Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press/ Minotaur Books for allowing me the opportunity to read Parents Weekend as an advanced reader copy. It was an engaging and enjoyable read, and I appreciated the chance to experience it before its official release.

One of my favorite aspects of the book was the use of pop culture and modern references. They were funny, insightful, and perfectly balanced—adding depth and relatability to the story without feeling forced or cringeworthy. These elements made the narrative feel current and vibrant, enhancing the overall experience.

Despite the book featuring multiple families, I found it easy to keep track of everyone after the initial chapters. However, I would have liked more differentiation between the characters—perhaps through physical descriptions, more distinct voices, or varied storylines. While the "marriage in shambles" trope was realistic and compelling, it became somewhat confusing when two families were experiencing similar issues. Adding more variety to their struggles could have provided greater clarity and distinction.

That said, I was impressed with the depth given to each character. It's rare to find such rich character development in thrillers, and it made the story all the more engaging. The pacing was solid overall, and I breezed through the book, but I think the middle could have benefited from more jaw-dropping chapter endings to maintain momentum.

The twist, unfortunately, felt underwhelming. The red herrings weren’t truly misleading but rather straightforward clues pointing directly to the resolution. Introducing more genuine misdirections or unexpected turns could have added a layer of intrigue. By the halfway point, I was fairly confident about the direction of the plot, which diminished the suspense.

The ending itself wrapped up rather quickly. While the "three years later" epilogue provided closure, it wasn’t entirely necessary. Leaving the conclusion more open-ended might have added a sense of mystery and kept readers thinking about the story long after finishing.

Overall, Parents Weekend was a quick, enjoyable read with strong character depth and relevant, humorous references. I do think some areas could benefit from more differentiation and tighter plotting, particularly with the twist and pacing. Even so, I had a great time reading it and would recommend it to fans of character-driven thrillers. Thank you again for the opportunity to dive into this story!

Read this book in less than 2 days - kept me intrigued the whole time. The police names and references were a little confusing, but I enjoyed getting to know the five families.

This was such a different way than I have read any other thrillers yet! I loved how the author gave you insight into every side of the story!
This story circles around 7 different families and so you get POVs from each family, giving the full scope of everything that is going on! The twists in this book were great! I would think I had them figured out and then it would go the complete opposite way!
I think it was a little drawn out in a few places, giving us information on characters that really wasn’t needed and so that was a little meh for me but besides that I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it!!
Our story starts with a group of college kids who are having their parents come in for Parents Weekend. They are set to all meet for dinner but the kids never show up! It’s college though so maybe they just flaked and went to a party instead right? Only the next morning they are still missing and no one can reach them… oh and did I mention that another student is also missing and her body has just turned up?!? Are they connected? Will the kids turn up saying it’s all a misunderstanding? Whoooo knowwwwsssss!!!
This one is set to release in May of 2025! Mark your Calendars!!!!
Thank you NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thank you Alex Finlay and NetGalley for the chance to get my hands on this new thriller before its release! This author is an auto read for me and I especially love the stories that follow FBI Agent Sarah Keller.
This new installment lived up to its predecessors and did not disappoint. The pace unfolded at a pace that kept me wanting to read long into the night! Each character was developed and drove the next plot forward. Already looking forward to the next adventure with Agent Keller!

Parents Weekend by Alex Finlay is a fast-paced thriller set during parents' weekend at Santa Clara University, where several students go missing, and their families, each with their own secrets, are drawn into a tense mystery. The story is told from multiple viewpoints, which keeps the plot moving but can also be a bit overwhelming due to the large cast of characters. The constant shifting of perspectives felt chaotic to me. It was a fast paced book that I got through in no time.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the opportunity to read Parents Weekend.

Parents weekend and the parents of 5 college students plan on a dinner but all of the students are no shows. At first they put it down to being irresponsible college students until time passes and they are still missing. Another student had drown earlier in the week so campus security begins a search for the absent students. Point of view is from students and parents. A good read..

Alex Finlay delivers another intriguing mystery. Its Parents Weekend at an elite, private college. A death of a young socialite; missing students; parents behaving badly; this title has it all!

4 stars

I’m pretty new to the genre of mysteries. This one, about missing teens, (hence the title) was enjoyable. I like the way the author wrote the chapters from a different set of parents’ point of view. I also really enjoyed the relationship between Keller and Bob.. The resolution was not what I expected, so I was pleasantly surprised to have been wrong in my assumptions.. I will gladly read more books by this author.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this digital arc in return for an honest review.

I love Alex Finlay’s work, and although this wasn’t one of my favorites of his, it still hit the mark just fine. It was a fast and easy read and the story was interesting and engaging. I would definitely recommend this book to others!

I just finished this book and really enjoyed it! There weee so many ways this book could have turned and it kept me guessing right up to the end!
I loved the different perceptions others had on the kids and the parents!

I received an ARC from the publisher on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This book grabbed me from the start and didn’t let go. It was well developed and suspenseful and kept me wanting to read the next chapter. It slowed a bit toward the end, but still had a strong tie up to the ending. Great book that I really enjoyed.

I’m a fan of Alex Finlay’s novels, and was excited to read an advanced copy of Parents Weekend.

This novel features “The Five”, students who were scheduled to meet their parents for dinner, none of whom showed up and who were subsequently all declared missing.

Agent Sarah Keller, featured in 2 of Finlay’s prior books, returns to investigate the disappearances.
As the investigation progresses, everyone has secrets, including the parents!

I rate this book 4 stars. It stands up as a well written and engrossing thriller, but was not my favorite read from Alex Finlay.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thanks to the author and publisher for making this book available to me.

