster Canada and NetGalley for both the physical and e-arc of this book.

WOW.

"One Dark Night" exceeded all my expectations. My review will be brief because I think everyone should read this one. It was so well-written, the entire book made me tense. I kept turning pages to see what was coming next and it did not disappoint! The book was atmospheric and dark. AND THE ENDING? I was shocked. Still shocked.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you, Atria Books, for providing a copy of One Dark Night by Hannah Richell. I wasn’t expecting to be blown away by this book, but I was from the start. I love stories set in schools, and this was written exceptionally so I was drawn into the story immediately. I loved how the ghost story permeated the story and added a spooky element to it. I was humbled by thinking I knew who the perpetrator was early only to find out I was wrong! If you’re looking for a creepy story that will keep you reading, this is the book for you! The characters were so vivid I want to know what happens to them next. 5 stars