This book felt like a Veronica Mars episode. Or, not an episode, but maybe a story arc? I felt like the whodunnit aspect was pretty far-fetched and this book was just an excuse for us to catch up with Agent Sarah. It was a little strange that this book took place so long after the others. I'm not used to detective series having such big time jumps, so I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be invested in her life or not.

Take an interesting cast of characters, including a high level government official, a prominent judge, a secretary single mom, and a convicted sex offender, add in plenty of marital drama, and place them all at a parent's weekend gathering at a California university to celebrate their children's freshman year. But the students being celebrated, "The Five" as they are known around campus, never show. Is this a case of irresponsible young adults ghosting their parents, or something much darker and more sinister? Portrayed in alternating perspectives, the story is twisty and engaging, as fans have come to expect from Finlay and as an added bonus FBI agent Sarah Keller makes a reappearance. Not quite as compelling or intricate as Finlay's earlier titles, but still suspenseful fun that makes a fits the bill as a summer beach read.

Netgalley ARC

3.5 stars, rounded up for goodreads

I liked this slow-burn mystery. Despite the slower pacing for a thriller, this one kept me guessing, and I didn't find myself bored. I devoured it pretty quickly, and I think it would be a great read for the beach this summer. The bit of insight into the "where did they end up" in the epilogue was a nice touch.

Our main character, Agent Keller, is apparently from a couple of previous Finlay novels, but I'd forgotten about her, so it felt like a new character. At first, I wasn't sure why so much time was being spent on the parents, but once I figured out that the story is actually about the parents more than the students, that stopped feeling so weird. There are a lot of characters to keep track of here, but they're pretty easy to distinguish as the book goes on because they're dealing with entirely different things in their lives. Almost everyone is a terrible person, but that was sort of part of the fun.

A huge thank you to the author and the publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

Parents Weekend was a fun, quick read! I enjoyed it. One of my favorite types of book are books with multiple point of views and this one was done well. Felt like I was watching a Netflix series. This book was not as mysterious as expected and I guessed some of the twists/turns, but it doesn’t mean that it wasn’t entertaining. Great story!

PARENTS WEEKEND, Alex Finlay ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This fast-paced, twisty thriller is set on a college campus full of secrets. I really enjoyed the multiple POVs which kept the story moving along. You do have to suspend belief for a few parts, but still a gripping, bingeable read.

Finlay is a master of suspense, and this delivered. However, the number of characters in this was a little crazy. I actually had to take notes at the start of this novel just to keep them all straight. But once I got them all memorized, I really enjoyed the trajectory of the story. Plus, I love Sarah Keller, and I'm glad she was on the case. Brittany Pressley's narration was great!

I've enjoyed Alex Finlay's books for some years now, so I was pretty excited to dive into Parents Weekend. The story revolves around five university students who go missing just before a dinner with their parents. Like many thrillers nowadays, the book features multiple points of view, this time from all the families, offering some backstory for each student and their parents. We also follow special agent Sarah Keller, a recurring character from Finlay’s previous books, who is brought in to help with the investigation.

The book was fairly entertaining and on the shorter side, I was never bored. However, I was baffled by the lack of a solid mystery, if there was one at all. The reason behind the students' disappearance is unsurprising, and the primary villain is the first person that will likely come to your mind. There’s also a secondary antagonist who is equally predictable. While I was disappointed by the weak twists and lack of suspense, I’ll still read Finlay’s next book in hopes of something better.

Parents Weekend struck a nice balance between police procedural, thriller, and the ongoing story of our main character, Sarah Keller, whe we met in a previous book.

There were quite a few POVs to keep on track of, but each chapter was labeled to indicate whose perspective it followed, so I didn't have a problem keeping the characters straight. The rotation of POVs effectively kept me glued to the story and anxious for every new installment in each story thread

The pages devoted to our main character's personal life were my favorite part of the story. As always, I loved getting to revisit Sarah and Bob Keller. I'll never get tired of following the adventures of this duo and hope we see them again in future books.

This mystery wasn't as compelling as some of the authors other books, but overall, Parents Weekend is still an entertaining, page turning thriller.

This was a solid thriller, but I wasn't as connected with the story or characters as I wanted to be. I really enjoyed the writing style, though, and would be interested in reading more from this author!

I had such high hopes for this book as it has such a good premise: five families get together to celebrate parents weekend, but their children are missing. Each family has their own struggles...and reason for suspicion...

But, it fell a little short. I think mostly because five families and five children (plus the detectives) make for a lot of characters to follow--especially with differing viewpoints and timelines. There just wasn't enough substance to get to know the chracters or really know enough about them to care, so the "reveal" just didn't carry much weight.

