There are plenty of books out there that will tell you a predictable story in a predictable way, but Emma in the Night by Wendy Walker is something altogether different. It's the kind of book you'll want to devour in one sitting, so compelling is the story, and it's one you'll be thinking about long after you turn the final page.

Seventeen-year-old Emma and fifteen-year old Cass disappear from their mother's home late one night, and the police are pretty sure they know what happened to Emma. Her car was found at a nearby beach and her shoes are fished out of the water. But there's no sign of Cass. It seems unlikely the sisters would have gone off together, since their mother swears they were in the midst of a horrendous argument earlier that evening. For three years, not a single sign of Cass can be found, until she shows up on her mother's doorstep with a harrowing story to tell.

Dr. Abigail Winter, a psychologist with the FBI, has never truly gotten over the disappearance of Cass and Emma Tanner. When the girls first went missing, she was willing to stake her entire career on their mother having something to do with whatever had happened to them. Something about her spoke to Abby, reminding her of her own troubled childhood, but was it possible Abby was allowing the ghosts of her past to influence her assessment of this case? Her superiors clearly thought so, and the case was left unsolved, but even three years later, Abby still thinks about the Tanner girls and the abuse she's almost certain they endured at their mother's hands.

When she receives news of Cass's sudden return, Abby is eager to talk to the girl; the FBI has many questions, and Abby has a few of her own as well. But Cass very obviously has a plan, one she'll reveal only in her own time. It's obvious to Abby that the mystery is far from solved, but will she uncover the truth before it's too late?

The story is told from the alternating points of view of Cass and Abby, and I found this narration style to be highly effective. Both characters tell us about past and present events, something I found super helpful as I tried to decipher the truth of what really happened to Cass and Emma.

Normally, I like to give potential readers a good idea of the direction a novel is going to take, but Emma in the Night has to be an exception to that rule. Part of what makes this novel so much fun to read is the author's way of revealing the truth in very tiny pieces. I could lay it all out for you… but that would ruin it for you, so just trust me when I tell you you're in for one very twisty ride. Ms. Walker has created a story filled with disturbing truths and characters who aren't at all who you think they are. She has taken the unreliable narrator trope to the next level here.

On several occasions, I was sure I had things figured out but I was wrong every time. The story went off in directions I could never have predicted, but it didn't come across as the least bit over the top. Sometimes, authors create endings that seem completely out of left field, and readers struggle to follow them, but that isn't the case here. Sure, I was surprised by the ending, but only because I didn't pick up on a few clues Ms. Walker had skilfully sprinkled throughout the early parts of the novel. Now that I know how the story ends, the clues seem obvious, but they certainly didn't as I was reading.

There are several fairly graphic scenes of abuse in the book that could prove upsetting for some readers. Cass and Emma come from a deeply troubled home where both physical and mental cruelty are quite commonplace. Personally, I found the mental manipulation was harder to deal with than the physical stuff, but I know that won't be the case for everyone.

Despite the scant information I've given you in this review, I hope everyone will give Emma in the Night a try. It's a great thriller, perfect to curl up with during a summer thunderstorm. Once you start it, I'm sure you won't want to put it down. I know I didn't.

Buy Now: A/BN/iB/K

This book is about two teen sisters who suddenly go missing, and their convoluted family. Only one girl returns and the book is all about finding Emma. If you are a fan of page-turner thrillers and mysteries, read this book!! It has been a long time since I've read a book where I could'nt turn the pages fast enough to find out what happens. There are so many twists and turns, and then when you think you've got it figured out there are even more twists and turns. I loved the psychological aspect of this book, with great insight into true narcissistic personality disorder. I will definitely be looking for more from this wonderful author!!

"We believe what we want to believe."

This was a common phrase used throughout this book, and I think it sums it up very well. This story takes place three years after sisters Cass and Emma Tanner going missing, on the day Cass returns without Emma. The story is told passively about events that happened before and during their disappearance with alternating POVs between Cass and Abby, a forensic psychiatrist assigned to the case.

