Would you like to read a suspenseful thriller set in the world of a boarding school? How about one with a protagonist whose life looks pretty perfect, but is it? She is a criminal psychiatrist. What will happen when she investigates a death at this school? It won’t be easy as there is some lack in cooperation. It is made even trickier because the school is one for troubled students.

Turn the pages. Wait to see what happens. Enjoy the characters, the setting and the clues.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this title. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley, Katie Garner and Harlequin Trade Publishing - MIRA for a digital ARC of The Night it Ended in exchange for an honest review. This review is wholly my own (except for any quotations) and may not be reproduced.

“From the outside, criminal psychiatrist Dr. Madeline Pine’s life appears picture-perfect—she has a beautiful family, a successful mental health practice and a growing reputation as an expert in female violence. But when she's called to help investigate a mysterious death at a boarding school for troubled girls, Madeline hesitates. She’s been through tragic cases before, and the one she was entangled in last year nearly destroyed her…

Yet she can’t turn away when she hears about Charley Ridley. After the girl was found shoeless and in pajamas at the bottom of an icy ravine on campus, the police ruled it a tragic accident. But the private investigator hired by her mother has his doubts. If it were Madeline’s daughter who died, she’d want to know why.

Arriving at the secluded campus in upstate New York, Madeline’s met by an unhelpful skeleton staff and the four other students still on campus during winter break. Each seems to hold a piece of the puzzle. And everyone has secrets—Madeline included. But who would kill to protect them?”

I love books with school settings, so that was a definite plus. It was very atmospheric and definitely creepy.

This story is told in alternating timelines between the boarding school and one year later.

I didn’t hate it, but I wasn’t super crazy about it. This was just an “ok” book for me. I didn’t care for the intertwinement of basically two different stories that could have stood on their own without meshing them together. I was very excited for mystery about a dead girl at a super creepy boarding school, but that was overshadowed by Dr. Pine’s story and all of her “issues.” It just feel short of what I was hoping for and I didn’t really connect with any of the characters.

This is a 2.5 star for me (rounded to 3)

Deciding between 4-5 stars. This book was fantastic! The setting was creepy, the characters were believable, the storyline was intriguing and mysterious. I really loved it. I couldn’t predict anything in this book. I had no theories and couldn’t have imagined a better ending. Really good. The twist!!! Ahhh

I am so thankful to Harlequin Trade Publishing/MIRA, Netgalley, and Katie Garner for granting me advanced digital access to this jarring thriller. I couldn't put it down and can't wait to consume more of this like-minded content going forward.

The premise of this book definitely hit a lot of my hot buttons - isolated setting + boarding school + a mysterious death that was ruled and accident and appears to be anything but + police investigation + an outsider brought in to try to help solve the crime.

Dr. Madeline Pine is a criminal psychiatrist, with an expertise in female violence. Following the mysterious death of boarding school student Charlotte Ridley, which is ruled accidental (never mind that she was barefoot and in her pajamas in the snow in the middle of the night...). Charley's parents are looking for answers which is why Detective Matt Reyes turns to Madeline.

She heads to upstate NY to interview the handful of girls who are at school over the Christmas break and very quickly learns that the school is closing ranks and the students are hesitant to speak.

All of this makes for a novel I could really get into, but ultimately the story missed the mark a bit for me. I'm all for an unreliable narrator, but I can struggle when their unreliability hinges on their use of prescribed medication. And while I found the reveal to make for an interesting turn to the story I almost wished it was revealed sooner so that we could experience things *knowing* the reveal. That said, it didn't take away from the story as a whole.

If you're looking for a solid, slow burn mystery with a wonderfully creepy atmosphere this book might be right up your alley. Give me some suspect characters in an isolated setting any day of the week and I am there!

The setting of this book is just perfection in this dark, gothic, mysterious type setting.. A boarding school on a mountain surrounded by 300 acres of woods. The story is told from one persons point of view but alternates in timeline from present day at the boarding school and a year ago with a police interview. Something just seems a miss in whatever is happening in the beginning. Slowly the story builds and you start to peel away pieces and see the twists. Loved the moody setting. So many troubled characters. It was a great suspenseful read that kept you going the more you got into the story. Many thanks to Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

**A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**

This shining psychological thriller debut from Katie Garner really impressed me and put her on my radar for future reads. As a big thriller buff, I love all different types, but the psychological ones that mess with your head as you read are my absolute favorite. I knew I had to check The Night It Ended out immediately. Garner did not disappoint.


