A dark, atmospheric, twisty thriller. A bunch of high school kids have a party in a haunted forest on Halloween. The next day, a girl is found dead, and they think it’s murder. Ben Case is the detective investigating this case. He soon discovers that his own daughter was at the party and might be a suspect. His ex-wife is the counselor at the local school. It’s a small town, so almost everyone is a suspect. I loved the quick pace and short chapters. The ending wrapped everything up, and I was glad to finally find out who was responsible.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria books for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A perfect book to add to your spooky season TBR!

Halloween night ends in tragedy when a teenage girl is found dead. Detective Ben Chase is called in to investigate, but the case quickly hits close to home. His daughter Ellie and his ex-wife Rachel both have ties to the girl. As past and present collide, the truth slowly unravels in unexpected ways.

I was so absorbed into this book. It’s haunting, atmospheric and I loved how the folklore of “Sally in the Wood” was tied into it. If you love thrillers that are moody, character driven, and filled with small town secrets, this one is definitely worth picking up!!

Thank you Netgalley & Atria Books for an eARC ♥️

Hannah Richell has crafted a masterclass in atmospheric suspense, blending small-town dread, urban legends, and the kind of secrets that refuse to stay buried. If you love thrillers that are as emotionally gripping as they are chilling, this one’s for you.

The Setup: A Night That Ends in Blood 🩸
On Halloween, a group of teens gathers near Sally in the Wood—a place already steeped in ghost stories. By dawn, one of them is dead. Was it an accident? A prank gone wrong? Or something far darker? 😳
Enter Rachel, the school counselor and mother to Ellie, a rebellious teen who may know more than she’s saying. Then there’s Ben, Rachel’s ex and the detective on the case, who’s battling his own demons while trying to protect his daughter. The tension is palpable—every character is hiding something, and Richell doles out the truth in razor-sharp fragments.
Why It’s Unputdownable 🫢
✔ Gothic Small-Town Vibes – The haunted road legend isn’t just backdrop; it’s woven into the story in a way that blurs the line between superstition and reality.
✔ A Parent’s Worst Nightmare – Rachel’s desperation to protect Ellie, even as Ellie pulls away, is heartbreakingly real.
✔ Secrets Upon Secrets😮

Who Will Love It?❤️‍🔥
- Readers who love dual-timeline mysteries with a ghostly edge.

READ IF YOU DARE: 💥
🔪 You believe the past is never really past.
🔪 You’ve ever wondered what really lurks in the woods at night.
🔪 You love a thriller that’s as much about broken families as it is about murder.

PSA: Clear your schedule before starting. You won’t stop until the last, devastating page. 🔥

A quick, entertaining story. Teenagers up to no good, in an allegedly haunted forest, and a cast of questionable characters. Some parts were predictable, with a couple of nice twists.

Thank you, NetGalley and Atria Books, for this eARC for review. All opinions are my own.

Hannah Richell’s "One Dark Night" is a chilling, character-driven thriller that shows how one tragic event affects a small British community. When a student ends up dead on Halloween night, after meeting friends in the woods, rumors about local legends and haunted roads begin to spread quickly. But underneath the made-up ghost stories lie very real dangers tied to secrets and the community.

The story is told through multiple perspectives, including Rachel, a school counselor struggling with her teenage daughter Ellie, and her ex-husband Ben, a detective investigating the case. Their personal struggles become entwined with the investigation, which gives an emotional edge to the overarching mystery. Ellie is hiding secrets that raise the tension even higher, and readers are left to wonder just how much she knows about what really happened that ill-fated night.

Richell manages to keep the pacing of the suspense steady while also weaving in themes of privilege, grief, and how the past lingers in unexpected ways. "One Dark Night" is a balance of eerie atmosphere and intimate character work, making it a gripping and thoughtful read.

This new atmospheric psychological thriller is perfect for spooky season:
-Secluded gothic academic school setting
-Chilling local legend of a ghost who haunts the woods
-Halloween Night party
-Murdered girl found deliberately arranged to echo local legend

The mystery unfolds via 3 key POVs of a fractured family: Rachel, Ellie’s mother and school counselor; Ben, Rachel’s ex-husband and detective on the case, and Ellie, their teenage daughter who is hiding her own secrets from Halloween night. With a tightly woven narrative that balances domestic drama, teenage angst/secrets, and suspenseful tension. The gothic school campus setting with misty woods and local folklore was so claustrophobic and eerie. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Beth Eyre, and on multiple occasions felt the hair on my neck raise in reaction to her performance. Readers who enjoy eerie, slow-burn mysteries with twisty conclusions need to pick this one up for perfect rainy afternoon book.

