1982: Viv Delaney is set on moving to New York City and Fell seems like a decent place to settle temporarily. She gets a job working the front desk at the Sun Down Motel, the midnight shift, and from the very beginning realizes that things aren't quite right there. It's not just the vibe at the hotel, either; women get murdered in Fell. And Viv is going to find out why.2017: Carly Kirk has always wondered about her missing aunt, Viv. And when her own mother dies, Carly decides it's time to figure out what happened all those years ago. So she puts school on hold and travels to Fell, New York, where she gets a job on the same night shift at the same motel where her aunt once worked. The same motel her aunt disappeared from thirty-five years ago.
But Carly soon realizes the mystery of her aunt's disappearance isn't the only mystery haunting Fell or even the Sun Down Motel. Soon she becomes entangled in an investigation that unknowingly mirrors her aunt's own.
I loved this latest from Simone St. James so much! It's creepy and intense and a complete page turner!
In an interview, St. James herself described The Sun Down Motel as "...a little I'll Be Gone in the Dark, a dash of Mindhunter, with some Bates Motel thrown in." Which is the most accurate description I think anyone can come up with for this one!
The book begins in 1982 on "The night it all ended..." with Viv in Fell. And even for the reader, Viv's fate is a mystery. But we do know the body of another girl was found in the town that very day. The next chapter switches to Carly in 2017. She's in Fell looking for the truth about her aunt. From there, the story switches back and forth between the two women, tracing Viv's story up to the happenings of that opening chapter and Carly's story as she hunts down clues about Viv.
The Sun Down Motel is, at its heart, a mystery but it's a super chilling ghost story too! And the atmosphere that St. James builds throughout the book makes it such a wonderfully scary read!
This is such a fantastic book, one I highly, highly recommend!
1 comment:
I chose this as my Book of the Month selection, but haven't had a chance to get into it yet. Can't wait to read it!
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