It's clear from the beginning that Cass is an unreliable narrator from the very beginning of the book. Very early into the book, she narrates, "I had thought about how to tell them, how to explain it. There had been time, too much time, to construct the story in a way they would be able to comprehend. I had to find talent where none existed and tell this story in a way they would believe." Throughout the story, it's a constant struggle to figure out what parts of Cass's story are true, and which are fabrications to help make her story believable.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, and I enjoyed trying to figure out the mystery. My biggest complaint was that everything was passive. I understand why, and it adds to the mystery of what really happened, but it also made the story difficult to get through at times. By passive, I mean very little of the story takes place in the present day of the story. Nearly everything in both Cass's and Abby's POVs are told in the past, but they are telling the story, so it's not even shown as a flashback. I think flashbacks would have given the story a little more action, and would have made it more interesting to read, as opposed to being told the events that occurred.

Overall, I would recommend this book to people who enjoy mysteries. I still think that it was a good mystery, and I wanted to keep reading to find out what really happened.

Emma in the Night
By Wendy Walker

Thank you to the publisher for providing a free Advance Reader's Copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This is the first book that I have read by this author, but it won't be the last. I was pulled into the story from the first chapter and I couldn't put it down until I had finished it. Cass and Emma disappeared when they are 15 and 17 respectively. No one seems to know where they are. Three years later Cass returns home alone. Where is Emma? Cass wants desperately for her sister to be found and brought home. The story is told from the viewpoints of each of the characters; Cassandra Tanner, Dr. Abigail Winter - Forensic Psychologist for the FBI, FBI Special Agent Leo Strauss, Mrs. Judy Martin - Cass and Emma's narcissistic mother, Owen Tanner, the girls' father. The characters and the plot are well-developed and kept me glued to the book until I finished it. I highly recommend this book.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Emma and Cass are teenage sisters who both suddenly vanish without a trace. There are no leads, no suspects and no sense of what may have happened to the girls, and the case goes cold. When Cass reappears alone, years later, an incredible and to some unbelievable story emerges detailing, according to Cass, not only how and why they disappeared, but also how Cass made it home without Emma. Her mother, an unlikeable woman who is potentially a narcissist doesn’t believe the story Cass relates and feels her daughter is mentally unstable. Two FBI agents who were originally on the case are called when Cass returns and they are determined to unravel the facts and uncover the truth.
The story was engrossing and I didn’t have a good theory about what had really happened until very close to the end. This is the first book I’ve read by Wendy Walker, but I’ll be checking to see what else she has written and looking forward to future books. I was fortunate to receive “Emma in the Night” when I had the luxury of some extended reading time and I didn’t put it down until the early hours of the morning when I was done. There were layer upon layer of details in this mystery and I was hooked from page one.

Many thanks to NetGalley, St Martin's Press and Wendy Walker for the opportunity to read her latest book - it's wonderful!

I was a huge fan of her first book, All is Not Forgotten, and this latest will not disappoint. This is a very multi-layered book with lots of plot twists and secrets to be figured out. Emma and Cass are two sisters, trying to navigate a very dysfunctional family life. Their mom, Judy, is a narcissist who plays the girls off each other, craving love and attention. The parents divorce and Judy remarries, leaving more trouble in the wake with the addition of a stepfather and stepbrother.

One day, Emma and Cass disappear. Emma's car is found by the beach and it is presumed that she drowned, but Cass is nowhere to be found. Three years go by when Cass suddenly appears at home, desperate to tell her story to the FBI so that they can find Emma.

The story is told in alternating voices - Cass and Abby, an FBI agent who was on the case when the girls first disappeared. She has been haunted by their disappearance and the fact that her viewpoints weren't taken seriously.

I don't want to give any more away - you need to read this book!

