Reading this novel was an intense experience, to say the least.

I, too, was raised by a narcissistic mother. I've read a lot about the matter, I've gone on therapy many times and discussed it. My growing up had many, many similarities to the one described on these pages, which made this reading unbelievably personal. Through this story I felt like I was both on therapy, learning more and more about myself and the years that helped form the person I grew up to be, with all the screams it left inside me (and what beautiful, powerful, heartbreaking metaphor this was. I am forever using it from now on) and being somehow vindicated, liberated. I'm not alone, it's happened to others, it's on a book.

It's a sensation that is tainted with guilty, because I surely didn't want anyone else to have lived what I lived. I'd prefer if it were an isolated case for sure, but it's not. And to grow up in such a toxic environment leaves scars so deep it's unbearably hard to move on and even harder not to repeat the pattern, to break the cycle. I'd like to think I did, but I am not sure. The old joke of fearing to turn into one's mother is a lot more terrifying when said mother is a narcissist.

With all that I could certainly understand Cass's thought process, her feelings, her aims. However, some aspects of her motivations did not convince me and that's why, despite having connected with this book as much as it is possible without actually having written it, I'll only give it 4 stars and not 5. I have to be completely honest and fair and not let my endearment with the story tarnish my objectivity when rating. There are aspects of the story that did not make perfect sense and/or are unconvincing, at least to me but I could easily overcome them all not only because the story is so dear to my heart but also because of how well written it is. Each sentence is fabricated with mastery and every character greatly constructed. I love the novel as a whole and recommend it immensely.

I'd like to profoundly thank NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of this, which I am sure is going to be one of the most talked books this year, in exchange for my honest review.

"It was like watching a tornado. Beautiful. Terrifying."

I've seen a lot of mixed reviews for this novel, and truthfully, I can understand all of them. What you need to understand is that this novel is truly psychological in every sense. If you have no interest in the human mind and the way people think, what shapes people to think the way they do and even act the way they do, then you will not like this novel. This is not overly suspenseful, it's not on the edge of your seat thrilling, but it is thrilling. It's thrilling because we get to see inside the mind of a young woman who has been so damaged by her family and her ordeal that one would expect her mind to deceive her, yet her intellect and insights are truly captivating.

This novel is about two teenage girls that disappear into the night, Cassandra and Emma Tanner. After three years of being missing, Cassandra returns home, but where is Emma? This story is told from two different points of view, the main being from Cassandra herself, and the other from Dr. Abigail Winter, Forensic Psychologist for the FBI. Upon Cassandra's return, her message is clear, "Find Emma!". Cassandra... Cass... begins to tell her story to her mother and the FBI; she explains how her and Emma left, why they left, and where they went. Dr. Winter is not sure what to make of Cass' story... somewhere in there lies the truth.

As the FBI scramble to find Emma we begin to learn what lead up to the disappearance of Cass and Emma. We learn that the girl's mother, Judy Martin is a classic narcissist. As such Judy had not been an ideal caregiver to her young daughters. When married to their father, Owen Tanner, she had told him, allegedly, that she had done her part by giving birth. We learn that once Judy had an affair with a man from the country club, Jonathan Martin, and left their father, that this sparked a series of events. A chain reaction if you will. Their father was devastated, his pain became a parasite feeding on him, and nothing could bring back the parts of him that had been eaten away. Judy and Jonathan were married and with that came Hunter, Jonathan's son. It's not long before we see how dysfunctional this brought together by marriage family becomes. As Cass begins to fill us in on all the family history, I found myself fascinated. I couldn't help but think of those shows on Investigation Discovery where someone in the family has been murdered and we learn all the facts that lead up to that murder... what literally drive people over the brink into madness. This is one messed up family, twisted really.

This is the first novel I've read by Wendy Walker, and I have to say, I'm impressed, she really knows how to do her homework. This novel focuses on narcissistic personality disorder more than anything; I felt Wendy did an excellent job of really making the reader understand what this is and how it affects not only the person with the disorder, but those in direct contact. The characters, each and every one of them, I found to be well developed and fit into the storyline just as they needed to be. Considering I received an uncorrected copy of this novel, I found the grammatical errors to be very minimal, which is definitely a plus since that can often be distracting. All in all, conceptually this novel came together very well, and I enjoyed it.

3 stars--I liked the book.

