In 1986, young runaway Maureen is traveling with a summer carnival when they arrive at Opal Beach. Maureen just knows that it is her destiny to stay there. She is befriended by some of the locals and the kids who summer at Opal Beach and finds the courage to quit her job and start her new life. And then she disappears.

Thirty years later, Allison, a former television meteorologist come to Opal Beach to housesit and flee the very public demise of her marriage.

The story is told from Maureen’s point of view and Allison’s. When Allison meets Maureen’s best friend, Tammy, who still lives in Opal Beach, the two become friends and Tammy enlists Allison’s help to figure out what happened to Maureen all those years ago.

An interesting premise, lots of local color, the haves and the have nots, and tons of red herrings, this had all the markings of a great suspense tale but it fell a little short for me. None of the characters were particularly likeable, the whispers and near premonitions that Allison experiences were a little too cheesy for me.

The resolution of the murder was a little too predictable and the happily ever after way the book tied up made it just 2.5 rounded to 4 for me.

This would probably made a good rainy day at a beach vacation read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

One Night Gone is told through dual timelines. We get Maureen, a girl who went missing in the mid-80s and Allison some thirty years later trying to figure out what happened. There is a decent mystery here, but it's completely predictable, and if I was supposed to get some thriller-like vibes, I missed them. I just didn't feel that tension that should come with a thriller. What it all really boils down to is the haves and the have nots and those who dare to cross that line between them. For a storyline that has been done so many times in various forms, I would've really liked a little less predictability to make it stand out. In the end, this one was just an okay read for me.

One Night Gone was a quick and mostly enjoyable read, but it wasn't what I expected it to be. Based on the blurb, I expected a gothic mystery, but it was a straight-up thriller/murder investigation. I was in the mood for a more atmospheric and spooky read, and One Night Gone did not satisfy my craving. It is still an enjoyable suspense novel if a little predictable.

One Night Gone is a story of two women who both lived in Opal Beach. Maureen, who arrived there with a travelling carnival in 1985 and Allison, who came to Opal Beach thirty years later to recover from her divorce and subsequent public humiliation.

This is a slowly simmering and suspenseful story told from alternating points of view. As Allison begins to unravel Maureen’s history and her unexplained disappearance, she also begins to realize that Opal Beach has a dark and menacing undertone.

Besides a mystery, this novel also focuses on two women who are simply trying to figure out the direction of their lives and the priorities they should focus on. In the process they both find themselves swept up in the culture and people of Opal Beach.

I found this debut novel to be intriguing, fast-paced, and suspenseful – filled with a variety of characters who didn’t always show their true personalities and with enough twists to keep me interested.

Tara Laskowski is a promising new voice and I am looking forward to her next book. I would give 3.5 stars but rounding up to 4.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.

Nice suspenseful and spooky mystery! It reads very quick and I found it engaging. I was really invested in the characters. I would recommend this to fans of mystery/thrillers.

One Night Gone by Tara Laskowski was a captivating book. It is told between two different decades and points of view: Maureen in 1985 and Allison in 2015. Recently divorced and publicly disgraced Allison has been staying with her sister since the breakup with her husband but needs a change. Her sister convinces her to apply to house sit for a couple at their beach house in the East Coast small town of Opal Beach. The owners are friends of a friend of Allison’s sister and need to be out of the country for an extended period of time. Allison makes friends in Opal Beach, the roller derby player librarian Delores and quiet coffee shop owner Tammy. She is intrigued by the story of the disappearance of Tammy’s best friend 30 years prior and works with Tammy to find clues of her friend’s fate.

Maureen was a teenager who worked for the travelling carnival that came to Opal Beach. She felt drawn to the town and after making friends with Tammy and Clay, and then dating Clay, she decided to stay and make a home there. The quaint seaside town held many secrets then and in the present day, though, and one night she vanished without a trace.

To me, the mark of a good suspense novel is when I can’t figure out “whodunnit.” There are clues and red herrings throughout as Allison tries to solve the mystery of what happened to Maureen while trying to rebuild her imploded life. When mysterious packages related to the case begin showing up at her door, the fun little distraction becomes personal and dangerous.

There is nothing more entertaining than a dual timeline thriller when things start to come together and you begin to put the pieces together in your head. One Night Gone is set in 1985 and 2015, two women who look everything alike but have no relation - and one of them has been missing since 1985.

One Night Gone is fun, entertaining and suspenseful and kept me turning the pages until I found out "whodunnit" - I enjoyed this debut and I can't wait to see what Laskowski comes up with next!

In her debut novel, One Night Gone, author Tara Laskowski transports the reader to the seaside town of Opal Beach for an intriguing mystery / suspense / thriller story that will keep the reader guessing and turning the pages.