Special Agent Sarah Keller is back for a third time, and this investigation sounds quite interesting. Several families gather to celebrate the first parents' weekend of their children's college days. They are excited and plan a dinner, but none of their children show up. "The Five" as they come to be known, have vanished. The story of why this happened commences and we discover the parents have secrets which may be connected to their children's disappearance. Will Sarah Keller get it figured out and bring the students home? It's a good basis for an interesting, exciting book. I figured out some of the twists, which dampened my interest in the story, but it's still a good book with a fun mystery at its core. Thanks to NetGalley for providing the ARC; my opinions are my own.

I was interested in the premise for Parents Weekend – parents from different backgrounds and parts of the country gather at their children’s college, many of them seeing their kids for the first time since dropping them off at the beginning of the school year. Things go awry when a group of the students go missing and no one can find where they’ve gone. It is especially disconcerting when all of their phones go silent and are unable to trace. The backstories of all the parents provide several red herrings as their stories of infidelity, notoriety, divorce, and abuse provide a variety of plausible culprits to the disappearances. There was one obvious possibility that had never been explored until the very end when this particular story element became the thread that eventually unraveled the mystery. There was a lot going on in the story, making me wish there were one or two fewer plot points. My favorite aspect of the story was FBI agent Sarah Keller, her family, and her cooperation with the campus safety officers and local law enforcement. There was a student intern, too, who gets my vote for Best Supporting Character. As for the rest of the story, I found it filled with a lot of unnecessary noise that detracted from, rather than enhanced, the whodunit.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Alex Finlay never disappoints and always delivers a thrilling book! This one is full of twists and turns that will keep the reader turning page after page. The characters are well written and easily connect with the reader. Definitely recommend!

Thank you to netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the interweaving characters and possible suspects. It held my interest the entire book and kept me wanting to keep reading instead of putting it down.

I enjoyed this thriller - finished it in 2 sittings. I did guess the culprits well before the reveal on the book but there was still plenty of drama and suspense anyway, so I didn’t mind.
Soft spoiler alert-
There is a LOT of violence and murder. The author laid it on heavy. It may not be the most believable storyline but it was compelling and pulled me in.

Thanks to NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I'm rounding this one up to a 4- more like a 3.75

I've enjoyed Alex Finlay's books since I read Night Shift, which to this day is still my favorite. The last couple of books haven't been as "good" for me but with the return of Agent Keller, I had high hopes for this one.

The pacing of this book is very good, something I struggled with in the last few books. This is filled with short chapters focusing on one of the MANY characters. There are a LOT of characters to keep up with in this book but fortunately we mainly focus on "The Five", which are the main characters of the book, although their family secrets play a part in the whole story. Five students at an elite college with five very interesting and secret filled families.

The predictability of the mystery was very high once you meet all the players. I enjoyed the unraveling of events by Agent Keller but I wish there had been more twists and red herrings to get to the end. My best comparison is this is the Hallmark Christmas version of a mystery, enjoyable to watch unfold but easy to figure out yourself.

I hope Agent Keller continues to make appearances in future books and honestly, she could be a series all to her own for Alex Finlay. She made some pretty interesting connections in this book and I would certainly love more mysteries with McCray and Anna helping her out. Not to mention, Bob. the twins, and Pops.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Minotaur Books & Alex Finlay for the opportunity to read Parents Weekend ahead of its release date. My flight home from Rome was made more enjoyable because of your generosity.

Parents Weekend by Alex Finley is the third book following FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller. This time she is in California at a small college Santa Clara University. It’s Parents Weekend and a group of five students go missing from a family dinner. This comes right after another student was found dead at the beach, seemingly an accidental drowning, so the campus is a bit on edge. The parents of the missing students include an Assistant Secretary of State traveling with her detail, a famous California judge and his lawyer wife, a cheating plastic surgeon and his wife, a convicted felon and a single mom who works for SCU. Law enforcement are trying to figure out why the kids are missing (was a parent targeted?) and what happened to them. The premise was intriguing. The short chapters flew by and the alternating point of views kept things interesting. The ending follows up three years later and it was nice to see where the students landed. What I didn’t like was the choppy plot line where the dots were not connected well enough. As a suspense read, this is obviously not a character driven novel, but none were well developed enough to care about and some characters were dropped in so nonchalantly that it was hard to decipher their importance to the plot. After loving The Night Shift, I think I had too high of expectations for follow ups to match up to it. This one was an easy enjoyable read, but nothing to write home about. Thanks to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for my ARC.

3 ⭐️ Alex Finlay has been a hit or miss author for me. This book had a lot of really good potential if only it were longer, allowing us to get more from the MANY characters. This book is about 5 college freshman, whose parents come into town for parents weekend and the kids never show up to dinner and are soon declared missing persons. My number one issue with this book is that it was extremely hard to start for the first 25% I seriously had to keep going backwards to remember who all the characters were, I felt liked I needed to take extensive notes to keep going. From there it got easier as the mystery unfolded but honestly nothing shocking or surprising happened and I found it really hard to care about any of the characters since we didn’t get too much of anyone. There is a lot of story lines thrown in and none of them gets the proper time, details and depth I think a story should have to make me care or even understand. I loved the short chapters, the fast pacing and I liked having Special Agent Sarah Keller back (from the Night Shift). The ending much like the rest of the book was very rushed, making it very anticlimactic. Overall, if you want a face paced and short thriller, I’d give this a try - that is, if you can get past the set up and introduction to at least 20+ initial character introductions (no exaggeration). This one won’t stick with me long but I didn’t completely hate it, I just found it a slog to pick up given how short it was since I wasn’t invested in what happens next. I will still pick up another Alex Finlay book in the future, with the hopes the story doesn’t feel as incomplete as this one.

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

I will post about this book on my instagram as reading (already posted), monthly recap and give a shout out - review on publication date.