The writing in this book isn't very good (I was surprised it wasn't Walker's first book, actually). It's simplistic, and dialogue is especially awkward. But I don't read suspense novels for the writing--I read them for a good, gripping story.

And this was gripping! I stayed up late last night to finish, because I had to know what happened. Though I had a quibble or two about the story (specifically, why didn't the taxi drive or anyone on the train say they'd seen Cass with a baby when she was heading home?), overall I was caught up in the suspense and had a good time reading.

I received this review copy from the publisher on NetGalley. Thanks for the opportunity to read and review; I appreciate it!

EMMA IN THE NIGHT by Wendy Walker. A interesting and suspenseful psychological thriller. Learned much about the Narcissistic Personality disorder and very glad never to have met such a person. That one person has so much control, and so little empathy towards others, it is amazing that the Cass wasn't more damaged psychologically or Abby, for that matter.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

'Emma in the Night' is fun and twisty and kept me guessing. It is well written and expertly paced with an interesting plot line. I wasn't sure what to make of Cass: was she lying about what happened? Was some of it the truth? Why would she lie? If she was lying, where had she been all this time? And where was Emma? This book kept me reading long into the night, wanting to read just one more page to find out what happened.

An enjoyable and worthwhile read. Recommended.

It would be a lie if I said I enjoyed this book. It’s dark. It’s interesting. I have no idea if pathological narcissism actually exists or if it’s a device of the author’s. She acknowledges a person who helped her with this mental disorder, so I have to take a leap of faith and think it’s real. I do know that the family in this story is dysfunctional to the tenth power! They’re awful! Not one character who is really likable. Cass is understandable, at some level, but certainly not likable.

So, if you really like the dark, psychological stories with an unreliable narrator, this will be right in your wheel house. If you love reading about rare, difficult to diagnose mental disorders, you will be fascinated. The writing is superb, the pacing and flow is perfect. It’s very well done with just a tiny plot hole at the end. That plot hole may have been intentional. Maybe. In real life few issues are tied up in neat little bows, so that gave the story a certain air of authenticity that was, to me, absent in the rest of the story. I find it hard to believe that a family this messed up would go unnoticed until after a tragedy occurs. However, the news reminds me every day that these things happen. I guess I would rather not read the same tragic stories for entertainment. If you disagree, pick up a copy and…

Enjoy!

2shay

Another excellent book by Wendy Walker. I really liked how it was told from both Cass and Abby's point of view. Really good and interesting story.

Thank you for the ARC of this novel. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. This is my favorite genre psychological suspense. While the novel started out strong, i was not a fan of the the latter half. Will not disclose why, other than the plot line....as i dont want to give anything away
thank you

I was given this book as an Advanced Reader's Copy with the understanding that I would read it and review it.

I wrestled for a while to determine what rating to give this book-- 3 or 4 stars. Ultimately, I decided on 3 stars because the book didn't grip me as much as I had hoped.

The premise for the story is interesting--- a young woman shows up at the door of her childhood home years after she and her sister disappeared under suspicious circumstances. The narrative switches between Cass, the young woman, and Dr. Anna Winter, the forensic psychologist with the FBI who notices troubling signs in Cass's family dynamic that reflect Dr. Winter's own dysfunctional upbringing. Cass' mother, whom Cass refers to as Mrs. Martin throughout the book, is a classic example of a person with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Perhaps because I am a clinical social worker myself, I found the depiction of Mrs. Martin to be a bit heavy-handed at times and a bit of a distraction from the narrative.

As with almost all books nowadays, there is a few twists in the story, but I was able to figure out most of them beforehand, but that may be because I'm on the lookout for twists and "gotcha" moments (because I read so much). In any event, this wasn't a bad book. It was readable, and I think it will do very well if it develops some of the hoopla of similar novels in summers past.

Very early on in this story you knew that things were not exactly as they seemed. Two young girls went missing - were they abducted, did they run away, are they still alive. The investigation is still not quite closed but its been three years now. Of a sudden the younger girl returns. She just turns up at the door to her mother's house with a very long, perfectly logical explanation as to what has happened to her and her elder sister. Now it is the turn of the investigators to find the elder sister from the clues given by Cass the younger girl.

