Middle of the Night by Riley Sager
Thank you to Netgalley and Hodder Books for the advance reader copy of Middle of the Night for an honest review.
In July 1994 ten year old Ethan and his best friend Billy went to sleep in a tent in Ethan's back yard on their weekly camp out.
The next morning there is only one of them left in the tent, Ethan wakes up alone in the tent and there is a large knife slash in the side. Billy is missing and would never be seen again.
Thirty years later and Ethan has moved back home to his parents house, still facing trauma and insomnia from the unanswered questions from the past of what happened to Billy.
Overtime he starts to notice strange occurrences happening along the street. Security lights coming on consecutively late at night, baseball being thrown into his yard etc.
Is the person who took Billy still out there?
Overall I enjoyed the story for what it was it was a slow build thriller/mystery and suspense was built throughout the story with the plot lines going back and forwards in time.
This was easy to follow and the cliff hangers left you wanting more information.
However while I enjoy a slow burn usually the book did have a slower pace than I would have liked in revealing aspects of the story and what happened.
While I enjoyed the story and the ending there was one plot hole for me. When it is revealed Billy was hit by a car on the road it was indicated there were no traces mentioned of an accident at all. We are told the police had tracked Billy to that road with scent dogs and that they speculated he had been taken in a car. However any accident or potentially injuries I can't recall were mentioned.
I struggled to suspend my belief for this which means my review had to be 3 stars. This would have been higher had there been any explanation for this or confirmation evidence had been found.
Other than that I had really enjoyed the story, the main character was likeable and I found myself rooting for him to uncover the mystery that had plagued him for so long.
Also in usual Sager fashion we had multiple twists and turns throughout the plot which were well done and enjoyable.
Overall worth a read despite that one aspect that I felt was abit of a plot hole left unexplained.