Emma in the Night, by Wendy Walker, Aug. 2017
Two teenage sisters, Cass, 15, and Emma, 17, vanish without a trace on the same night. Three years later, Cass returns home alone, frantic to rescue Emma before she is lost forever. The novel is told in the alternating voices of Cass (now 18) and Abby (Dr. Winters, the FBI forensic psychologist). Walker introduces readers to a memorable and uniquely dysfunctional family replete with a mother suffering from a narcissistic personality disorder. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough! Readers will be quickly caught in the web that Walker weaves. Highly recommended for all fans of psychological thrillers.

What did I want from this book? A fast-paced psychological thriller that I would not be able to put down until I knew all of the secrets and twists.

Was it everything I wanted it to be? At first, it was exactly that. I was extremely invested for the first half of the book. The story of two sisters who disappear on the same day. Three years later, Cass, the youngest, returns home without Emma. The story of what happened to Emma is intriguing. We see enough of Cass's point of view so that we, the readers, know that there are some things she is holding back, or that she has an agenda and is probably not telling the whole story. Around halfway through the book I started to think she may be an entirely unreliable narrator. There are stories that Cass tells that are so long-winded and bogged down with details that I became less invested in the story. At first every detail felt important because I was trying to decipher why she felt these details were important. After a while I didn't care any more because it didn't feel like it was going anywhere. Was she putting so much into this to be convincing? Was it relevant, or did she just want the people around her to believe it's relevant? These questions kept me reading at first but maybe the story didn't advance quickly enough for my taste. In the beginning, I had a hard time putting it down because I wanted to know what was going on. By the end, I was 93% through with the book and on the verge of finding answers and had no problem closing the Kindle and waiting until this morning to finish. I'm not sure what changed in that time, but after I started to zone out of the story, I was never really brought back in. It started out great for me, ended up just okay.

I really enjoyed this book ! Nothing like reading a book full of messed up, despicable people to make you feel so much better about yourself and what you have ! I kept thinking to myself " is she mad ?" it was hard to tell who was and who wasn't. Who's guilty? Who's Innocent ? Where is Emma ? Every time you think you have it figured out, you realize you were wrong ! Lots of twists and turns throughout the whole book. Very glad I chose this book! Hope you enjoy it !

This didn't really hit the mark with me. There's a decent plot, but the twist has been done before. I didn't connect with any of the characters - most of them were fairly unpleasant, but I didn't feel any sympathy for the main protagonist either. There's an awful lot of exposition re Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and far too much telling rather than showing.

This is one of the most spell binding psychological thrillers I've read in a bit!

Ms. Walker has told this story from the viewpoint of the victim, Cass, and Dr. Abigail Winter, a Forensic Psychologist with the FBI. And it works extremely well.

With a narcissist as a mother the Tanner girls never really stood a chance. If you don't know what a narcissist is, you will after reading this book!

The sorrow I felt for these girls and their poor father, who just did not know what he was getting himself in to by marrying Judy. When she cheats on him and divorces him to marry up, it just opens a new can of ugliness. There were no boundaries, the girls had no voice. 

When after three years Cass shows up at her family's doorstep, everyone is shocked, no one more than Dr.Winters, who knows first hand what it means to live with a narcissist.

As Cass says, People believe what they want to believe. And that is so true in this case and a lot of others. Easier to believe the pretty story. But this wasn't pretty but it was powerful. And the end? Did not see that coming at all!

Highly recommend this book! 

Netgalley/St.Martin's Press  August 08, 2017

The book was an okay read for me. The story moved along quickly but the book didn't grab me as much as I thought it would. I won't stop reading her since the book did have some unexpected twist and turns.

One of the best mysteries this year! I was drawn to this book because of the cover and the strange title, I couldn't figure out what the story was about, even after reading the blurb and so, after reading the prologue, I was hooked! If you are a sucker for twisted family affairs, this is the book for you.

I liked the characters so much, each and every one had a back story and well-crafted motives. The timeline shifts from present to past all the time, but it is not difficult to follow. It adds to the dynamic of the storytelling and I enjoyed this as well.