This story follows Dr. Madeline Pine as she takes a case in the midst of her own psychological issues and ends up at a boarding school in upstate New York where all but fourth young girls remain with the fifth dead. I have a little niche for boarding school stories. Nothing ever good comes out of a boarding school in a thriller novel. Nothing. The creepy setting at this very remote, middle of winter boarding school with some of the weirdest staff ever for a school in general set the scene. I was suspicious of EVERYONE! Garner had me second guessing every single guess I made and had every character suspicious in one way or another.

The writing Garner gives us in this novel messes with your head. I felt I was going a little crazy at times just keeping up with Dr. Pine, her medications, and the plot of who killed Charley. Garner sure knew how to mess with my head! Normally I like to point out who I could relate to in this book, because I feel that really connects a reader to a story, but I could not relate to anyone. This isn’t to say it brought the book down because I definitely felt like an outsider in the story and that is exactly how I believe Garner wanted us to feel and relate in a way to Dr. Pine.

My only complaint is that I felt the story dragged on longer than needed to and Dr. Pine’s realization that she was in trouble came a little too unrealistically late for me to be fully believable. However, the literal jaw-dropping ending to this story had me so shocked and definitely made up for that. I think I said “no way” at least ten times reading the ending of this book. You will NOT see it coming! I guarantee it!


While this does take place at a boarding school with teens, this thriller is for everyone! Its dark, creepy, and will drive you a little crazy in your quest to find out who did what. Absolute must read and I cannot wait until Garner writes another!

I enjoyed this dark academia mystery/thriller. The story was very atmospheric; very dark and disturbing. Overall, I felt the story dragged a little bit but I would still recommend to those who like dark academia vibes.

**3.5-stars**

When a private investigator reaches out to Dr. Madeline Pine, a criminal psychologist specializing in female violence, to ask for her help with a case, she is hesitant to assist. The case involves traveling to a remote private school, for girls with behavioral challenges, to investigate a recent death of one of the students. Madeline doesn't know if she is capable of handling this right now. That difficult case last year almost ruined her.

When she hears about the dead girl though, found barefoot and in her pajamas at the bottom of an icy ravine, she can't resist. The deceased, Charley's, Mom is the one who hired the P.I. after the police ruled the death an accident. Madeline has her own daughter, Izzy, about the same age. She can't imagine being in Charley's Mom's position. She would do anything to find out what happened to her own daughter, thus she feels like she has to help.

Madeline travels to the school with the P.I., Matt, and begins interviewing the other girls on campus over the winter holiday. They're few, but have a lot to say.

This story jumps between the current timeline, with Madeline at the school trying to figure out what happened to Charley, and audio transcripts of interviews from a case the prior year. You don't know who the interview participants are, but it's clear a crime has occurred and the interviewee is involved in some way.

I enjoyed this. I thought this was a solid suspense novel. I enjoyed the setting of the private school and the fact that it was winter break made it extra eerie, as there were very few people left on campus. The remote location was great and there was even inclement weather to add to that effect. I liked how cold and dark it felt. Additionally, I liked how mysterious our main character, Madeline, was. She was there to help solve a mystery, but she had her own mysteries as the Reader, I was trying to figure out.

I didn't find Charley's story super compelling, but nevertheless, it was still well done. I was more interested in the students that were still left and just getting to know them, as well as finding out their intricacies and secrets.

One of the downfalls of this for me was the narrative style. We had quite a bit of blocky-feeling, stream of consciousness narrative from Madeline and I'm never crazy about that. Particularly towards the end, Madeline has some things going on with her where she is starting to lose her grip on reality. In those moments, it just felt too jarring to me, the way it was written. I am not a fan of SOC-narrative style in general though, so take that with a grain of salt.

Additionally, in the moments when Madeline was getting confused, I was getting confused and not in a good, suspenseful way. I feel like those moments could have been dialed in a little more to provide more clarity to the Reader.

Overall though, I did enjoy this. I liked the atmosphere and learning about the characters. I think the ending was satisfying and there was definitely a twist that I did not see coming. That made me happy!

Thank you so much to the publisher, MIRA, for providing me with a copy to read and review. This was fun and I would definitely be interested in picking up more from Katie Garner!