In June of 1985, Maureen Haddaway came to Opal Beah with a travelling carnival looking to start over. Maureen's dreams of a fresh start in this beautiful seaside town comes to an unexpected end when she suddenly disappears without a trace.

Thirty years later in October of 2015, forty year old disgraced meteorologist Allison Simpson is fired for calling out her cheating husband Dennis "Duke" Shetland while on the air. Now divorced, Allison seeks a fresh start in life, and agrees to house-sit in Opal Beach for a couple working abroad. Allison hears about the missing girl from thirty years ago, and becomes interested in the mystery and finding out what happened to the girl. Will Allison solve the mystery of the missing girl, or will someone do just about anything to keep their dirty little secrets hidden?

Author Tara Laskowski weaves a fast-paced and suspenseful tale written in an alternating first person narrative that follows Maureen's story leading up to her disappearance, and Allison's journey to start her life over while investigating Maureen's disappearance.

I loved reading this action-packed story, it had a little bit of everything that immediately drew me in from the start, and kept me intrigued and guessing. You can't help but become engrossed in the story as the alternating dual storylines / timelines revealed dark pasts, hidden secrets, possible motives, danger, and clues that are uncovered as Allison investigates Maureen's mysterious disappearance.

One Night Gone is an intriguing and suspenseful story that has enough drama, tension, action, dark secrets, betrayals, revenge, and unexpected twists and turns that fans of mystery / suspense stories will surely enjoy!

Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book from the author / publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest book review and particiption in a virtual book tour event hosted by Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours.

https://jerseygirlbookreviews.blogspot.com/2019/10/one-night-gone-by-tara-laskowski-vbt.html

I am very much a mood reader and when I was ready to start this one I wasn’t 100% feeling it but decided that I’d read 20 pages and if I wasn’t feeling it I would try another day.

Those 20 pages sucked me right in! I did lose focus about mid way and just was ready to get to the end but the last 60 pages or so. Woahhh! So many twists and turns I didn’t see coming.

I really enjoyed this book.

Thank you sooo much Graydon House for the ARC :)

One Night Gone by Tara Laskowski is an intriguing novel of suspense told between two time periods with an explosive ending you will never see coming.

Maureen Haddaway is a young teenager who ran away from her drug addicted mother and joined a travelling carnival. One summer the carnival stops at a place called Opal Beach a lavishly rich town with beautiful views and opulence. Maureen becomes friends with some of the local teenagers and finally feels happiness and freedom for the first time. Until she disappears.

Years later, Allison Simpson, an on-air meteorologist who has a melt-down during her live weather report and is fired is looking for somewhere to hide until her notoriety wears off. When her sister discovers a housesitting job in a place called Opal Beach, Allison agrees to it thinking that what she truly needs is a quiet place to decompress and figure out just what is next for her.

What she did not see coming was her involvement in the mystery of a young teenager who disappeared years ago. When asked by her new Opal Beach friend Tammy, to assist her in finding out where Maureen is or what could have happened to her becomes an obsession Allison cannot let go of.

Suddenly Allison realizes whatever happened to Maureen all those years ago has put her own life in danger. But why? What is the connection? But more important what really happened to Maureen?

One Night Gone was a terrific read with many plot twists and turns which kept me guessing until the ending was revealed.

Thank you so much to #NetGalley #GraydonHouse #TaraLaskowski #OneNightGone for the advanced copy. The book came out on October 1.

Opal Beach - Summer 1986

Maureen in a teenage girl who works for the carnival that sets up at the beach each summer. Some of the people she works with are rather rough but she enjoys making friends with some of the wealthy locals who are her age. They come to the beach with their families for the summer. One guy Maureen likes is Clay. His father owns several restaurants. But that summer Maureen disappears and is never seen again.

Opal Beach - September 2015

Allison has recently lost her job as a television weather girl. She is an intelligent meteorologist. She was angry at her husband constantly flaunting his girlfriend at her and ending up mentioning his name in a derogatory manner on the air while giving a forecast which resulting in her being fired. Now, she is divorcing her husband and is looking for a place to stay for awhile while she looks for another job. After staying with her sister for awhile, she helps her get the position of house sitter for a couple with a large home on Opal Beach. The owners will be away for quite awhile and rather than worry with the hassle of renting the place, they want a house sitter for free. Of course, she has a list of things she needs to do to keep it all up which she willingly does. They also has a sweet little cat that she will be caring for.

She meets some of the locals in town and learns about Maureen. She enjoys getting with some of the women and enjoying their company. When her neighbors ask her to attend the country club with them, she is surprised to find that their son is Clay, the guy who had known Maureen.

She meets Tammy who had been Maureen’s best friend and she also wants to know what happened to her friend. As the story builds, Allison realizes she is getting closer to discovering what happened to Maureen…but at what cost? Someone is on to her and doesn’t want her to know the truth. Her fear increases as she wonders if they will try to stop her.