The basic premise is very dark, narcissistic mother and her two daughters, who can be saved and can that cycle be broken? You will wonder about this throughout the book and still not be clear what the answer is in the end. I think that author did an amazing psychological research about this topic and I got a lot of information about NPD (Narcissistic personality disorder).

Exciting, enticing, mind-blowing!

This review will appear on the link below approx 1st August

Cassandra Tanner walked up to the front door of the house that had been her home until three years prior – it was 6am when she knocked. When her sleep tousled mother answered the door she didn’t recognise Cass – but when she said “it’s me, Cass” the roller coaster of emotional trauma began…

Cass and her big sister Emma had vanished three years ago – the FBI, local police, media and friends had all been involved in the search for them, to no avail. Cass’ return brought a story of kidnap and being held against their will; of being forced to stay on an island somewhere off the coast of Maine – and of Cass’ plans to escape. She was desperate for them to find Emma and beseeched the FBI and forensic psychiatrist Dr Abby Winter to search for the place they’d been held.

But Abby felt that something was wrong within the family – she knew the signs, having experienced them herself many years ago. Abby buried herself in Cass’ story; in the file from when the sisters had gone missing. What she was starting to uncover had her uneasy; she was convinced she was right, but her colleagues were sceptical. Would they find the isolated island and Emma? Would Abby get the results she hoped for? And would Cass eventually have her sister back?

Wow! Emma in the Night is another brilliant psychological thriller by Wendy Walker! Twists and turns litter this book; the plot is intense and the pace is blistering. I loved the author’s debut novel, All is Not Forgotten, and this one didn’t disappoint either! Highly recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital ARC to read and review.

See my review on Goodreads :) https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2021447256

There is no shortage of books about the return of missing girls, but Emma in the Night sets itself apart by including  and exploring an authentic narcissistic  character. The term Narcissist is used incorrectly a lot to describe people who are just arrogant, but it’s an actual personality disorder that is much more than just arrogance. Though at times the story turned almost a little too clinical describing how Judy, the mother of the missing girls (Emma and Cass), is a narcissist, it was a lot of interesting information.

The story is told through the POVs of Cass, the daughter that has returned and wants to help find her sister, and Abby, a psychologist with the FBI working the case who also grew up with a narcissistic mother. Through both of them we see just how twisted and abusive Cass and Emma’s childhood was and the reason behind that behavior.  I feel like the story is less about finding out exactly what happened, as finding out how exactly the characters reached this point. The conclusion to the crime/mystery was kind of clichéd and a little unsatisfying, but the events leading up to it were interesting.

I appreciated the new angle on the missing girls trope, but was left slightly underwhelmed overall. I think if you go into this for the character development, the family drama, and the mental health information rather than for the mystery, you will enjoy it.

Overall Rating (out of 5): 3 Stars

This was a quick read for me and I enjoyed it but I thought there was too much back story for all characters and not enough development of the plot taking place in the present time. A good thriller with lots of back and forth between periods of time.

Even though this book doesn't come out until August 8th, I've already read several glowing reviews about this new psychological thriller. However, I didn't care much for it. There were many eye roll and cringe-worthy moments, not to mention sections that dragged on and on.

But, some background first - High school students Cass and her older sister Emma vanish without a trace without anyone understanding how or why. Three years later, Cass returns to her mother's doorstep, sans Emma. The story then revolves around Cass talking about her experiences before and during her disappearance as well as working with the FBI.

A major theme in this book is narcissism, and it's very evident because there are many passages defining what it is and how it affects people. It felt out of place within a novel and took the focus away from the plot. Some of the characters did some pretty eyebrow-raising things to maintain that center of attention, and I often felt uncomfortable reading it. It didn't give me vibes of "look at what these people will do to be #1" but rather "these people have some weird sexual perversions."

Like with the descriptions of narcissism, so much of this book was spelled out and lacked the subtlety that a good mystery should have. It brings me back to my school days when I was told to "show, not tell" when writing, and this book did an awful lot of telling.

It has been a while since I read a psychological thriller that had more twists than I expected.

