What a fantastic read! I really didn't know where the author was going with this one, and I admit I didn't see the twist. But it so appealed to my love of both ghost stories and thrillers, and the narrative was pulled off so wonderfully. Character development in some cases is a little shaky, but not on a level that does the story any harm.

What a chilling, thrilling, amazing story. I absolutely love books with characters telling their tale from two different time periods. The combination of a murder and a wretched motel equals a thriller which will be easily devoured in one sitting.

Although not a book I would purchase in my professional life, it is one that I will be recommending in my volunteer life. Definitely small-town creepy, but in a very good way!!!

Honestly, it is impossible not to find Simone St. James's books absolutely engrossing. This is the kind of book that, once you reach the last 100 pages in particular, you won't be able to stop reading until you've reached the conclusion. The Sun Down Motel features the story of Viv, who ends up unexpectedly working as a night clerk at The Sun Down Motel when she wanders into town in 1982, and her niece, Carly, who arrives in Fell, NY in 2017 to research Viv's inexplicable disappearance shortly after she arrived in town. Viv's part of the story answers the questions Carly is posing, and the answers are truly frightening- and I'm not just referring to the super spooky paranormal occurrences at the motel. Carly walks very closely in Viv's footsteps, and the closer she walks, the more dangerous it seems to be. The answers to who the good guys are doesn't always have simple answers in this one. I've been reading Simone St. James for years now, and with this and The Broken Girls, an always excellent author has seemingly truly broken through to new realms of popularity and storytelling, and I hope The Sun Down Motel continues her trajectory!

The perfect amount of spooky, creepy and mystery!

I read The Broken Girls last year and was totally spooked-this one brought on all the same emotions and possibly more.

Even from the dedication I knew I was gonna love it.

Carly is totally awesome! I'm sure we'd be friends- her obsession with everything macabre and dark would guarantee we would be friends. The disappearance of her aunt 35 years ago haunts her and draws her like a moth to a flame to Fell, NY.

As the book went on, I definitely had some theories. Some of them panned out and others were sooo wrong!

I also kept thinking 'please, please, don't let this person be involved! I like them too much.'.

The setting is so creepy! St. James knows how to freak a girl out. Even as she reads during broad day light with the light on. Her descriptions are just plain eerie.

I LOVE the dual timeline! The switch between Carly and Viv's POV is definitely interesting. The pacing kept me on my toes because as one POV finishes and figures out something the chapter ends and the POV changes. Suspenseful and at times frustrating!

It's not a bloodbath, I don't recall any super gruesome or gory scenes. There's cussing and mentions of drug use.

Miss James does it again!

Short review: creepy, spooky and mysterious!

The Sun Down Motel was something I wasn’t expecting. I was hooked by the My Favorite Murder dedication to Murderinos. I thought I was going to be reading a psychological thriller...little I know I was stepping into a horror story. I don’t normally read this genre, but it lived up to it’s scary promise--murderous ghosts and all. The flashback between the decades made it all the more interesting. Recommended.

I loved this paranormal psychological thriller told from two perspectives 35 years apart. Well paced with great character development and surprise twists, this page turner kept me reading late into the night, Strongly recommended.

As a Murderino, a nerdy girl, an odd girl this book gave me life, I was enraptured from start to finish. The Sun Down Motel invoked all of my love for mystery, true crime, and the spooky.

It is 2017. Carly Kirk, the main character of the Sun Down Motel leaves her home to move to Fell, a sleepy town in upstate New York, in order to try to solve the mystery of her aunt Viv's disappearance while living there 35 years earlier in 1982. Following closely in her aunt's footsteps, she ends up getting a job at the same motel her aunt worked at, and as she slowly starts unraveling the mystery, more questions arise. St. James delivers a haunting, creepy story that moves back and forth in time, progressing through a recounting of Viv's experience in Fell, and following Carly's determined search for answers. The writing is smooth and deliberate, maintaining the suspense throughout.

First I would like to thank Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for allowing me an electronic copy in exchange for an honest review.

I have never read Simone St. James before. And I am so excited to read her other books! I really liked this one. It checked all the boxes for me. I loved the murder mystery. I loved how she didn't just include ghosts, but she gave them meaning and a purpose. I liked how I had the feeling about some of the characters being more than who they said they were but I enjoyed the twists. They didn't come from left field nowhere. They made sense and were believable. I like the pace she told the story at and the way she wove the past and present together for the right amount of time and at the right times. LOVED this book! I will be reading more St. James.

