Cass and Emma Tanner disappeared three years ago. All they left behind were one pair of shoes on the beach, a car with the keys still in the ignition, a family more dysfunctional than when they left them, and many an unanswered question. Now Cass has returned but Emma hasn't. Can Cass piece the past back together? Will this help to find Emma? Is the girl who went away the same woman who came back?

I found this such an intriguing concept. Cass' story was a compelling one and I was eager to learn all the secrets to her disappearance. Flashbacks and other perspectives intruded on this central mystery, which both drew out the suspense and padded the reader's understanding to the family's life before the siblings left it. As well as being an exciting thriller this was also an insight into both the narcissistic mind and the wider, troubled family this effected.

I had many theories whilst reading this and exactly none of them were correct. With the reader kept at a distance from the full story, until the book's close, all characters were at one point suspected and every action second-guessed. Shock is heaped upon more shocks, eventually culminating in an ending both poignant in what it reveals and thrilling in how it was delivered.

Apparently, I’ve moved from dystopian novels this summer to thrillers. On Monday I reviewed See What I Have Done a novel about Lizzie Borden, which I found fascinating more for its bizarre family dynamics than the actual murders. Now I’m back with Emma in the Night by Wendy Walker, a contemporary novel with a family that makes the Bordens look like the Brady Bunch. After being missing for three years, eighteen-year-old Cass shows up on her mother’s doorstep and tells an astonishing story of what happened to her and her older sister Emma after they disappeared. It’s a story of an older couple and an island off the coast of Maine. She has escaped, but her sister is still there and time is running out. But, for the forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Abby Winter, who originally helped search for the girls years ago, something doesn’t add up. Actually, plenty of things don’t add up, but can she get answers before it’s too late?

Walker pieces together Emma in the Night using Cass and Dr. Winter as the speakers. As Cass supplies more and more precise details of her captivity, Dr. Winter provides insight into the psychology of narcissistic disorder—something it seems Cass’s mother, suffered from and inflicted on her daughters. Chapter by chapter more dysfunction emerges and it spreads until every member of the family is shown to be manipulating the others for their own twisted benefit. The girls battle between themselves for their mother’s fleeting attention and then after their parents’ divorce they pit their parents against each other in deciding where they want to live. When mother’s new boyfriend moves in, with his teenage son, the games ratchet up a notch. Until Emma decides it’s time to take control by finding someone willing to help and leaving the snake pit behind.

Except, of course, it doesn’t work that well. Help comes at a price and in Emma in the Night everyone has a motive. For me, this brought on a raging case of skepticism almost from the very beginning. Cass was simply too aware of her performance in front of her family and investigators. Which is not to say she had any involvement at all because, if nothing else, Walker creates a world where nothing and no one can be believed. These contortions went too far for my taste, but if you’re looking for fast summer reading that messes with your mind and then makes your head explode, Emma in the Night is the right book.

I couldn't decide if I liked this book or not. I reallllllly hated all the characters, but I think that was the point.

It's the story of a dysfunctional and psychologically disturbed family (if I'm being completely honest). The daughters go missing one night, and one returns home three years later. She gives her story to her family and the FBI, explaining everything in great detail and cutting off a lot of emotion. Through a few twists and turns, you come to find out what everyone has been hiding and what tricks people (pretty much everyone) have up their sleeves.

The point of view switches between the youngest daughter and the FBI's therapist/psychological investigator. They usually switched off evenly and often addressed what the other person had just finished talking about/explaining. So that helped paint a bigger and deeper picture.

There were times in the beginning/middle of the story I got bored. It flipped back and forth a lot between present day and past recollection which was somewhat difficult to keep track of. It all just flowed together in the same thoughts.

In general, it was an interesting and unique story. I especially enjoyed the ending. Most things were tied up, but a couple of loose ends remained. I really want to know why Cass kept calling her mom "Mrs. Martin"...I assume it was to show how disconnected they were and how unmotherly she was.

If you decide to read this book, do NOT look up spoilers or it will ruin all the fun.

*Thank You to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for which I given an honest and unbiased review*

A crazy but highly readable psychological thriller. Two teenage sisters, 15 year old Cass and 17 year old Emma, disappear one night. 3 years later, Cass returns home pleading for her parents and the police to help rescue Emma. The reader, and the FBI psychiatrist who is the other main POV character, are left to ponder how reliable Cass's story is, and what if anything this has to do with Cass and Emma's mom's narcissistic personality disorder. This book had a ton of twists, most of which I did not predict, though I'm not sure if anyone could since some of them were totally bonkers. I'm not sure how plausible this book was, but the twists did make sense in the world of the book, I couldn't stop reading, and I really enjoyed it.

