Fifteen years ago, four teenage girls were attacked while working at a Blockbuster, and only one survives. The suspected killer, Vince, was identified but flees before police can catch him. Now, four more girls are attacked in a local ice cream store, with inexplicable parallels between the two events. The Night Shift is told from 3 perspectives in the third person: Keller, the FBI agent brought in to find Vince, Chris, Vince’s brother who is now a public defender, and Ella, the only survivor of the Blockbuster murders. I liked how the different perspectives gave you different views on the case: police, legal, and public opinion. I predicted the twist from the beginning, but I was still surprised at the end! There were so many red herrings.

I loved FInlay's first book and was so excited to receive an ARC of "The Night Shift". I loved how this book followed two timelines and really made you wonder if the two horrific crimes were done by the same killer or is it a copycat. I never figured out the twist and loved how it ended! Highly recommend this one.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Minotaur Books and Alex Finlay for an advanced reader copy of this book.!

What a fun and suspenseful read! I loved the dual POVs, the fact the original murder took place in a Blockbuster (so much 90s nostalgia there!), and that we got more of Agent Sarah Keller. She was in his first book Every Last Fear and I just love her character so much. I couldn't put this one down and really enjoyed all the twists and turns throughout.

Did I have a blast reading this? YES! Did I also think this book was a bit of a mess? ALSO YES!

Alex Finlay really has a knack for writing propulsive page turners, but there is an element in both novels so far that have thrown me out of the groove of the story. This book's scratch has to do with a certain 8mos preg with twins FBI agent who was still somehow still working at full capacity? Girl is DUE my man! I laughed the first time it came up and assumed it was maybe an error, but it is a very heavily referenced plot point.

I loved the references to video rental stores and the actual murder plot was interesting and fun. I binged this because I was enjoying it so much.

While I guessed the killer pretty early on, the sinister reveal at the end was jawdropping-ly hilarious.

I'd say go into this one with a grain of salt as far as believability goes, and just enjoy the absolutely bonkers ride.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Minotaur for an ARC of this title.
3.5 Stars rounded down.

Personally, I love multiple points of view in a novel and this one had plenty. Once you get over the confusion of who's who, this book delivered on suspense, drama, and nostalgia. I didn't figure out the killer at all so the ending blew me away. If you're a fan of suspense and thrillers, read this one!

This was the second Alex Finlay book I have read and was eagerly looking forward to it after enjoying the first book. Although sometimes I feel like the second book of authors I enjoy leaves a lot to be desired, this was the opposite for Alex Finlay. I actually enjoyed this book more than the first one! I really liked the FBI detective and seeing the story unfold through multiple points of view plus having little flashbacks to what happened 15 years ago. I'm really looking forward to Alex Finlay's next book!

as always I had a difficult time getting through this on my phone, but once it was available on audio i FLEW through it!!! I really liked how all the storylines were interconnected and the twists and turns i didn’t see coming. I really recommend to anyone who’s a fan of Lisa Jewell or thriller/mystery’s!

New Year’s Eve 1999. Four teenagers attacked at a Blockbuster Video in Linden, New Jersey.

A sole survivor.

The suspect—another teenager—is captured then released.

Then vanishes.

Fifteen years later, more teen girls are once again attacked at an ice cream store in the same town, and again, only one girl makes it out alive.

So is the construct of Alex Finlay’s latest—a propulsive, unputdownable thriller rife with surprises.

In this tangled tale of trauma and secrets aplenty, we meet the FBI agents who pull together threads from the past, the surviving women, the local police, and those who continue to reel in the aftermath of the murders.

Finlay thrusts us into a nightmare, atmosphere heavy with suspicion and distrust, as truths emerge which tangle the mystery even tighter.

This is the kind of book you can’t help but binge. Told from multiple, alternating points of views, this intricately knotted thriller probes the ties that bind, the many crimes of its characters, and the secrets they hide.

It’s wildly entertaining and immersive with breakneck pacing—a ‘whodunit’ procedural with nostalgic underpinnings perfect for those of us who relish the 90s.

I grew up in the 80s and graduated in 1995. This book has some fun nostalgia with VHS and video stores. It wasn't quite as gripping as the last novel by Alex Finlay,"Every Last Fear."