Even though it's been a couple of weeks since I read this book, it's still a weird read which makes the review harder to type. The book started as a thriller where we meet the good doctor Madeline Pine. She is a well-known psychiatrist. We get the impression that she is having some family issues and her husband and daughter have gone away for Christmas. Again, we have a feeling it is about drugs - but we don't know. Madeline gets a phone call from a Private Investigator Matt. A young girl has been found dead on the campus of a boarding school. This isn't an ordinary boarding school and we learn some of the girls have challenges. As it's Christmas break, a few are still on campus and Madeline has been tasked to interview them to find out what happened to Charley and how she ended up dead in the snow wearing hardly any clothes and no shoes. Was she murdered or was it an accident? We know someone at the school is hiding something and the overall book is about how far will people go to protect the ones they love, sometimes even kill - especially when the things they want most in the world hang in the balance of being ripped away from them forever. This book also had a very surprising twist that makes you then want to go back and see if you missed any clues and also try to connect the dots to what you have just read as when I read the last chapter it was like OMG!!!!! How ....... If you are on the lookout for a good dark academia thriller, then The Night It Ended by Katie Garner is the read for you.

This book took a direction I did not expect! The Night it Ended has a gothic feel and an unsettling tone as a psychiatrist travels to a secluded girls’ boarding school over the holiday break to help find out more about a mysterious student death.

Structure and Setting

Set in a secluded boarding school for troubled teenage girls, the events in the book take place over winter holidays when the grounds in upstate New York are covered in snow and darkness falls early. The school is mostly empty following fall term, with only a few students and staff on the premises.

The story is narrated by psychiatrist Dr. Madeline Pine. Interspersed between chapters in the current timeline are recorded interviews with an unnamed woman. Names are redacted, but the woman is telling the story of a disturbing series of events that lead to a horrific night. We aren’t sure exactly who this woman is or what happened until much later in the book, though readers will have plenty of theories.

Plot Overview

Psychiatrist Dr. Madeline Pine is called to help investigate the death of a student at a boarding school for troubled girls in upstate New York. Despite her trepidation, Madeline agrees to go in part because she thinks of her own teenage daughter and wants to help the girl’s mother find closure.

Charlotte “Charley” Ridley was a student at Shadow Hunt Hall when she is found dead at the bottom of an icy ravine. Charley’s mother doesn’t believe it was an accident, though. She thinks that this was a murder and she wants to understand who did it and why. She contracts PI Matthew Reyes to investigate who requests the consultation from Madeline based on her book specializing in female violence and because a recent case of hers involved a victim around the same age as Charley.

When Madeline arrives at the school, she finds very few students and a skeleton crew working at the secluded campus over holiday break. Madeline interviews the four students who are present over break and as she works to gain their trust, Madeline seems to be suffering with anxiety of her own.

Meanwhile, interview transcripts with names and identifying information redacted are interspersed between the evolving mystery. The interview is from a year ago, and details a woman sharing the story of her affair and the consequences of it on her family to a neutral interviewer.

Overall Thoughts

I loved the setting for the book so initially I was really interested. Then through about the first half I struggled to get my bearings. By the end it delivers some pretty good twists, despite a few plot holes. There were layers of mystery going on in this book. The story focuses more on what is happening with Madeline and her investigation rather than on the story of the victim. In fact, I had to go back and look up some details about that case because a lot of it slipped my mind. The teenage girls are not well-developed characters, though I don’t think they needed to be because they are there to provide context to the mystery and not to carry the plot themselves.

The book follows two mysteries—the first is obviously what happened to Charley and it is full of shady characters at the school. The second is what is going on with the interviews from a case a year ago and how they relate to what may or may not be happening in the current investigation. I actually was more interested in that mystery by the end and I also felt like the suspense from those interviews added a lot to the plot.

Madeline instantly reveals herself to be an unexpected character. She seems damaged and we learn she had a really tough case the year before. She has a complicated relationship with her daughter that she reflects on frequently as she interviews the girls at the school and looks into what happened to Charley. She frequently sees commonalities between the students and her own daughter, and we learn a lot about her as she progresses.

It's clear instantly that Madeline is not in the right headspace to take on this case. She is nervous interviewing the students. She frequently puts herself in unsafe situations. As strange things happen to her, she questions her own sanity. She is also committed to the investigation long past when she probably should have left.

