I found all the characters and multiple POVs very difficult to keep everyone straight at first. Once I started to keep them straight this was a quick read. I needed to know what happened and why.

Let’s call this one what it is…..a quick and easy police procedural. To be fair with all the different POVS, the only people I did care about was Agent Keller and her family…..and oddly enough I still was kind of hoping her husband might be the bad guy 🤓. Perhaps because he seems too good to be true.
Otherwise I just went along for the ride. The five and their parents all have some massive issues. Everybody is hiding something……so yeah if you’re just ready for a easy read that doesn’t require a ton of brain power then this is it!
I received an ARC of this title, all opinions are my own.

"Parents Weekend" by Alex Finlay is a thrilling 5-star read! The story follows a group of parents attending Parents Weekend with their college freshman children. Things quickly go off the rails—for both the parents and the students—prompting FBI Special Agent Keller to step in with her expert investigative skills.

The story is fast-paced and kept me hooked from beginning to end. I really enjoyed Alex Finlay’s writing style, especially the short chapters that alternate between the perspectives of the different parent groups, Special Agent Keller, and “The Five.” Each character has a rich backstory, and you’ll find yourself either loving or hating them.

This book has it all—infidelity (lots of it), illness, violence, and death, just to name the more prominent themes. This was my first book by Alex Finlay, but definitely not my last. I’ll be adding more of his work to my TBR!

Thanks to St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books, Alex Finlay, and NetGalley for providing me with the opportunity to read this ARC and share my honest review.

Alex Finlay always delivers on a quick-paced thriller!

The cast of characters in this book felt a bit large, and it took some time for me to remember who everyone was. Once we got more into the action, however, it was easy to get swept up in the story. I liked that the chapters alternated between POVs, and getting to see what was going on in different peoples heads. I do wish there was maybe a bit more time spent on the lives of the students to make me feel more connected to them, but that wasn’t a deal-breaker for me.

I really liked the chapters from Agent Keller’s POV, and her connection with Bob felt special. The other side characters were a fun addition to the story as well. The short chapters made this easy to binge, and I was entertained the whole time.

Five college students go missing and an FBI agent rushes to find them.

This book was so… mediocre. The characters were flat, underdeveloped, and unlikable. The story was - fine - but I didn’t find myself at the edge of my seat. There weren’t any twists and turns and there wasn’t any tension or thrill to the story. Did not feel engaged or connected to any characters. This was a miss for me.

2.75 ⭐️ rounded up to 3

The five that’s what they are call in the head lines me the five missing college kids that went missing over parents weekend.

We follow five families though a weekend that changed them all. How the miss communications and haze week and social media changed the way one even that happen to something that cost three lives

Alex Finlay does it again in this new thriller! You will find yourself on the edge of your seat through this crazy ride and will have a hard time putting it down once you start. Highly recommend!

🅣🅗🅞🅤🅖🅗🅣🅢: I really enjoyed this read. Solid, entertaining suspense. Starts slow building backstories, but quickly picks up. What works for this book is the balance between character perspectives adding depth to the story. For me, once again Agent Keller steals the show with her sharp approach. This was a twisty and layered page turner.

🌊Missing Students
🌊Layered Perspectives
🌊Family Secrets

Thank you for providing me with an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own. ・❥・

It’s Parents Weekend at a posh California university. A small group of students are supposed to meet their parents for a planned student-parent dinner to start off the weekend. None of the students show up. The parents can’t get ahold of their children and realize something must really be wrong. As time goes on the worry increases especially since another student recently drowned.

I really enjoyed the story told from different POV’s. It gave insight to each family’s dysfunction and kept the story suspenseful. The shorter chapters and cliffhangers kept it moving at a good pace. After each chapter I’d say “just one more” then read about 5 more. I really liked the FBI agent, Agent Keller. The ending was a surprise but not jaw dropping.

Thank you to the author @AlexFinlay as well as to @Minotaur and @NetGalley for a free e-ARC. The opinions are mine alone and not biased in any way.

Good fast paced thriller with a few twists in the end to keep the reader hooked. As a fan of the author's previous works, I was satisfied.

Overall this was a fast paced read that kept its intensity high enough to keep me hooked. I loved exploring the mystery and just had to keep reading to find out the truth.

A popcorn thriller with a crazy cast of characters, Parents Weekend was a quick and entertaining read.

Five college students go missing during parents' weekend, and Agent Sarah Keller is put on the case. The five families each have various secrets and suspicions, and the clock is ticking to find the students quickly.

I liked seeing Agent Keller again and always enjoy following her as she puts together the pieces and solves her cases, no matter how wild they get. This time she has to deal with two parents with enemies, affairs, and anonymous tips from college websites while also trying to squeeze a little time with her family in on the side. Her chapters were easily my favorite parts of the book.