There was some tension as Allison began to uncover some secrets, but I found the rest of the book to be a bit too far fetched and the plot set up to fall into place too easily. I know we are supposed to feel sorry for Maureen but I couldn’t help but think how she kept putting herself in harm’s way and messing with the wrong people. That’s definitely a way to get burned. Sorry. Not my favorite thriller.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Sept. 2015 Annie had said she’d feel like a new woman. Was Annie suggesting Allison was damaged? Perhaps she was skeptical of everything. Nothing worked out to be perfect. There was no perfect, no happy -ever-after. No happy ever, it seemed. Still her younger sister Annie was almost the only thing she had left. The off season at the beach- a chance to relax, regroup, recover. Allison saw herself in Annie’s lenses- a hunched over thin waif of a person, hair too long for forty. Every since Allison had gone air, she’d let it grow past her shoulders. But she couldn’t stand the gray roots and still dyed her hair every five weeks. Because despite what Annie said Allison needed to get back to the old her. The her she was before it all crashed. Besides what Annie meant was get out of my apartment, but that would have made her self conscious about Mike. Allison didn’t want Annie to feel guilty about having a stable relationship. But the idea was beginning to appeal to Allison. An oceanfront house rent free for the winter. When Duke had betrayed Allison, Annie had been there to help her pick up the pieces. She had lived with Annie for the last nine months. Time to show everyone, including herself, that she was no longer the Allison- puddle- toxic- hot- mess that she had been the last year. Find a new job, take a class. She could even start a blog. The salty air always made Allison feel a little different. Everything had happened so fast and now she was driving to the beachfront house. She imagined what this road was like in the summer but now it was eerily vacant and she had the sense she was the last woman on earth, that in her quiet drive humanity had vanished. She finally got to the house, it was stunning. Delores came with the house key and offered to give a tour of the town. Allsion was glad to accept. Allsion was thrown off guard and figured out why, Delores was treating her like a normal person. The last ten months everyone seemed to act as though she was going to snap. It was a glorious feeling to be freed of baggage. She was now in Opal beach and could have a fresh start. She didn’t have to feel like she was being judged. It was the middle of the week, not many people mulling around, but enough to get the general idea of the place. Low key. Friendly, casual. June 1985 - Maureen is a carnival girl and works the Stop and Throw game. She learned the rich boys in these towns love the carnival girls. The carnival girls are the elusive exotic prize on the top shelf, the ones it seems urgent to win at the moment, when you’re still shiny and new, you can benefit.get a glimpse of the other side of things. There’s a boy who tried three times to win with no luck than he said he at least deserved her name and she said Maureen. The boy’s not her destiny that she feels she will find here, but she doesn’t care. The path to destiny can take some detours. They end in the Hall Of Mirrors just before closing. He tells her his name is Barron. His friends are waiting outside the gate. Maureen tells him - count to five, if he catches her he’’ get a surprise. She can tell by his face what he thinks she means. She had the upper hand in this knowing all the secrets ins and out of this game, which is how she likes it. The world is one giant game after all. You have to know how to play. What doors to unlock. What moves to make. This is only a temporary gig for Maureen, something she needs, until she can figure stuff out, start fresh. Maureen and jacqueline share a trailer. The forks of the C and D -carnival- trade stories like they are baseball cards. Jacqueline told Maureen about her daddy breaking her finger and that was the night she left. Maureen could have told her about her mom, gwen, the dirty needles she had to be careful not to step on at night. She could have told Jacqueline her Sad Story - they all have them. But she knows it’s never good to let anyone see you vulnerable. Allison didn’t have much from her marriage but she had her long time plant - Linus. He was a plant larger than an ottoman , that she’d managed to keep alive for twenty years. They brought her stuff in and she gave Annie a tour. Turns out Barron was useful for something thought maureen. He and his friends knew where all the good parties were. After the carnival shut down she would meet up with them.
I enjoyed this book a lot. I loved the mystery, intrigue, and suspense. I loved how Allison didn’t give up on solving what had happened to Maureen. I loved the twists and turns of this book. I really enjoyed the plot. I really loved how the book ended. I loved the characters in this book and I recommend it. I wish I could rate it 4.5.

If you're one of those that finds fall the perfect time for anything in the mystery/thriller/suspense genre, One Night Gone will be right up your alley. There's two timeframes here- one perspective from a summer in the 1980s, with young adults getting into the sort of trouble that always seems to brew on long summer nights; one perspective from that of Allison, a recently divorced woman looking for work after a very public incident that led to her losing her job. Allison's story is more intriguing, and the windswept, isolated, atmospheric setting of fall at the beach is one of the big selling points to this book. The front half of the book lagged in parts with setup, but the back half definitely got my attention. Tara Laskowski definitely seems like an author to watch!