This copy was kindly given to me by the publisher and Netgalley for review. All opinions are my own.

I flew through this book in probably two days. It was fast paced and had my attention the whole time but I just wish it had been a little more... I don't know, scary? Thrilling? Spooky? I saw the real murderer from a million miles away, though the build up to the reveal was good. The murders were dark and savage. I really enjoyed the multiple POVs. The only one that ever annoyed me or I found myself trying to flip through faster was the brother of the boy suspected of being the murderer of the original crimes that disappeared after.

Overall, I'd say pick it up and give it a shot. It was not a bad book, I just wanted more from it.

Where were you on the eve of the new millennium? Taking Prince’s words to heart, out partying like it was 1999 (for one final, crazy night)? Perched nervously in front of your computer, which was—if a host of doomsayers were actually onto something with their wild theories—about to trigger a meltdown of epic proportions, due to some numerical programming snafu that would kick in as the internal clock and calendar ticked over to 2000? Or, maybe you feared [hoped?] the biblical apocalypse was nigh, and you were doing… well, whatever one does to prepare for all of that?

No matter where you were or what you were doing on Y2K, though, it was infinitely better than what happens in Alex Finlay’s chilling thriller The Night Shift, wherein that fateful night sees four teenage girls brutally attacked at the Blockbuster where they all work… three of whom are killed, and a fourth, injured. [See? Things could always be worse.]

The police quickly come up with and subsequently arrest a suspect—a young man who was sweet on one of the girls—but once he’s out on bail, he does a runner… virtually disappearing into thin air. He’s just… gone.

But here’s where things get really interesting, because Finlay changes things up by taking the reader straight from the year 2000, to a point some fifteen years later… a night on which the lone survivor of the Y2K attack—Ella, now a therapist—gets a phone call from an old acquaintance—Mr. Steadman, the principal from her high school, whom she hasn’t talked to in years—making a desperate plea for her help.

It’s happened again; four teens were attacked at an ice cream shop, in the same New Jersey town that’s still reeling from the atrocity a decade-and-a-half earlier, and—as in Ella’s case—only one of the four survived, a girl named Jesse. And Ella, being in the unique position to completely grok all the things Jesse feels, is the best possible person to get anything out of the non-communicative girl.

But, as Ella begins working with Jesse—trying to help her piece together her fragmented memories of the horrifying experience, along with two other people close to the case (FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller, and Jesse’s lawyer, Chris)—it becomes less and less clear what part Jesse really played in the shocking tragedy… or precisely how the two glaringly-similar cases might be connected.
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I love books in which nothing is clear-cut, because the uncertainty aligns with how I view life: as a winding road with a thousand little by-ways, which we travel down with only the vaguest idea of where we’re going… interacting with many people often, some, just once over the course of a lifetime, and still others, very randomly, but on multiple occasions.

The Night Shift is very much like that, and just when you think you understand how one thing (event or person) relates—or doesn’t—to another, Finlay turns everything you thought you knew on its head, and surprises you again.

Something else I really appreciation is a story told from multiple perspectives, because it shows how very differently each of us can view the same things… due to what we actually know (see, take part in), of course, but also owing to our unique experiences, which create the personal biases (propensities, beliefs) and fall-back reactions or behaviors from which we operate. The Night Shift is told from three different perspectives, shifting back and forth between them, as well as shifting in time, between NYE of 1999 and 2015. [If all of that sounds confusing, never fear... it really isn’t; we’re always aware who we’re following, and where along the timeline they are.]

Oh, and then there’s a nod to my still-to-this-day GOAT movie, Fargo. [Yes, really. There is no limit to my love for that 1996 film.] Special Agent Sarah Keller—smart, determined, hardworking, and long-suffering Feebie that she is—also happens to be… pregnant. Very, very pregnant, a la Fargo’s Marge Gunderson (that brilliantly-written Everywoman role so memorably and perfectly portrayed by Frances McDormand). There’s much to be said about the amazing dedication to her job that a third-trimester woman shows, when focussed with laser-like intensity on not only keeping herself and her unborn child safe, but on trying to keep others safe by catching the bad guy.