Simone St. James recently shifted from writing historical ghost stories to a more modern setting with "The Broken Girls" (2018), which was very good. St. James continues with the modern ghost story in "The Sun Down Motel," set in upstate New York, moving between the present and 1982. Puzzled by her Aunt Viv's disappearance in 1982, Carly Kirk, a restless and curious young adult, leaves her Illinois town for New York to learn more about her Aunt Viv and the mystery surrounding her vanishing. Carly quickly slips into her aunt's routine, locating a place to stay in the same building, possibly even the same room, as Viv, and going to work at the same run-down roadside motel. As the weeks pass, Carly meets many ghosts from her aunt's past -- those living and the ones haunting the motel grounds. Interweaving the past and the present, murders pile up and St. James builds just the right amount of tension, suspense and dread.

An excellent mystery for Murderinos and mystery lovers alike! All of us who live off of True-Crime podcasts long to stumble upon a mystery like the Sun Down Motel's haunted ghosts. Although parts were solved a bit conveniently, overall I'd highly recommend this to friends and patrons.

Wow.
I never wanted to stop reading this, and I wanted to get to the end so badly. I wanted to know so badly everything about it and you know what? It was perfect. This book, from the beginning, was astounding, enthralling even. It truly captured the spirit of obsession around solving crime and I LOVED IT. My inner murderino is SCREAMING with how good it was.

Carly’s aunt, Viv, disappeared in 1982 from the Sun Down Motel. Now, in 2017, Carly wants answers. She finds herself in Fell, New York working the same motel night shift as her aunt in 2017. But, the Sun Down isn’t just any roadside motel, there are strange things happening there- doors opening on their own, the smell of cigarette smoke when no one is around. Carly soon realizes that there’s more to her aunt’s disappearance than she realized, and the hotel itself may know what happened. Switching perspectives between Viv in the past and Carly in the present magnifies the suspense of this haunting novel. St. James mixes horror and crime genres in this chilling take on the tale of the roadside motel. Readers will love the character development, the detailed setting, and every twist and turn. This unpredictable novel will draw in any mystery reader.

EXCELLENT, solid 4 star read!!

Loved the mystery and loved the ghost story! I loved both MCs and even when I was certain I knew where it was heading (and I was right) it didn’t take away one iota from the suspenseful story. This was a book that I will absolutely be recommending to others...

Loved it!

I will read anything Simone St. James writes. I've been a fan since reading The Haunting of Maddy Clare. This one does not disappoint, and I will look forward to recommending it when it's published. Thanks for the early look.

Simone St. James does it again!

I loved St. James’ previous novel, The Broken Girls so I was so excited to read her follow-up, The Sun Down Motel. The old, run-down motel/small town setting really appealed to me.

In this story, we are following two timelines. Viv In 1982, who works the night shift at the Sun Down motel and becomes engrossed in finding out who is responsible for murdering young women in the small town of Fell, New York. But then Viv goes missing herself and her disappearance is never solved.

Thirty-five years later in 2017, Viv’s niece, Carly, is determined to find out what happened to the aunt she has never met and who her late mother always refused to speak about.

I loved the writing in this novel and I found the “creepiness” to be right on point. A small town, a haunted motel, murder.....what’s not to love?

The only small issue I had with this story was that I found myself getting slightly confused at times due to the two, very similar, timelines. However, this did not take away from my enjoyment and I would 100% recommended this book! Thank you netgalley for the opportunity to read this book early!

Excellent !!!! Not since The Shining has the thought of staying at a hotel made my skin crawl like it did reading this novel. We have all had occasion to stay at a motel like the Sun Down Motel, a place to rest for the night on long journeys, which is what makes this novel so believable. Part noir, part ghost story, part mystery, this novel has it all. There is a redemptive ending that comes full circle and closes the story nicely. I can not wait for the movie. Thank you to Penguin Random House and Netgalley for making this one available to me. I truly loved this story.

Probably 3.5 stars, but I rounded up. Loved the atmosphere, and in the first half of the book, I found the ghosts genuinely unsettling (enough so that I felt uneasy reading after dark). I got very caught up in Viv's investigation, which felt suspenseful--and also sadly typical for the time period. I was less attached to Carly, perhaps because with the book switching between 1982 and 2017, a lot of the time it felt like she was retreading stuff that Viv had already discovered (which is more of a structure issue than a character issue, I admit). I liked Helen and Nick.

The ending fell apart a bit for me, merely because I wasn't sure about the Callum revelation and thus felt a little detached reading everything. And as much as I love the atmosphere created by two of the ghosts haunting the Sun Down Motel (Betty and the smoking guy), at times the sheer number of ghosts in one place felt a little too <i>Sixth Sense</i>. I don't know, I think the little boy ghost and the final (spoiler!) ghost nudged it over the line to too many spooky spooks in one place.

The Sun Down Motel is an atmospheric mystery set in 1982 and the present day. This novel was not what I was expecting -- I thought it would be a dual storyline mystery, but it has a strong supernatural element that is not my cup of tea.