Abby and Leo are the investigators for this from three years ago and they take over again. Abby has her own suspicions but without proof it is not easy to pin point anything. Cass's explanations are explicit, very detailed with just enough clues to keep the investigative process going rapidly. The background at home is very complicated - parents separated and mother married again. There are step children involved and the mother is not your average lady on the street.

The story was full of suspense. It was a psychological battle between a mother with narcissist tendencies who was manipulative, deceitful and self centred. Nothing else mattered to her other than herself. The story was twisted and took a great deal of step by step story telling to unravel it.

Goodreads review on 28/6/2017.. Amazon is not permitting a review as yet. Review on my blog 8/8/2017.

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for an advance copy in return for my honest review.

I love psychological thrillers. The dark side of people thrills me, and a psychopaths ability to hide in full view fascinates me.

This book explores the Narcissist Personality in that teenage sisters Cass and Emma mother suffers from Narcissist Personality Disorder (NPD) giving them a difficult home life.

I suppose I was expecting a story along the lines of Mommy Dearest or even Flowers in the Attic. I really wanted the book to take off in the direction of the psychologically disturbed mother tormenting her teenage daughters to the point of no return. This does happen but the story for me just didn’t ‘take off’, and reach the dark side where I was expecting it to be.

Cass and Emma disappear into the night. Three years later Cass returns with a disturbing story of being incarcerated on an island, teenage pregnancy and a sister left behind.

This book just did not engage me though. I really could not put my finger on it but the conversations just went on and I found I really didn’t care about the characters, Mrs Martin was certainly narcissist but she just wasn’t dark enough for me. In fact I found that I disliked her and Cass intensely and maybe would have preferred if Mrs Martin and Cass had got more of their comeuppance at the end.

Emma In The Night tells the story of Cassandra and Emma Tanner who went missing three years ago. When Cass shows up at her mother’s house without Emma, it sends folks into a tailspin. One in particular who is Dr. Abigail Winter who was one of the FBI agents in charge of the investigation at the time of the initial disappearance and is now a forensic psychologist.

Where Is Emma? Where have they been? And why did they leave are just a few of the many questions we need answers to and those answers make this a compelling read for me. I had to slow my reading down because I was so caught up in the story and I didn’t want it to end. The book had some very unlikable characters like a step-brother for one and the mother. Author Wendy Walker presented them in a way that had me wanting to know more about them. I don’t know when I have read a story about a dysfunctional family that I WANTED to continue reading about as I did with this book.

Ms. Walker writes an excellent page turner and does a great job of showing the feelings, emotions, and actions of all the characters that I highly recommend. I also look forward to more books by Wendy Walker.

This was a rather interesting book focused on a family led by a narcissistic mother. Two teenagers disappeared 3 years ago, one has returned and the search for the other one ensues. We uncover a rather convoluted plan to reveal the truth about what happened three years ago. I must admit I was not expecting the end. Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC.
Emma, 17, and Cassandra, 15, go missing in the night, no one knows how or why. Their mother is on TV constantly, keeping their disappearance in the news, but despite that and the FBI's involvement, the girls are not found.
3 Years later, out of the blue, Cassie appears on the doorstep, and in between the copious weeping of mother and daughter, Cassie repeats: we must find Emma!
The previous FBI team reappears. One of them, a forensic psychiatrist, Abby, believed, and still does, that this was a toxic family and the answer of the why and how lies within that dysfunctional family, but her warnings are not taken seriously.
The book is written from Cassie's and Abby's points of view and I found the psychological aspect as riveting as the mystery itself. It was difficult to put the book down, as I wanted so badly to know what actually happened...is Cassie lying, is her mother lying, what is the truth? The ending was a surprise, but a very satisfying one. Anyone who loves psychological thrillers would enjoy this book, it's very good.

Emma in the Night by Wendy Walker

August 2017

I received this book from NetGalley as an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Emma in the Night will take you on a suspenseful ride into the convoluted drama that narcissistic personality disorder can have on a family. There are parts of the book where it seems there's a lot of rambling and extraneous information filling space. As in a lot of psychological thrillers, these "ramblings" from a characters POV provide insight into their mental state.

The story begins with Cassandra, or Cass as they called her, narrating from her point of view. The first chapter is all it takes to draw you into the story which has elements of a psychological suspense novel. Just a hint of "crazy" here and there unraveling the mysterious disappearance of two sisters. From the beginning the story Cass is spinning seems so unbelievable until information she provides helps officials discover evidence to find Emma.