Three years ago, Cassandra and Emma Tanner disappeared, leaving behind no trails for the police or their parents to follow. Now, Cass has returned home, demanding that they help her find Emma. Cass provides her parents, FBI Forensic Psychiatrist Dr. Abby Winter, and FBI Special Agent Leo Strauss with a very detailed account of her captivity and escape from a small, somewhat off-the-grid island where she claims Emma remains. Can Emma be found after all these years?

I’m very picky about books featuring mental health professionals as all too often they are presented in an unpleasant light. However, Wendy Walker does a beautiful job at presenting Abby professionally and personally. Abby isn’t blind to her own issues as she tries to navigate through Cass’s rather outlandish story and her own knowledge of their family dynamics. In fact, Wendy Walker’s portrayal of Abby is one of my favorites of any psychiatrist I have read- minus the disparaging comment about professionals with MSW degrees, that is.

Cass is an intriguing narrator for the story. Her tale is bizarre, even as we know right up front that something is severely amiss. Her attention to details and her calm demeanor only accentuate the horror we start to feel about her family life. I cringed every time she referenced her mother as Mrs. Martin, but that was only the tip of the iceberg as Wendy Walker has quite an emotionally disturbing and yet oh-so-compelling story for us!

Told through the alternating viewpoints of Abby and Cass, EMMA IN THE NIGHT draws the reader into the tumultuous and disturbing world of a narcissistic parent. Wendy Walker is quickly becoming one of my favorite suspense/thriller authors as I love her writing style. I can’t wait to see where she takes us with her next book!

*review is in the editing queue at Fresh Fiction*

This book is about two sisters that went missing the same day from different locations. There is no evidence to suggest any foul play. They are just gone. Now three years later, only one comes back. Did they leave by choice or by force? What happened in those three years? Now we get to see how Cass answers those questions for everyone.

I loved this story. I could not put this book down until I found out what happened to these girls. The first chapter really pulled me in and kept me engaged until the story was concluded. I did not see the ending coming and I love books that have endings that are not expected.

Some books are full of action, thrills and big explosions – others are subtle as they twist your mind and make you question everything. “Emma in the Night,” is definitely the latter. And it’s amazingly good.

The story begins when Cass Tanner returns home. Her and her older sister Emma went missing three years ago. With no clues and no bodies, the case went cold. When only Cass returns, she begs for help finding Emma and she weaves an elaborate tale about being forcibly kept on an island with Emma, an older couple and a baby Emma gave birth to. All the evidence points to her telling the truth. But FBI investigator Dr. Abby Winters senses something is off – and that hunch three years earlier about there being trouble in the Tanner home is correct. Where is Emma and what really happened three years ago. It’s all going to come to a head.

This book involves a lot of psychology and exit stench of questions about the truth and importance – it’s really interesting because it creates a possible where you’re constantly questioning what you think you know. You don’t know which characters you can trust and which you can’t. And since the ultimate truth is not revealed until the very end of the book you are kept guessing.

I love trying to piece together what all was happening. I didn’t guess the ending, and I think it was done really well and in a way that was very satisfying.

I’d really like to see more of Abby in future novels. Her personal story is very interesting and her job as an FBI psychological analyst has a lot of possibilities for future stories. I hope we see her again soon.

I’d recommend this novel for anyone looking for a good psychological thriller that will keep me reading into the night.

This is somewhere in the range between 3.5 and 4 stars. I'm rounding up because I did really enjoy this book but had some minor issues with it. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read it!

I said to myself after reading this, "Self, you really need a Goodreads shelf called, 'Mommie Dearest,' because this book NEEDS to go on that shelf NOW." Naturally, I went to create one and found that I had already created this shelf at some point after reading another book with a Mother who is one SERIOUS piece of work. So Mrs. Martin, welcome to your shelf. You're in great company. Technically, this shelf only has nine books. And it doesn't even include the actual book, "Mommie Dearest," which was my inspiration. I'll remedy that shortly. I have the best intentions with my lists but not the best follow up or memory.

The Tanner sisters, Emma and Cass, disappeared three years ago. Nobody knew if they were together or if it was just a weird, freaky coincidence. It's haunted the investigators ever since, particularly FBI Psychologist Dr. Abby Winter, who never felt right about it and who had her own mommie dearest in her family. Now Cass Tanner is back and she wants to lead them to Emma.

The story flashes between present day Cass, Cass while she was missing and Dr. Abby Winter who still thinks something isn't adding up now that Cass is back. The girls home life before their vanishing was controlled by their narcissistic mother Judy Martin, something Abby experienced firsthand growing up. She doesn't trust Mrs. Martin, she knows the damage a narcissistic parent can do and she is desperate to find Emma and help Cass. Mrs. Martin isn't the only questionable person in the household. There's also the stepdad Jonathan Martin and the stepson Hunter.

