I loved this one and the ties to The Night Shift! It was well-written and held my interest the whole time. The different perspectives helped tell the story and gave different angles and suspense to the plot. The parents weekend on campus setting was unique and fitting to the story. The way it was written allowed for a twist and ending that I wasn’t expecting. I also began to really empathasize with the characters. Great book!

I found this book a little hard to follow in the beginning because of so many characters. Then chapters are titled to help with this confusion but it still is some what hard to track. 5 college freshmen, all with family drama, have their parent/s coming for parents weekend. On the day of the parents arrival, the university learns of the death of a student who has been missing for a week. When all 5 students fail to show up for the family supper and none of them are answering their phones the investigation begins. It is a gripping tale with unexpected twists.

Having myself had multiple visits to private colleges for parent's weekend, I was intrigued. Right from the beginning when five students do not show up for dinner with their parents, I decided to suspend reality and just enjoy the suspense and mystery of what exactly happened. As the chapters alternate between the families and you learn more about the students through their families, Alex Finlay draws you in to their lives and relationships. This twisty suspense thriller kept my interest and was a quick read. Did I already mention that you need to suspend reality? I would like to see the author write another story that includes FBI agent Sarah Keller and her family. May 2025 Pub Date.

I really enjoyed this quick read. I was looking for something to pick up that I could knock out and this delivered. The short chapters had me flying through. I did get a tad confused with all the characters but still really enjoyed the book. I was hooked from page one and the family drama was 5 stars.

Enjoyed the book, as I always do when I read Alex Finlay's work. Several college students become friends while encountering drama with another student who is posting online blogs about them. Not so friendly ones, either. Many of the kids come from families with wealth or fame. I liked nearly none of them, to be honest, but that was mostly the point. A few had redeeming qualities but even the good ones did something not so good when push came to shove. The ending was sad, perhaps a little disappointing in that lessons may be learned but some actions can never be taken back. Great plotting and pacing. A few spoilers but mostly predictable, in a good way. Totally hit the spot for a suspense read last weekend.

Riveting thriller. Detailed characters and interesting story lines. This book held my attention through. There were a few improbable events, but overall, a well-told story.
Parents Weekend introduces us to a series of six families- five families of college students, and one FBI agent and her family. The various dynamics of the families are interesting and formative.
Each of The Five college students has a unique personality and past, that contributes to the storyline.
The ending has some twists and gives a good resolution to the story.
Would definitely recommend.

Parents Weekend by Alex Finlay
Rating: 4 stars
Pub date: 5/1

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Minotaur Books for my advanced copy!

Alex Finlay delivers another page-turning thriller in Parents Weekend, a novel full of family drama, college nostalgia, and a chilling mystery. Set against the scenic backdrop of a small Northern California college, five families gather to celebrate their children’s first year. But when the students fail to show up to dinner and remain missing, a joyful weekend quickly spirals into chaos.

Told from multiple perspectives and bouncing between past and present, the story dives into both the mystery of what happened and the complicated lives of the parents involved. Are old secrets to blame? Or is something darker going on among the kids themselves? FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller steps in to help uncover the truth before it’s too late.

It’s twisty, suspenseful, and has just the right amount of emotional depth to keep you invested.

Parents Weekend by Alex Finlay is a quickly paced, binge-worthy “popcorn” thriller. Thanks to the short chapters, full cast of characters (all with something to hide) and the impressive FBI agent Sarah Keller on the case, I flew through this novel. The plot features 5 college students at Santa Clara University in Northern California who are discovered missing over Parents Weekend. All of the parents and missing students have skeletons in their closets. There are many suspects and several red herrings before the fairly predictable reveal and climax. I enjoyed the character of Sarah and her sunshine, golden retriever husband, Bob, and would be happy to read another novel she is featured in. Thriller fans looking for a purely entertaining, not overly serious reading experience for a plane trip or day at the pool should consider this novel. 3.5/5⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Minoraur Books for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own. Estimated release date 5/6/25

You know what, I really enjoy a good fast paced read by Alex Finlay. This is my fourth book by him and each book has had a different feel. Starting out I thought I would feel overwhelmed by the number of characters, but the way the book was setup and the short length of the chapters made it very easy and enjoyable to read. This is a twisty, college campus-set thriller that’s not lacking in the family secrets and dysfunction department. I love an equal parts character and plot driven story and this one definitely delivers. Speaking of characters, if you’ve read The Night Shift you’ll get reacquainted with a familiar character.

My only hold up was the ending. The build up was great and then the ending just kind of fizzled a bit. Don’t get me wrong, still a good ending, but for me it felt like something was missing.