**Thank you Atria Books for the gifted copy** I enjoyed this book. I thought I had it all figured out but I did not and we all know that I love a twist. The beginning is a little you slower but towards the middle it really picks up the pace. I liked that there were also three POVs. This also helped with the pacing of the story. This is a dark and a little eerie book that is perfect whenever you need a little thrill.

Wow I loved this. I never read anything by Hannah richell before this was my first. This was spooky , totally atmospheric. Twisty and fast paced , i ate this up

This was a thoroughly engaging read until about the last 20%. Then when the darker deeper twists were being revealed, it felt like it went a bit off the rails while at the same time dragging things out. I think I was just ready for it to end! Perhaps this was a reflex due to how quickly I got entangled with the story? It seemed like I was earlobe deep pretty early so maybe my reading peaked a bit too soon in the book? Despite all this, the story is a deep and well conceived! The characters are not surface level stereotypes and that makes the story all that more engaging. There were a few subplots that probably could have been left out. They didn't add much to the story, but they did help set the emotional stage. I recommend reading this when you have quality time to spend reading as you won't want to put it down once you've gotten hooked!

You might think you know what happened to Sarah but let me assure you, you do not. This dark twisty tale of a Halloween night party gone wrong revolves around the murder of Sarah, a student at a British boarding school. There are lots of secrets here, starting with the ones Ellie isn't telling her mother Rachel, a counselor, or more importantly, her father DS Ben Case. Ben's interviews of Sarah's (and Ellie's) friends reveal things bit by bit but who was the person watching the teens in the woods? Rachel thinks she knows and Ben thinks he's found the killer but you'll realize there's more to come. This is one that deserves to be read without spoilers because there are many surprises. I liked this for mystery to be sure but also for the very realistic characters. And the storytelling is great. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. A terrific read.

This was my first novel by Hannah Richell and I was very impressed. It was an excellent mystery, thriller with a touch of supernatural vibes. A really good read for starting spooky season.
Starting off on Halloween, the body of a student from a prestigious local school is found unalive in a very peculiar way after a group of students attend a bonfire. We follow the story and are given multiple suspects who could be guilty. We also get to view what's happening by multiple POvs .
Twice I was sure I knew who the culprit was and I was wrong! I definitely did not see the ending coming.
It was an easy read that kept me interested the whole time. The way all the multiple characters we intertwined was very thought out and not too overdone. The whole story comes together excellently and at the end, I literally said "no way" because I was so surprised. I will be adding mre books from Hannah to my TBR.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for allowing me to read an eARC of this great mystery/thriller.

I loved this twisty and suspenseful read! The setting influenced how the story evolved. Hannah Richell is a master at weaving a complex tale which will keep readers guessing. This is one book that can't be missed!

4⭐️

I really enjoyed the atmosphere of this; A private school full of wealthy kids and a party spot in the woods that runs along a supposedly haunted road on Halloween? That's the perfect level of creepy for me. I loved the mystery surrounding the lore of Sally in the Wood and the possible corruption in the school and the town. The tense relationship between Rachel and Ben and how guilty Ellie looked in her rebellion over the divorce really added to the suspense. The number of suspicious adults surrounding the death of a teenage girl really built up the mystery and I wasn't expecting the twist at the end.

I did go back several times to see if this was a sequel. There were a lot of references to the reason behind Rachel and Ben's divorce and previous cases Ben worked on and it felt like that was trying to guide the story but we didn't really get enough information. I also feel like Rachel was an awful counselor from the way she handled not only her daughter during the divorce but also the way she interacted with a a lot of the students. Other than that this was a good quick read!

Thanks Netgalley and Atria Books for providing this ARC to me!