Layer after layer of this family is exposed and it becomes obvious to trust no one. It also becomes obvious that Cass may be an unreliable narrator. I don't mean obvious in a bad way. Without this knowledge, the book would have been much less interesting. A reviewer I follow said that this story could have ended much quicker if Cass had just come home and spit it all out. This is probably true but I thought about it a lot and I don't know if she saw that as an option for herself. I don't want to say anymore as I don't want to spoil anything.

My minor issue was that it did seem to resolve itself very rapidly towards the end. I wanted a little more development there. Even with that issue, I would recommend this book. I devoured it and sent my own mother a, "just because," text after to say hi. It was really a secret thank you to her. We don't have the perfect relationship but I would never put her on the, "Mommie Dearest," shelf.

I'm not quite sure what to make of this one: the blurb is intriguing but the execution did not quite live up to expectation. You can tell straight away that something is 'off' about the tale being spun but it is incredibly drawn out. This is eventually explained but I didn't feel the ends quite justified the means: it felt very slow moving throughout followed by an information dump in the final quarter. Combined with mostly unlikeable characters and whole sections that read like a psychology textbook, it was a strange mix. I did enjoy the revelations when they finally came but I was still left feeling a bit underwhelmed.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of Emma in the Night.

If you like reading psychological thrillers this novel should be right up your alley. Wendy Walker delivered a masterpiece. I don't typically read this genre, but I thought I would give Emma in the Night a chance. I truly enjoyed the twist & turns that Wendy wove into this masterpiece.

The characters were diverse and played there roll in the novel to a T. From the controlling Mom, to Dr. Winter with her own demons from the past. Everyone has there issues and Cass was leading the circus to the thrilling conclusion.

After reading, it made me wonder how many families in this world are as crazy as portrayed in this novel. Sadly I think there are quite a few.

This is a thriller that keeps you on the edge tell the end.

This was a great beach read in the sense that I didn't have to think a lot and it held my interest; it was not a light-hearted romance comedy by any means. The end seemed a little far-fetched, but it is a thriller, so one has to give into the suspension of disbelief. I did predict the ending

I did not care for the writing style of this author. I felt that it was like getting teeth pulled to get to the main part of the story. After reading over 30% of the book, I gave up. The character telling the story was bland and too contrived. I usually love thrillers, but this was just god awful

This is an intense psychological drama with a seriously messed-up family. Emma is big sister to Cass. Their parents divorced and mom is remarried to a man who has a son about their age. Mom is a crazy narcissist and favors Emma over Cass, so the point where she doesn't let her daughter call her "mom". So one night, both sisters go missing. Three years later, Cass returns, with a strange story about their time away, and desperate for them to find the still-missing Emma.
The FBI are investigating and this is where we find out what really happened.

What a psychological mystery thriller this book was!! It's unimaginable to have had both daughters, Emma and Cass, be abducted! Everyone thought they were dead, since it had been 3 years. Then one day Cass reappeared on her mothers door step. Agents Abby Winters and Agent Leo Strauss were recalled back into the investigation. They needed to find Emma! The investigation was reopened and the agents started interviewing Cass to find out how she had escaped from her captors. On the process Abby had known that their mother was exhibiting a "narcissistic personality disorder." She felt that this was obvious 3 years earlier, but no one in the Bureau would give it an credence. She felt this disorder was the main reason the girls had left home and were abducted. Abby knew all about this disorder, because she was a victim of it from her mother. She knew the symptoms and saw this in the girls' mother, Mrs. Judy Martin. What mother instructs her daughters to call her Mrs. Martin instead of "mom?" Cass shared quite a bit of the dysfunction in the families life and the way that their mother had treated them throughout their lives. This family experienced dysfunction, deceit, adultery, and incest. Agents Winter and Strauss reconstructed the investigation with the help of Cass and they follow the evidence!! The ending of this book was so surprising! I couldn't put this book down! I kept turning the pages - I wanted to see if they would find Emma. The character development was amazing. The reader could definitely relate to the characters and how they felt. The plot was genius. Will the agents find Emma? Will Abby finally uncover Mrs. Martin's disorder, and where will it lead them? Will they ever find the truth about the night of their disappearance? Intriguing and thought provoking as well. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from this author.

I loved this book. I was losing a lot of sleep trying to finish it. Just when i thought i had the plot figured out, i didn't. That's always a great read for me. Loved it!

Where do I even start with this one!?!?! All the hype around this book is true. Emma in the Night is truly something else. It keeps you on the edge of your seat from the start. It’s one crazy story, and the craziness is why I started to believe anything was possible. Every few pages had me saying, “Oh My…”. The more Cass shared the more I wanted to believe her story, her narrative, because, why shouldn’t I?

Emma in the Night is a phenomenal story about a highly dysfunctional family, a narcissistic mother (Judy Tanner) who can hardly see past herself and needs constant validation that she is the best. As Judy’s daughters get older, Judy grows increasing insecure. Emma, her oldest, is bold and beautiful. She’s a lot like her mother. Judy and Emma are constantly fighting and struggling for power. Emma knows how to manipulate her mother and push her buttons. Judy’s youngest daughter, Cass, is more of the quiet type. She looks up to her older sister Emma.