It is definitely not for the faint of heart and at least for me a one-time read. But that does not mean that the book was not good. It was a very well written book with arresting characters. 

The story starts with the return of Cass who went missing on the same day her sister Emma. She tells the story of the past three years that they had been missing for. Parallelly the forensic psychiatrist who had earlier been assigned to the case has been hung up with this case and is smelling a rat with the revelations that follow.

The narrative swings between these two and we see what unfolds. I did almost finish it is one sitting once the story got going. The only reason is did not give it 4 stars is that I did not feel a satisfaction at the closure of the case. Otherwise it does have the nail-biting quality which defines the genre as well as the twisted minds of the players involved in this elaborate game.

Hernández Novels Score: 4.5/5

First and foremost I want to thank St. Martin's Press for sending me a copy of Emma in the Night via NetGalley in return for an honest review. NetGalley recommended I read this novel, as I'm an avid thriller fan, and I was most definitely not disappointed. I can't even remember the last time I devoured a book this fast - I finished it in less than a week! From start to finish I could not put the book down. I never read at the gym, but you bet I sat on a bicycle and read. I never read during lunch at work, but you bet I read while I ate my homemade chicken fried rice. I never read when I get home from work, but you bet I laid down on that couch and kept reading every single word.

We are immediately immersed in Cass' world when she returns home after disappearing for three years. Cass disappeared with her sister Emma and is adamant that Emma must be found, immediately. With the help of the FBI, Cass begins to tell the story of where she's been for the last three years, how she got there, and what happened to her while she was gone. Cass narrates her own story, but we also get another perspective, Dr. Winter's, which is given to us from the third person. Dr. Winter has doubts about Cass' story, and Cass herself is the kind of narrator that tells us what's on the surface level, but never gives up her deepest thoughts to us. Is Cass' story real? Where is Emma? Why and how did they disappear? What does Judy Martin, their mother, have to do with all of this? I needed the answers immediately, so I kept reading and reading every spare moment I had.

What I really liked about the book:

– The entire story is so well thought-out. It must have taken Wendy a lot of work to figure out every piece of the story before constructing it so beautifully. I was amazed by the story-telling. At the end, I had no questions about what happened, and was only left pondering about the future of the characters.

– I really appreciated that every chapter changed the perspective of the story. As Cass would finish one part of her narrative, I immediately wanted to know how Dr. Winter felt about it and what her analysis was. How did she explain Cass' behavior? What did she notice that I didn't while I pictured Cass answering the FBI's questions?

– The psychology behind the story's premise is brilliant. The main focus of the story is on the mother-daughter relationship, one tarnished by a parent who suffers of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. What forces have created the monster within Judy Martin, the girl's Mom, and how does that monster play into the disappearance of the girls?

– Every single character was fully realized. I knew who every character was, why each stood out, and how each one thought and behaved. Wendy did a near-perfect job materializing each of her characters.

What I really didn’t like about the book:

– I was hooked every minute of this ride, but when I finally learned the truth behind the girl's disappearance, I was disappointed. I was disappointed because I felt that the wait was long, and exciting, but the pay off wasn't worth it. I had imagined something more exciting, more interesting, more out of this world. This is the only reason why Emma in the Night does not get a perfect star rating. However, the real bomb drops on you in the last two chapters, and Wendy drops it so nonchalantly that it took me a second to fully grasp the reality of it. My mind was blown!

I enjoyed Wendy's Emma in the Night so much that I am looking forward to reading her first thriller All is not Forgotten. I hope it's as good as this one! Emma in the Night will have you on the edge of your seat piecing this difficult puzzle together, wondering what is real and what isn't, what is truth and what isn't, and will, in the end, make you shed a tear of hope for the future of the characters you will learn to love. You absolutely must pre-order and read it immediately (when it debuts on August 8, 2017).

Thank you, Wendy, for your creativity and voice. I love a strong female writer, and I think I have found someone to be excited about. I look forward to checking out the rest of your previous work, and waiting anxiously for your future stories. You've got a new fan!