Oh Simone St. James you've done it again!! I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this book being a little more recently set then the other, but it was AMAZING! Creepy and spooky in all the right ways.

No doubt about it: Simone St. James is the queen of the modern ghost story. I have not read anyone who has her talent for anchoring her stories in plausible reality and producing a taut, sophisticated narrative. She avoids the tropes and cliches. The ghosts themselves become believable characters, much like the people they were in life--whether those personalities were run-of-the-mill or psychopathic.

In Sun Down Motel, St. James presents dual narrators: in 2017, 20-year-old Carly Kirk, whose mother's death sets her off on a journey to find her missing (presumed dead) aunt Viv, who disappeared from Fell, New York's Sun Down motel 35 years ago; in 1982, Viv Delaney, the night clerk at the Sun Down, who embroils herself in a deadly hunt for a serial killer.

Characters' lives, present and past (including those of the ghosts), intersect in unexpected ways, unraveling multilevel mysteries which all lead back to the Sun Down Motel.

Highly recommended.

Full Disclosure--NetGalley and the publisher provided me with a digital ARC of this book. This is my honest review.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review. This is the third book I have read by this author, and like her last book, The Broken Girls, I couldn't put The Sun Down Motel down. I like that her novels have two separate story lines in two different decades that intertwine and that there is also a bit of a supernatural element as well. I look forward to her next novel.

First line: The night it all ended, Vivian was alone.

Summary: In 1982 Viv Delaney is hitchhiking through New York when she is dropped off at the Sun Down Motel. That night she is offered the job of the night clerk for the motel. On her first nights she learns that not everything is as it seems at the Sun Down. The strong smell of cigarettes, doors opening and closing on their own and ghostly voices around every corner. Then one night in November Viv disappears without a trace.

Flash forward to 2017, Carly Kirk travels to the town of Fell, New York to find out what really happened to her aunt who disappeared from the Sun Down Motel in 1982.

My Thoughts: This was so much fun!! I read it in just 2 days. I loved the old motel, the people and the mystery. I always drive by old motels and wonder who actually stops there. This answered it for me. St. James’ descriptions of the place are just eerie. It is a place stuck in a time bubble. I can easily imagine the smell of the old smoke, the dirty carpets and the old bedspreads. Add to the creepy hotel a few ghosts and you have the recipe for a perfect story. The first time that Viv sees the woman it gave me chills.

FYI: If you love a good ghost story than this is for you!

Please note: this review will be posted on my blog on release day February 18, 2020. Link provided will not work until then. GoodReads review is already live.

Hi Future Wendy, it's Past Wendy. I'm writing to you from August 25, 2019. About a week ago your mind got blown when Berkley actually approved your NetGalley request for The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James. The book isn't actually out until February 18, 2020 (um, that's today for you Future Wendy...) but Past Wendy knew that as much as she would end up regretting it later, she had to read this book Right. Now. Why regrets? Because it would mean just having to wait that much longer for St. James' next book. Past Wendy, having read this book 6 months before the release date is now waiting 6 months longer than Future Wendy for the next book (got all that?). But seriously, I had to read this book right away. And, of course, it was all the happy book noises you can imagine.



In 1982, 20-year-old Vivian "Viv" Delaney runs away from her small Illinois town to escape an overbearing mother. Her parting shot? I'm going to New York City to be an actress! Where Viv ends up is in upstate Fell, New York. The town is a bit dark, a bit odd, but something about it speaks to Viv, so she stays. She gets a job as the night clerk at The Sun Down Motel, one of those seedy around the edges places that never realized it's full potential. However, like Fell itself, there's something not quite right about the motel. There are unexplained events, ghosts that walk the halls, and given how small Fell is, they sure do have a problem with missing and dead girls. Then, one night, Viv disappears...without a trace.



Fast forward to 2017 and Viv's niece, Carly Kirk, has landed in Fell. Carly was born after her aunt's disappearance. She's presumed dead, but a body was never found and her death left a chasm in the family. Carly's mother, Viv's younger sister, succumbed to cancer, haunted by her older sister's disappearance. 20-year-old Carly, still grieving for her mom, not sure what she wants to do with her life, decides a break from college is in order. What she knows for sure is she wants answers. How does a pretty 20-year-old in a small town just vanish? And her body never recovered? It's not right, and Carly decides she's going to go to Fell and get some answers. She's not even in town for a day before she finds herself a roommate (in her aunt's old apartment no less!) and a job working the night shift at the Sun Down - still just as haunted 30 years later.