So, again, it was entertaining while busy with a move, but not enough that I'd really recommend it.

Five families show up to celebrate the end of their offsprings' first year of college Santa Clara University in Northern California.

The parents get together for cocktails and dinner - but the students are no shows. As time passes search parties head out, rumors abound, journalists write stories, and FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller investigates.

Readers see what trouble the missing students are in and wonder why they were targeted. Is it for their own sins or those of their parents?

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy of Parents Weekend by Alex Finlay in exchange for an honest review. It’s out now, so you can get it!

Parents Weekend, another solid outing by Finlay, is a fast-paced, quick read about a group of college students who go missing over parents weekend from their idyllic college in California. The novel follows the five families of the missing students as well as that of FBI agent Sarah Keller. Are the students truly missing, or are they just idiot kids being kids? And if not, who would want to harm them, and why?

Part police procedural, part thriller, this one kept me guessing until nearly the end. Four stars. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Super fast paced and kept me hooked.

Five college students go missing one evening and Special Agent Sarah Keller is put on the case to find them. After every lead is a dead end, she wonders if she’ll ever get to the bottom of what happened.

While I enjoyed this book, I felt like it was lacking. The story was unique but not executed well. Overall I found this one just okay.

3.5 This was a fun fast paced thriller with way too many characters and a bit of an anticlimactic ending. This book follows the parents of 5 kids who go missing and the cops looking for them and a few scenes from the kidnapped kids. I literally had to make a tree of who belonged to which family because they are all thrown at you in the first quarter of the book.The story itself was fine but nothing special enough to keep track of all those characters. The writing was good and that’s what keeps me coming back to this author but I may have to accept that his large cast mysteries may not be for me. I would like to thank NetGalley and the publishers for a chance to read this book for an honest review.

Alex Finlay is a bit of a hit or miss for me. I did enjoy a few of his titles but this one really didn't hit for me. None of the characters are likeable enough to actually keep reading to find out what is going on and the sheer volume of characters is so hard to keep track of. I wish there was less chaos and a lot more plot development

I ended up DNF-ing this one cause I just stopped caring about any of them

Thank you SMP/Minotaur gifted copy!

Parents Weekend
Alex Finlay
Publishing Date: May 6, 2025
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

🎧 Narrator: Brittany Pressley 🎧

It’s parents weekend at a small private college in California. Five parents show up for a planned dinner.. and their kids do not. The rest of the books switches between the POV of the 5 families and the lead investigator.

This was a solid thriller with a police procedural flavor. While I didn’t try to figure out the twists and just went for the ride, I could see how many might figure out at least one of them ahead of time. If you’re looking for a quick and easy thriller that you can binge in a day, this is a great choice!

🎧 Brittany Pressley was amazing in her narration as always! As there are so many POV‘s, I did have to focus to figure out who was who, and a tandem read may have made that a little easier. But no regrets doing this one on audio!

Very entertaining. Was nice to see Agent Keller back at work. Overall I thought this was a great story. Wrapped up a bit quickly for me and didn't build up to the real killer in a developing way.

Still, this was extremely hard to but down as are all of Alex Finlay's books for me. I always looking forward to reading new books by him.

Parents weekend... an opportunity for parents to see their children's glamourous - okay, more like not-so-glamorous - college lives. Except for these five families, who enter into a nightmare when their kids don't show up for dinner.

Told from the point of view of the parents, who all have their own intense backgrounds and stories to share, and the investigator whose clock is ticking on finding these kids, it's all hands on deck to figure out what happened, because there's no way college kids with tricky parents would ditch them, right?

I really enjoyed this book. The pacing was QUICK and there are a lot of interesting POVs that had me saying "one more chapter!" If you don't like books with a lot of characters to keep track of, this won't be something that you like. I almost felt like I needed a family tree to keep track of who's who in the zoo.

What I will say is the eventual wrap up of this book felt a bit lackluster for me. I wouldn't necessarily say I figured out the twist, but in hindsight it was pretty obvious - and also wasn't a conclusion that I was satisfied with.

This isn't what I would describe as a gripping thriller, but the pages kept turning.

☆ARC REVIEW☆
Publication date: Available now!


I was so looking forward to 'Parents Weekend' as I absolutely love Alex Finlay's books BUT it wasn't my favorite.

It was a bit hard to follow due to the amount of POVs as well as flipping back and forth between then and now.

I wasn't a fan of the reference of the Idaho 4 murders as in my personal opinion, to be referenced in a fictional matter, was just too soon.

Thank you NetGalley, Alex Finlay, and St Martins Press for an advanced copy in exchange for a review.