The cast of characters is huge in this book, making it slightly tricky to follow in the audio format until you are able to distinguish who is who and how they relate to the five students. So many red herrings are thrown into the mix with such a huge cast, leaving our investigators chasing multiple false leads on the way.

I did correctly guess at part of the ending, but not the entire thing. While this wasn't my favorite from Finlay (that would be The Night Shift), I still thought it was a good quick thriller.

Brittany Pressley does a great job narrating an extremely large cast of characters, but I do think this one is better suited to be read with your eyes instead of your ears.

Thank you to Minotaur for the ARC. 3.5 stars.

Not my favorite book by this author, but still a pretty entertaining read. There were several POVs and at times it was hard to remember which kid belonged to which family. Sometimes a little slow but overall a pretty twisty and interesting story.


Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I could not put this one down! Alex Finlay never disappoints, just when you think you have it all figured out he takes you on the twist you did not see coming. I loved the format of this book, told from the perspective of the families involved as well as the lead FBI agent. The characters are complex and entertaining. As a parent of a college student I could relate to so many aspects of this book. As a parent you envision the perfect parents weekend with your child only to encounter the moody kid that blows you off for homework or better yet a frat party. A great quick read, perfect vacation book.

Thank you NetGalley! I absolutely love Alex Finlay’s books and was excited to read this one ahead of publication. The short chapters made for a quick pace as well as the need to find out what happened to the missing college students.

Five college freshman go missing at parents weekend. After the prolong featuring the five, the story starts at the night of the dinner. Then it alternates between each of the students parents giving us background on their dysfunctional families and why they could be the reason the students are missing. With additional chapters featuring the FBI agent on the case and the students. Because of all these characters and the timeline changing a lot it made it confusing at times.

With that said, I really enjoyed this one! The premise of the story was good and I was engaged immediately. It was super fast paced, with short chapters that made it hard to put down! There were several twists, and the one at the end I never saw coming! I gave this one 4⭐️

This release on May 6,2025! Thank you to the author and net galley for this arc.

Alex Finlay's latest thriller brings us back to Agent Sarah Keller on another crime to solve. I really enjoyed this character in "Every Last Fear" and "The Night Shift", so I was looking forward to reading "Parents Weekend".

Five college students go missing on a college campus during parents weekend. When the parents come together to wait for their return, we find there are many more secrets than truths. Finlay gives us the story from the many points of view - from the students to the parents to the FBI agent - creating a multi-faceted mystery that we see come together at the end. What happened to the students? Who is behind all of this? Might this be about more than just a simple college crime gone wrong?

I definitely felt the book slow down around the halfway point of the book, but it still kept me engaged. I would overall recommend this book because I think Alex Finlay does a fantastic job of creating characters and scenarios that make for compelling stories. While this one was a bit predictable, it was still a good read watching it all come together.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books and NetGalley for letting me read the digital advanced copy of this book!

It’s parents weekend at a prestigious university in the San Francisco Bay Area. A much anticipated time for family and student celebrations. The beautiful and the powerful gather. A woman high up the US State Department, complete with her no nonsense security detail; a philandering doctor and his wife; a high-powered attorney fresh off a high-profile and controversial verdict, and other members of privileged society. A student drowns under odd circumstances, casting a chill over the festivities. Worse, five students fail to show up for the parent-student dinner. As the police, the FBI, and other agencies search for the students, family secrets and intrigues float to the surface. Who can you trust, who should you fear? What will the privileged do to protect themselves, and their own? PARENTS WEEKEND is fast-paced, clever, and hits all the right notes. Do not miss this one.


DP Lyle, award-winning author (Jake Longly and Cain/Harper thriller series), Lecturer, and Story Consultant and Co-creator of The Outliers Writing University
https://www.dplylemd.com/

I really enjoyed this one. As a mom of a college aged daughter, I completely empathized with these parents. I can't imagine visiting for parents weekend and my kid not showing up to the festivities.

This book was full of many characters, most of whom could have been to blame for the missing children. Despite the number of characters, I was able to keep them straight, although I did make notes initially so that helped.

I found the ending to be surprising but not far fetched. It also kind of broke my heart, in a way that made this book even better to me.

The author's note at the end was sincere and funny. I loved to hear about his friendship with David Ellis. What a cool friend duo.

I both listened and read this one, and the audio was superb. I highly recommend that format with a caution to be ready with note taking in the beginning. It's so worth the little extra effort.

4⭐️

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book!

This was a quick little read for me. Short chapters, multiple POVs, and a search for five missing college students during parents weekend at their college. There weren’t too many crazy twists in this one, it was pretty straightforward, but it did have you wondering who the culprit was almost the entire story. There were kind of a lot of characters to keep track of, but other than that, if you have enjoyed Alex Finlay’s novels before, you will enjoy this one.