Twists and turns, along with red herrings, made this novel suspenseful. Realistic characters kept the story moving quickly. Don’t try to guess the outcome. Really almost impossible. This talented author has written a page turner. Secrets of the past and present…a mystery writer…a family disappearing…clues…guesses…foreshadowing…all of this makes for a mystery well worth reading. Thanks Netgalley.

Dead of Night is the first book I have read by Lisa Gray. The plot was well done, and I loved that the main character was an author suffering from writer's block who fell into a mystery. The story was definitely a page turner; and I thoroughly enjoyed it; however, there were a few things that I found difficult to believe.

The first was that as soon as the author arrived at her new rental, she was already getting threatening notes because someone was upset that she was looking into the past account of a family who disappeared from the house. She told people over and over that she was a fiction writer not a true crime writer. So why get worked up? Although, that did greatly enhance the plot, but still--it was puzzling.

The second thing was the ending. I couldn't fathom that young man keeping up the pretense for a large number of months. Why not confront the person he felt lied to him? . While I wont spoil what happens, it honestly fell a bit off for me.

I'd still recommend the book even though I had a few issues.

I am a big fan of Lisa Gray's books, but I have to say that, though this one was good, it was my least favorite. It still has an intriguing plot, great writing and lots of surprising twists, but something was missing. I think it might be that I never warmed up to Serena. There were a lot of fun side characters but Serena kind of grated on me. She was rude and irritating at times. I did enjoy the multiple timelines and POVs. One character's story in particular was so heartbreaking. Dead of Night is an easy read that I flew through in less than a day. Despite not loving the MC, I was invested in finding out what happened to the missing family. I do recommend this book, but if you haven't read Lisa Gray before, I would suggest starting with a different one. The Dark Room, The Final Act and To Die For are all excellent! I look forward to seeing what the author comes up with next.

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC!

I read the annotation, checked out the book three times, and decided to give it a try.

The main character is an author, but after her husband's death, she's struggling to write anything. And then, we've got an author + a house with a dark past = adventures filled with threats.

What happened years ago? Where did the family go, and who’s threatening our heroine?

It's a short thriller, so I breezed through it quickly—it was super atmospheric.

What gets me every time: a house with a dark history. Seriously, I always fall for that.

I liked that there are three timelines from three different characters, and everything slowly weaves into one story.

The heroine wasn’t annoying; she thought things through like I do. Even though I guessed most of it, I totally forgot one twist, so that surprised me a bit.

I enjoyed the writing style, so I think I’ll check out more books by this author!

-3 time lines
-A house with a dark past
-Family disappearance
-Threatening e-mails