There always needs to be the voice of reason. In this case, the point of view of Dr Abigail Winters, Forensic Psychologist for the FBI, plays that part. She narrates part of the story as one of the initial investigators with Agent Leo Strauss when the Tanner girls disappeared three years ago. The facts about the sisters disappearance remained a mystery until Cass shows up one night on her mother's doorstep without her sister Emma.

The novel is well-written with chapters creating drama and suspense and then others slowly unwinding the tale to reveal just enough to keep you piqued. Since this is a genre I gravitate towards I sat on the edge of my seat waiting for one of my many theories to be exposed. This was far more convoluted than I could even imagine. I liked that I was able to discern who the unreliable characters were but their reasons were constantly evolving.

I highly recommend this book to people who enjoy a great psychological suspense drama that captures you from beginning to end.

Emma in the Night is an edge of your seat thriller written in a style similar to Girl on the Train. Cass and Emma disappears for three years and then Cass returns home with a fantastical story. Dr. Winter fixates on Cass's mom narcissistic personality disorder and plays catch up as the whole story begins to unfold. Throughout the whole book, Cass draws you into her story but leaves you feeling that its not what really happened. The author weaves a story of smart lead characters following twists and turns to a surprising ending. I will be adding Wendy Walker to my must read authors. My voluntary review is based upon a review copy from Netgalley.

This psychological thriller is told from the alternating points of view of Cassandra, who was fifteen years old when she and her then-seventeen-year-old sister Emma disappeared, and Abby, the forensic psychologist who has been tormented by this case in the three years since the girls disappeared.

Now eighteen, the reader knows that Cass has some kind of hidden agenda when she returns home early one morning and tells her story to the FBI, but it’s not clear what until the end.

Abby has done research on narcissistic disorder because she and her own sister had a mother who suffered from it. In her studies, Abby looked at how daughters of narcissistic mothers either repeat the cycle or find ways to deal with it—some less healthy than others. No one wants to hear her theories about Jane, the girls’ mother, but when Cass returns and describes where she and Emma have been and why they couldn’t return earlier, Abby continues to read between the lines and refine her theories.

I thought this was a unique way to tell a story. It was a fast read and I wanted to learn whether the FBI could find Emma and what Cass’s full story was. The ending didn’t disappoint.

I recently read Wendy Walker's first book “All Is Not Forgotten” and loved it! When I saw she had a new release I was all in for another great read! Sadly, in my opinion, this one did not match the brilliance of the first.
Cass and Emma grew up in a blended family. After their parents divorced, Emma chose to stay with their mother, her new husband and son. Little sister Cass reluctantly tagged along. Their mother, always totally unpredictable with her affections, took great joy playing cruel games with their emotions. A Pathologic narcissist.
Cass and Emma disappear on the same day, though under different circumstances. Three years later one of them returns.
Dr. Abigail Winter, a forensic psychiatrist with the FBI dedicated herself to this case until it went cold, sending her into a tailspin. Now she’s been given a second chance to pull herself out of the darkness and help bring the second sister home.
Written from both Cass and Dr. Winter's point of view, in present and past tense. At times I was so confused, I never quite knew who was talking, and if it was a flash back or current conversation.
Nobody was very likable in this book. The writing seemed disjointed and I felt disconnected with the main characters. The pace of the book seemed very slow, and really didn’t pull me in. I found myself frustrated and struggling through most of it. Maybe because I had such high hopes for this one I set myself up to be disappointed…?
3*
Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Wendy Walker for an ARC to review in exchange for an honest review.

To be posted on Goodreads under Kaceey June 27-28, 2017

When I first decided to read Emma in the Night, I was torn. While I enjoy thrillers, books about family drama are not high on my list of things to read about. But I decided to give the book a chance. I'm glad I did, I think. The story itself was a psychological thriller which kept me hooked from the first page. And I enjoyed the idea of telling the story from two points of view. I wish, however, there had been a bit more time spent on the Dr. Winter chapters, especially toward the end. But my biggest complaint is the way the returning sister, Cass, tells her story. I think this is a story that would have benefited from being shown rather than told. I think seeing it happen, perhaps as a flashback, rather than being doled out piecemeal would have been much more satisfying.

Although I did like the book and found it to be intriguing, there was something just off the mark about it and jarring. Perhaps it was the subject matter itself.