Middle of the Night by Riley Sager
Published: June 18, 2024
(Thanks to PENGUIN GROUP Dutton & NetGalley, I received an eARC)
Hardcover: 384 pages
Goodreads Rating: 4.5/5
GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:
In the latest jaw-dropping thriller from New York Timesbestselling author Riley Sager, a man must contend with the long-ago disappearance of his childhood best friend—and the dark secrets lurking just beyond the safe confines of his picture-perfect neighborhood.
The worst thing to ever happen on Hemlock Circle occurred in Ethan Marsh’s backyard. One July night, ten-year-old Ethan and his best friend and neighbor, Billy, fell asleep in a tent set up on a manicured lawn in a quiet, quaint New Jersey cul de sac. In the morning, Ethan woke up alone. During the night, someone had sliced the tent open with a knife and taken Billy. He was never seen again.
Thirty years later, Ethan has reluctantly returned to his childhood home. Plagued by bad dreams and insomnia, he begins to notice strange things happening in the middle of the night. Someone seems to be roaming the cul de sac at odd hours, and signs of Billy’s presence keep appearing in Ethan’s backyard. Is someone playing a cruel prank? Or has Billy, long thought to be dead, somehow returned to Hemlock Circle?
The mysterious occurrences prompt Ethan to investigate what really happened that night, a quest that reunites him with former friends and neighbors and leads him into the woods that surround Hemlock Circle. Woods where Billy claimed monsters roamed and where a mysterious institute does clandestine research on a crumbling estate.
The closer Ethan gets to the truth, the more he realizes that no place—be it quiet forest or suburban street—is completely safe. And that the past has a way of haunting the present.
MY THOUGHTS:
Riley Sager is one of my all time favorite authors and I have now read all of his current works. I feel like this book, like all his others brings us an ominous setting with a great plot. Per usual each chapters ends making you want more.
I think this is one of my favorite plot lines since “Lock Every Door”. I love that Ethan had no memory of the night in question, it leads to him being an unreliable narrator, which is one of my favorite tropes. I love the idea of no place is safe, and this book did it so well, you had a “perfect” neighborhood and something tragic happens.
Riley Sager has in my opinion released another excellent book. A great move on his part was throwing in chapters from the years before, it made me think about things a little differently. Every year I look forward to this author’s new releases and have yet to be disappointed.
Boston Book Reader 