The Night Shift is one of those books I really hated to put down--to refill my glass, go to the bathroom, or (I hate to say it) go to sleep--and I hated even more to reach the last page, because the journey getting there was such a fantastic ride.

If you love smart, engrossing thrillers (suspense, crime, mystery, what have you), then this one should absolutely go to the top of your list.

Trust me; it’s really that good.
~GlamKitty

Probably just not my type of book, although the opening chapter grabbed my attention. I found it difficult to stay interested.

i absolutely LOVED this book and couldn't put it down. This really gave me the nostalgia (blockbuster!) and the perfect amount of thrill and suspense. Thank you so much for the opportunity to read and review and I really cannot wait to get my hands on Finlay's next book because i'm sure it will be just as amazing as his others!

This was my first book by Alex Finlay and it was a good one!

I could not pass up the opportunity to read a book about a serial killer set in the 90's - in a Blockbuster of all places!

The Night Shift was reminiscent of the cult classic slasher film Scream. The concept was not exactly original, but I loved this book and found myself reading it in 2 sittings. I loved the short chapters and multiple perspectives.

I really enjoyed Agent Keller's character - I would love to read an ongoing series based on her character! She's tough, strong, smart, and desperate to find the person responsible for the killings in the Blockbuster, and later, at the ice cream shop. My only issue with Agent Keller is that she was eight months pregnant with twins. I just didn't feel like that aspect of her character was truly believable.

Overall if you are looking for a fun, fast paced suspenseful mystery, The Night Shift is for you!

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the advanced e-book.

My first book by the author and won’t be my last. This book kept my attentions through all the twists and turns until the very end.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Minotaur Books and the author for allowing me to read an advanced reader copy of this book. The book published on March 1, 2022.
The story starts out with Ella, Candy, Katie and Mandy as they are all closing up the Blockbuster on New Year’s Eve 1999 with their manager, Steve. Ella is the only survivor of a brutal attack that night. Fifteen years later, she receives a phone call from someone in her past asking her to go to the hospital to talk to another victim – this time Jesse is the only survivor of a very similar attack on a local business.
An arrest was made in the 1999 attack; but he was released on a technicality and virtually disappeared. Did he come back 15 years later and, if so, what is the connection between the two events? Told in multiple points of view, we have Ella, now a therapist and dealing with her own demons from the 1999 attack, FBI Agent Keller, who is pregnant with twins and teams up with Atticus to investigate, Chris, an attorney, who is connected to the attacker, and was adopted and given a new name.
I had figured out one aspect of the story relatively early and easily but wanted to see how it all played out. Overall, I thought it was well-written and will read his other books. The ending was dramatic…and the Epilogue could have been a bit more descriptive.

I really enjoyed this book. A few things I figured out but a lot I didn't. There were several characters that I would like to see in a sequel. They were all written very well. You knew their whole story and anyone of them could be in a future book and you would remember them. I can see why people kept recommending this book.
Look forward to reading more from this author.

This was my first Alex Finlay book and I was pleasantly surprised with it! This was a thriller but I feel like it mixed up a lot of elements but did it well. It had slasher, final girl, detective story vibes all wrapped up in one. It was pretty fast paced and it kept you guessing. There was one plot twist that surprised me and one that didn't. It's hard to do something new when it comes to thrillers but this gave me creepy slasher vibes in the beginning and then moved more into a faster paced mystery and then ended with a little thriller toward the end. I liked that we got multiple points of views but they were very different perspectives. I liked most of the characters in this book.... a few of them being quite endearing. I will definitely read Finlay books in the future.

I was pretty sure the perp figured out fairly early on, but it was fun watching it all come together, and finding out I was correct in my guess. I found the story entertaining, and liked that part of the story was in the late 90's, my early college days. If you like thrillers, this is definitely one to check out.

I really enjoyed this. I thought it was super unique. The imagery/setting was so vivid- great writing. The one thing I didn’t love is the sheer # of characters. It got confusing at times.. especially with similar names (Ella, Keller/ Candy/Mandy, and I think there was Bob and another B male name) anyway. I was glad to be reading the ebook so I could highlight the names and jog my memory. I did not know how it was going to end.