One day the girls disappear and no one ever hears from them again. Then one night, Cass shows up at Judy’s doorstep, telling Judy about being kidnapped and held on some island. Everyone doesn’t know what to believe, is Cass telling the truth, is she even in the right state of mind? Is Emma really alive? The investigation and search for the girls led the detectives nowhere. Everyone’s last and only hope is Cass, they have to listen to her and find Emma.

I don’t think I’ve ever read a book with families as complicated as the Martins and the Tanners. I give Emma in the Night 4/5 stars because I would have liked to see Emma narrate part of the story too, especially towards the beginning of the book. She had such a powerful presence. I would have really enjoyed her perspective.

Wendy Walker puts the psych in psychological thriller with this novel, just as she did in "All is Not Forgotten". Only, this is a more emotional ride! (I cried at the end.)

The multilayered story of domestic mess is twisty good, but it's the writing that makes this book a standout.

In my opinion, it's the first sophomore hit this year in this category, after misses from Paula ("Into the Water") Hawkins and Shari ("A Stranger in the House") Lapena.

Fans of Gillian Flynn's "Sharp Objects" should really like it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan for the ARC.

This was a book that really did keep me guessing - I thought I knew what was going on, but that turned out NOT to be the case! Although occasionally I felt the story slowed up a bit, I was sufficiently intrigued to want to continue - and I'm glad I did. I think it was very well written and I have spoken about the title to a few people now. I definitely recommend it to readers of thrillers and suspense.

This is my first novel by Wendy Walker. This novel alternates between Dr. Abby Winter's third person POV and Cass Tanner's first person POV. Dr. Abby Winter is a FBI psychologist who worked Cass's and Emma's disappearance case three years prior and in present time Cass suddenly appears home without her sister after being gone for three years.
Dr.Winter struggles with not solving this case three years prior and this case hits close to home for her because Abby is certain that Cass's mother is narcissistic and Abby's mother was also narcissistic. Abby desperately wants to believe that daughters of narcissistic mothers can break the cycle of narcissism.
Overall I really enjoyed this novel and I found it a very quick read. From the very beginning, I considered Cass's narrative to be unreliable and cryptic. Walker slowly drew out Cass's secrets until the reader discovered what happened to Emma that night. This novel definitely gave us an entertaining tale about an extremely dysfunctional family. A superb 4 star thriller!

Thank You to St. Martin's Press for providing me with an advance copy of Wendy Walker's new novel, Emma in the Night, in exchange for an honest review.

PLOT- Cass Tanner has returned to her mother's home after mysteriously disappearing three years earlier. Her sister, Emma, is still missing and Cass tells a story of a couple that are keeping Emma and Emma's toddler, captive on a remote island. Abby Winter, the forensic psychologist  has long suspected the girl's narcissistic mother is involved, but she doesn't have proof. The more Abby hears Cass' story, the closer she gets to finding out the truth.

LIKE- I have not read Wendy Walker's previous novel, but based on the buzz and the description of Emma in the Night, I had high expectations. 

I liked the contrast in settings. Cass and Emma come from a privileged background, spending summers in Europe and weekends at the country club. This juxtaposes with their captivity in the remote house on the island, where although they had their needs met (including ice cream and rented movies), they were still being kept captive. Emma in the Night features a variety of characters from different backgrounds, including a gruff fisherman from Alaska. I like how the worlds in the story collide, with a message of never to trust what is on the surface.

The suspense and mystery plot is solid. I did not anticipate the ending, although Walker perfectly sets it up. 

DISLIKE- Unfortunately, much of the story fell flat. I finished Emma in the Night yesterday and I've spent the last day trying to pinpoint the disconnect. I think it has to do with the characters. I didn't connect with any of them. The story bounces between Cass and Abby. The Cass chapters are told in first person and the Abby chapters are told in close-third. I'm not sure why this choice was made. Walker provides background information for Abby, making it clear why this case is personal for her and I wish that she had written the character in a way that made Abby personal to the reader. I think writing both characters in first person would have helped this issue.

Although the plot is solid, there is a lot of telling, rather than showing the events leading up to solving this cold-case. Much of the story is told through interviews with Cass and this device grew tedious. I think my main disconnect, wasn't the story itself, but the way in which it was told. I wish we had been allowed a more personal look at the characters and that as a reader, I could come to my own conclusions, rather than having everything spelled out for me. 

RECOMMEND- No. I truly didn't enjoy Emma in the Night. However, I saw enough potential in Walker's storytelling and I've heard fabulous things about her debut novel, All is Not Forgotten, that I plan on buying it. Walker warrants a second chance.