St. James' work generally skirts around the fringes of "romantic elements" and while Carly does get a "love interest" over the course of the story, it's very much a secondary element with the suspense and Gothic setting taking center stage. As creepy as I thought St. James' last book was, this one is even creepier. As in, it left me feeling unsettled - which having cut my teeth on Nancy Drew and reading Patricia Cornwell by the age of 16 well...unsettling Wendy takes some doing. Fell is a fictional town, but the upstate New York setting is inspired, the town locked away in time (Carly finds herself pulling old newspapers at the library because the archives haven't been digitized yet) with spotty cell reception, and seriously, No Name Motels are right up there with vans that don't have any side windows. Creepy.



But the genius of this story is how St. James centers it on the female gaze. This is, by far, the most interesting female-centric suspense novel I've read in a while because ALL the female characters are interested, multi-faceted and calling the shots. Viv, realizing nothing is being done about all the murdered women that keep turning up in Fell decides to play amateur sleuth and...solves it. The cops cannot seem to find a connection between the victims, but she does. Carly, grieving and determined, wants answers to what happened to Aunt Viv, which means retracing her steps and stumbling across the same mystery of the murdered women. There's Alma, the only female cop on the Fell police force, dealing with rampant 1982 sexism on the job, and relegated to the night shift because...of course she is. She's an unvarnished straight-shooter but also kind of sly and slick, which I tend to gravitate towards in female cop and PI characters. And then there's Marnie, a photographer getting by, occasionally doing freelance for the cops at crime scenes, and entering Viv's orbit because she was hired to tail a married woman meeting her lover at the Sun Down. These are also women cognizant of the road blocks they face because, men. The 1982 story line in particular. It's enraging, but riveting to read about the women circumventing these obstacles thrown in their way.



If I have any gripes about this story it's that I felt the beginning was a little slow to start and the ending a little too rushed - but it's creepy, it's compelling, and it's filled with dynamite female characters working to solve the mystery and find justice. It's not my favorite of St. James' oeuvre (which is basically splitting hairs anyway) but it's so very good. Dark, compelling, creepy, the kind of book that keeps you up at night flipping the pages.



Final Grade = A

Wow. Just Wow. Simone St. James is one of my favorites. I’ve loved all her books and I’m always excited when a new one is ready for publication. I think Sun Down Motel her best yet.

Vivian ,working the night shift at the Sun Down motel, disappears one night in 1982 never to be seen again. In 2017, although Carly has never met her aunt Vivian, she feels her loss tremendously as it affected the relationship with her mother her whole life, which is why she moves to Fell, NY the last place her aunt was seen alive. Carly takes the job as the Sun Down Motel night clerk too hoping to find out once and for all what happened that night.
Part ghost story, part mystery the book alternates between the voice of Vivian and Carly, beautifully blending their lives. Deliciously creepy, and thrilling, I had to read this with the lights on and couldn’t put it down. I highly recommend.

Carly’s aunt Viv mysteriously disappeared from her night shift at the Sun Down Motel in Fell, New York in 1982, presumed dead. 35 years later, after her mother died without leaving answers about Viv, Carly goes to Fell, takes the same job at the motel, and embarks on a mission to discover what happened to her aunt. Told in a dual narrative in 1982 and in 2017, Carly and Viv both experience eerie disturbances at the motel, where a restless spirit mourns her own death, a young boy doesn’t understand what happened to him in the pool, and a mysterious smoking man lingers. Both women begin to uncover a string of murders in the dark town of Fell. What happened to Viv? And who is responsible for all of those women’s deaths?

I have read the author's previous titles, and although I do prefer the ones set after World War I, I am starting to appreciate her newer books. The mystery and setting were very compelling, and I was instantly pulled into the stories. I appreciated the main twist, but I thought the one minor conflict with the grandson could have used more development. Also, as I am a fan of romance, I would have liked more with the relationship with Nick. Despite these quibbles, I would recommend this book to our mystery and suspense readers.

In 1982, Viv Delaney gets out of the car of the creepster she hitched a ride with to find herself in tiny Fell, New York. With almost no money and fewer prospects, she takes a job as a night clerk at the run down Sun Down Motel. It’s not long before Vic starts hearing footsteps, smelling smoke and sees the motel room doors open and close by themselves. Power outages are frequent and leave Vic terrified.
In 2017, Carly Kirk wants to find out what happened to her aunt Viv, who disappeared from her job as a night clerk at a hotel in upstate New York. She travels to Fell, and finds a place to live in the same building Vic lived in, and then is shocked to see her aunt’s old job at the motel is open. Carly takes the job and it’s not long before she begins to experience the same strange phenomena her aunt did. Told in two different time lines by both Vic and Carly, this story is scary as hell. St. James continues to prove she’s one of the best, most creative writers publishing today