A young girl is murdered at a Halloween party in the woods near the private high school she attends. Ben is the detective and he is divorced from his wife, Rachel, who is a counselor at the school and their daughter also attends. When the daughter is found to have been at that party without their knowledge and her clothes with blood of the victim are found Ellie becomes a suspect. There is a folk tale of Sally of the Woods that haunts the area but also a weird man has been seen lurking in the woods also. This is an edgy and creepy thriller with lots of twists and turns that you won't see coming!

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review!

On the night of Halloween, a group of teenagers meet in the woods, that are said to be haunted, to have a secret party. The following day, a girl was found murdered nearby. As this small British town begins to panic and rumors ensue, it is up to the police to figure out what really happened near Sally in the Wood.

This was a solid and gripping thriller. Multiple POVs kept me engaged while unraveling secrets and trying to figure out who the killer was. The pacing was fast making it even harder to put down.

The only discrepancy I have is with the lore of the haunted woods. It is mentioned throughout as background information, but I was expecting a bit more to happen along that storyline. I love haunted woods stories and I just felt that it wasn’t quite enough.

One Dark Night is a page turning thriller that is tense and suspenseful. The atmosphere is chilling, doing a great job of immersing you into this story. The plot is unpredictable with an ending that will completely surprise you.

Definitely recommend for your fall TBR!

<I>Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for this ARC opportunity. This is an honest and voluntary review. </I>

I feel like this book started off so good. I LOVED the gothic and creepy vibes it gave! But then it just turned into a detective book… and it lost those vibes I was loving. The surprise ending turned it around, but I had a hard time trying to stay interested.

Thriller is a mix of an old ghost story and a murder. Sally in the Wood is an old ghost story about a woman named Sally whose fiancée murders her. The story almost immediately opens up with a murder.

I was able to figure out the “who dunnit” in the mystery. Not until later in the book however. At one point I suspected almost everyone. This is a page turner and fast paced. I will admit in the beginning I was unsure if I would be able to keep up, it opens with days and times. It was no problem after I realized it was sequential.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

Spooky!

It’s Halloween night and the local teens are gathered at Sally in the Wood, a road thought to be haunted by the ghost of a girl who was murdered. By the end of the night, one teen will die. Is the local lore real or did something more sinister happen that night?

This is highly atmospheric and mysterious, making it a perfect choice for ‘spooky season’ reading.

Thank you Netgalley, Atria Books, and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be available for purchase on August 19, 2025

Thank you to Atria books and NetGalley for the free ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very spooky, atmospheric thriller that I enjoyed! It’s cool that this is based on a real urban legend. I loved the setting, the build up, and the boarding school aspect. That part was very well done.

I felt that the story itself started a little slow and this book could’ve been condensed into a shorter version. A few times I felt myself not really being excited to pick the book up. I also found many of the main characters unlikable.

However, The ending greatly saved this for me! I definitely didn’t see the big twist coming and I loved how everything was tied up so neatly in the end. A lot of little bread crumbs that had been placed throughout the story were revealed to be larger parts of the story than I initially thought. I would definitely read more books by this author in the future!

A murdered bride on her wedding night supposedly haunts the woods behind a private school in Thorncombe. It is a well known story, especially with the students at the private school adjacent to the woods.

On Halloween night, students from the school go into the woods to have a party. There is the usual stuff- drinking, smoking, and ghost telling around the bonfire. At the end of the night, a girl is dead, and others are hiding secrets.

Rachel is the Student Engagement counselor at the school. She is separated from her husband, policeman Ben Case. He is heading up the investigation, and Rachel is sitting in on the interviews with the students as parent representative (until parents can get there). As each of them do their part, they realize that the students seem to be keeping secrets. And that their daughter, Emily, was at the party and has secrets of her own.

This was a very engaging mystery. I loved how the author tied in local lore, and created a creepy, tangled mystery. The characters are realistic, and the investigation is well paced and makes sense. I loved the interactions between Dan, Rachel and Emily- they were written very authentically. When reading about the students- their decisions, choices- I felt that it would be exactly like this if it were to have really happened! And the atmosphere! Creepy! (Which I love!). The culmination of the case was a bit of a surprise to me (in a good way). I raced through this book, and was completely engaged. Now I want to read more from this author!

Highly recommend if you are looking for an atmospheric mystery, where local legend and some teen drama are mixed in to a satisfying conclusion!

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC. This is my honest and voluntary review.