A fast and enjoyable read with a likable lead character, trying to put the pieces of her life back together and in the process solve a decades old mystery.

I expected more of a suspenseful type of thriller which it definitely was near the end but the majority of it was just a mystery. I enjoyed the different POV’s and the characters. I wasn’t too surprised at the twist at the end but I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I loved the winter beach town setting.

I read a lot of suspense and thrillers; the book market is heavy with them these days. Many are OK, but not terribly memorable. So it’s always nice to stumble across a new author in the genre who grabs my attention. Tara Laskowski is an author whose books I will be on the lookout for.

“One Night Gone” weaves together the story of Maureen Haddaway, a girl who’s been missing for decades, and Allison Simpson, a woman who has runaway to the town that Maureen disappeared from. Allison wants to hide away from a troubled past, but soon finds herself wrapped up in Maureen’s story. Small towns are full of secrets and Allison digs into them, even when it becomes clear that someone may not want the truth about Maureen to come out.

Laskowski used a fairly common delivery method of suspense—the interweaving of past and present to unfold the complex layers of her story. This is not an easy method to do well, but the author managed to pace things just right and create characters who were easy to spend time with. I found myself really caring for Maureen and hoping her ending was more positive than it probably was, and at the same time as I got to know Allison, I found her back story to be just as intriguing. I also loved how the author captured the wet coldness and spooky emptiness of a beach-side town during the off-season. This book made me want to curl up with a hot cup of tea by the fireside every time I picked it up.

I found the ending to not be as strong as the beginning and middle of the book—it made sense, but the execution wasn’t as strong. The ending came together a bit too quickly and felt a little “Murder She Wrote” in its reveals, but all-in-all I enjoyed the book and will definitely look for more from Laskowski.

Thanks to Netgalley, author Tara Laskowski, and HARLEQUIN - Graydon House Books for providing this advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was the perfect Fall read! The story flips between the past and the present, with a span of 30 years. The past is about a young girl who is part of the traveling carnival, who mysteriously disappears and the murder case is never solved. The present is about a woman who loses her job by breaking up with her husband on-air and goes on a mini-hiatus. During her time away, she ends up in the same town, 30 years earlier, the carnival girl went missing. Unbeknownst to her, she was going to quickly get out into the middle of this unsolved case, and come to a shocking conclusion.

It took me a minute to fully get into this book, but once the full storyline developed, I could put the book down!!

Many thanks to NetGalley, Graydon House, and Tara Laskowski for the opportunity to read and review her debut novel - a good one and another author I'll be watching!

Set in coastal Opal Beach, this story is told in two time frames. In 1985, Maureen is escaping a bad family life and finds work with a traveling carnival, until one of the bosses gets too friendly. But she meets a couple of locals, Clay Phillips, the son of the wealthy Phillips clan who own much of the town and Tammy, who lets Maureen stay in her apartment. But then just as suddenly as she arrives, Maureen vanishes. In 2015, Allison is trying to recover from an on-air call out of her cheating husband and subsequent firing as a local weather person. Her sister, Annie, hears about a job housesitting in Opal Beach and feels it would be the perfect opportunity for Allison to regroup and restart her life. But then Allison and Tammy meet and Allison learns more about Maureen's disappearance all those years ago and they start investigating.

This book made me feel like I could relate to both of the women in this timeframe and setting - the writing was suspenseful and descriptive. A good read - especially on a beach...or maybe not!

Great writing, a suspenseful plot--I was sucked in right away. I brought this book on vacation with me (on the e-reader), and I was actually sorry when I was done reading.

The pacing is perfect, the characters very realistic. The ending was great too, which is where many mystery/suspense novels fall apart.

Can't wait to read more by Tara Laskowski… If you're a suspense reader, you have to read this book. I highly recommend One Night Gone.

This was a fun read on a lazy Sunday morning. Told in dual POV, it involved Allison solving the mystery of the disappearance of Maureen 30 years ago from Opal Beach.

My first book by author Tara Laskowski was entertaining. It was more of a gentle mystery with some twists. The writing was smooth and flowed easily capturing me into the atmosphere of the Opal Beach. Wanting to know what happened to Maureen had me tapping my kindle furiously. Their pasts has a secret hidden.

Both the characters in the timelines were quite similar in their place in life, wanting a new start when circumstances knocked them down. Maureen's scenes touched my heart as there was innocence in her dreams. The dramatic scenes were interspersed well to make me want to know these women better.

The book was a slow read as compared to my thrillers, the story could be guessed if the clues were followed. But I left my analytical brain behind to enjoy the story of the missing girl. A morning well spent.