I found the book was a bit too long and the story could have been tightened up. The pacing is inconsistent, which I think results in the reader being much more interested in one thread than the other. However, the ending of the book delivers compelling twists and ties things up in an unexpected way. The ending brought my opinion up and I look forward to more from this author. Knowing this is a debut and that the story was well-crafted, the details around the length and pacing can easily be addressed as needed in future books.

I read this one is just TWO sittings! I could not get enough! Captivating and entertaining with all the spooky, unsettling vibes. I don’t have a single bad thing to say, I loved every page! A solid 5 star Mystery/Thriller for me 🙌

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I saw so many great reviews of this one and was so excited to dive in, but this one didn't land well for my preferences. I do enjoy unreliable narrators, but when it's related to medication or substance abuse, it starts to lose me over time if it's a huge part of the story, so that's what wasn't great for me. But if you enjoy that trope, this is definitely a good example of it.

I enjoyed the slow unraveling of what happened at the school, but wished there was a little more focus on the students so I would be more attached to them as characters as well.

But overall, this is a good slow burn mystery that is dark academia adjacent.

There is a mysterious death of a student at a boarding school.
A crime psychiatrist comes in hopes to solve the case and give the mother some closure.

This was a very slow read for me. Took a while to get into it, I would say up until the end.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

The Night It Ended is full of secrets, murder and twists. Nothing is what it seems in this story and I really enjoyed it. Told from dual time lines one present where Dr. Madeline is called to help solve a murder at an all girls school. The other is between an unidentified person who is being question by the police. Dr. Pine goes to help find the killer of a teenager girl while dealing with the separation of her family. Once she arrives she realizes nothing on that campus is what it seems and this puzzle will be harder and more dangerous to solve. Madeline must race to find the killer because another girl goes missing. Nothing in this story was what I thought t was going to be or who I thought they were going to be. I flew through this story because I had to know what was going on!

The Night It Ended by Katie Garner is a psychological thriller novel. The story in The Night It Ended is one that is told by alternating between an unreliable narrator in the present and then alternating to an unknown transcripted interview.

Dr. Madeline Pine is a well known and admired criminal psychiatrist who has a successful practice. Madeline however has been dealing with her own struggles so when she gets the call late one night from a detective asking for help in the investigation of a deceased student she hesitates but reluctantly agrees to help.

The Night It Ended by Katie Garner is a psychological twist on the old locked room story. The setting takes readers to a remote campus with a gothic feel to it as the unreliable narrator sets the scene. Of course everything is left up to question as the story goes along including what has happened that is being transcribed between the investigation in the current story. There are twists and turns along the way to keep the pages flying by as everything unfolds and with this being a debut I was delighted to find I would be interested in reading more by this new author in the future.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Dr. Madeline Pine seems to have it all; a beautiful family and a successful career as a criminal psychiatrist. A private investigator invites her to help him solve the death of Charley Ridley; a student at a boarding school for troubled girls. Due to a difficult case last year, she hesitates but in the end she can’t say no because if it was her daughter she would want to know why. Arriving to the campus in the middle of winter break, she realizes everyone including herself has a secret, and someone might be willing to kill to protect them.
This is a slow burn, atmospheric thriller. This book alternates between a transcript from the year prior to current time, which made the plot feel disjointed at times. This disjointed feelings works in this book because it correlates with Dr. Pines mental health decline. I’m usually one for a nice plot twist in the end, but this one didn’t quite pan out for me. Thanks for NetGalley for giving me an opportunity to read this ARCin exchange for a honest review .

The Night It Ended is really different than the description had me believing. I was expecting more Dark Academia than it really was. Pretty quickly instead it got Shutter Island vibes (altho I won't tell you if it was just the vibes it got ;) )

There is not much more I can say than you're on a journey with a VERY damaged heroine and her ride is complex and slow to reveal. Give this one a shot when you want to really sink into something.

A Gothic looking school for girls in the middle of a 300 acre forest. A Headmistress, a creepy caretaker and a dead student. You think you know how this book will go and surely end. But you would be wrong, very wrong. Thank you Netgalley and Harlequinn Trade Publishing Mira Books for an ARC. This review is my honest opinion.

Katie Garner’s debut, The Night it Ended, isn’t a constant bombardment of events. It’s so much more. The story unravels slowly, giving out tiny clues that should be gathered and inspected through all 405 enthralling pages. Some readers will call The Night it Ended a slow burn, especially those craving non-stop action, but, for those readers willing to be patient and to let the story unfold at its own pace, what they will find is at atmospheric, complex, thoroughly satisfying read.