Thank you so much NetGalley and Minotaur Books for this eArc of Parents Weekend! Can’t wait to see what Alex Finlay writes next.

After praising Alex Finlay's last novel as "one of the best mystery thrillers I have read", I could not wait to read his next one.

A quick overview: The story begins with parents traveling to their children’s college for "Parents Weekend." Along the way, we get introduced to their less than perfect lives. Upon arriving, things take a tense turn—their children are nowhere to be found, and there’s no communication from them. News circulates about a young student who drowned earlier, and now five more students are missing. Law enforcement steps in, and the frantic search begins.

It seems to me, to be a common thread in Finlay's novels to feature multiple characters and points of view. This approach works well when the writing is clear and engaging—which it is here, but to me it just seemed there were simply too many perspectives this time around for me to truly connect with any of the characters. The story is a slow burn, and unfortunately, the ending didn’t deliver the heart pounding payoff which happen in some slower paced books. If slow mysteries are your thing, this one might be for you.

Although this wasn’t my favourite of Finlay’s works, I still think he’s a talented author, and I will looking forward to future works of his.

This is a fast paced, tangled web, mind cluster of a book! I really enjoyed the setting, multiple perspectives, family drama, and rapid twists and turns. It opens up right in the middle of the “action” which sucked me in right away but I do wish there had been a little more before. Still overall a 4/4.5 star read.

I think I’ve read everything by Alex Finlay (for good reason), so I am pretty good at solving his mysteries.

I think I solved this one about half way through, but it didn’t keep me from wanting to know more.

Five college students go missing on Parents weekend, and it’s up to FBI agent Keller to solve this case (even though this really isn’t even her case to solve).

I will say that the beginning of the book was really confusing for me because there are just soooo many characters to keep track of. I still don’t think I really kept any of them straight or understood most of them, but I did feel for both the parents and their kids. This was a complex situation with flawed characters all around.

The story is fast-paced and interesting. I was worried it would be kind of like YA, but it wasn’t, since it had more to do with the parents and the FBI than it did the students.

This book has way too many POV’s and it makes the first half of the book hard to follow and confusing. There are too many story lines and characters to try and follow and you can’t connect or like/ dislike any of them because there isn’t enough character information. I don’t like that each family had their own storyline and I as the reader had to really focus to keep track of them all.

Parents Weekend - Alex Finlay

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“He’s always been a sweet boy, and the universe isn’t always kind to sweet boys.”

In Parents Weekend, five college students vanish during a weekend gathering at their university, prompting a frantic search led by FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller. As the investigation unfolds, secrets about the students’ families emerge, revealing complex connections and hidden motives.

Thanks to Netgalley and Minotaur Books for the ARC copy. I tore through this one! The mix of dark academia with a strong female protagonist had me hooked from the start. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to keep track of all of the families but Finley did a great job of explaining it all. I really enjoyed all of the side plots and thrills that ended up leading their investigation down all sorts of roads. Only downside was I thought Alice and Felix’s family could have used a stronger side plot like everyone else got. Fast paced writing with short chapters made this a breeze of a read!

A fast paced enjoyable thriller. I could not put it down!
There were a lot of characters that were hard to keep track of. For a while it slowed down my reading and messed with the flow of the book. I finally decided to just read and trust that Finlay would get us where we need to be. And he did. I stayed up late into the night to get to the end and figure out what happened.

This book was intriguing, but ultimately lackluster. The mystery felt it was missing an apex, like we were building up to something but never really got there. I enjoyed some of the characters, but there was too much complexity and messiness going on.

This book was a pretty good read, but definitely not a favorite by him. The story line seemed rushed and lacked depth. The ending also left me unsatisfied. It was just an okay read for me.

A nice popcorn thriller. Just about each chapter ends on a cliffhanger so it helps move the story along. Wasn’t expecting to follow an FBI Agent for a majority of the story so was kind of let down by that. Not a big fan of reading a thriller on the police pov.

Fun book, until the ending. Worth a read tho.
Thanks to author, publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book. While I got the book for free it had no bearing on the rating I gave it.

This was a good one! After The Night Shift I was so excited to see the bad ass Special Agent Keller was back! I enjoyed the setting of the college/beach and the premise of the crime taking place at Parents Weekend. I felt that was a unique idea for a thriller. It gave it a domestic thriller feel which I loved. My only gripe is that there were a lot of characters to remember due to the 5 students and their families! Other than that I thought it was well paced, interesting and had a great ending I didn’t see coming.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for my copy of this audiobook which publishes 5/6