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dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Moderate: Child death, Death, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
fast-paced
The older I get the more I like thriller books, and I also understand why my grandmother always had one in her hands. Alex is now on my favorite thriller authors because he constantly had me second guessing myself. Did the book end at all how I thought it would? Nope not at all! I truly love when a book keeps me on the edge of my seat and this book did that! And yes I did cry a little a the end.
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
5 kids go missing during a weekend at college when all the parents come for a visit.
This was fast-paced enough with multi-POV and drama with each group of parents/kids, but overall the story was just blah. No character depth and some parts were pretty predictable. Lots of red herrings that fell flat. I also really dislike when authors allude to pop culture references for no reason - there were dozens of these references and I found them mildly annoying. I got this from NetGalley as an ARC and won’t be recommending this one unfortunately.
This was fast-paced enough with multi-POV and drama with each group of parents/kids, but overall the story was just blah. No character depth and some parts were pretty predictable. Lots of red herrings that fell flat. I also really dislike when authors allude to pop culture references for no reason - there were dozens of these references and I found them mildly annoying. I got this from NetGalley as an ARC and won’t be recommending this one unfortunately.
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Parents Weekend by Alex Finlay
I'm here for Agent Keller and we get to see a lot of her. Thank goodness for her husband who is such a good father to their nine year old twins. Wait, has it been that long? I remember when she was doing incredible acrobatics while approximately 8.5 months pregnant with these two. Mind boggling! This time her antics are much more realistic. Keller is a favorite character of mine and I hope to see her again. But time passes quickly between books, I could be seeing her grandkids pushing her around the retirement village in the next book or two.
It's Parents Weekend at a small private school in Northern California and the parents of first year students, Libby, Blane, Mark, Felix, and Stella, plan to celebrate with their kids. But the kids never show up to the festivities. Did they all decide to bail out on their parents? Because a missing student was found in not favorable condition, everyone is a bit on edge on campus. Now these five students are missing and some of their parents are wondering if it is because of what they have done wrong in their past. Almost all of this group of parents has one or more things to regret and hide in their past and maybe one more more pasts is coming back to haunt the five students.
It was pretty much impossible for me to be sure who might be the culprit since just about everyone has big secrets, big transgressions of some kind, or is just not very reliable in one way or another. So I went along for the ride and enjoyed that the college students were indisposed in one way or another so that we didn't have to put up with them being much more irresponsible than their parents. Really, what do parents expect when they set such bad examples for their kids?
Thanks to St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books and NetGalley for this ARC.
I'm here for Agent Keller and we get to see a lot of her. Thank goodness for her husband who is such a good father to their nine year old twins. Wait, has it been that long? I remember when she was doing incredible acrobatics while approximately 8.5 months pregnant with these two. Mind boggling! This time her antics are much more realistic. Keller is a favorite character of mine and I hope to see her again. But time passes quickly between books, I could be seeing her grandkids pushing her around the retirement village in the next book or two.
It's Parents Weekend at a small private school in Northern California and the parents of first year students, Libby, Blane, Mark, Felix, and Stella, plan to celebrate with their kids. But the kids never show up to the festivities. Did they all decide to bail out on their parents? Because a missing student was found in not favorable condition, everyone is a bit on edge on campus. Now these five students are missing and some of their parents are wondering if it is because of what they have done wrong in their past. Almost all of this group of parents has one or more things to regret and hide in their past and maybe one more more pasts is coming back to haunt the five students.
It was pretty much impossible for me to be sure who might be the culprit since just about everyone has big secrets, big transgressions of some kind, or is just not very reliable in one way or another. So I went along for the ride and enjoyed that the college students were indisposed in one way or another so that we didn't have to put up with them being much more irresponsible than their parents. Really, what do parents expect when they set such bad examples for their kids?
Thanks to St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books and NetGalley for this ARC.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A weekend for celebration becomes something far more sinister
It is Parents' Weekend at Santa Clara University, a small private Jesuit university in the heart of Silicon Valley. A group of four students, linked by the capstone project which they have been assigned to complete together, are supposed to meet up with their parents for dinner at a local restaurant, but while the parents (two couples, two single mothers) arrive none of their children show up. Its tempting to write this off as typical irresponsible behavior, but when the students remain missing the parents aren't convinced that it isn't something....more. One of the mothers is a high ranking State Department official who not only has a bounty on her own head courtesy of a disgruntled foreign regime, she also lived through this same son's kidnapping years earlier. The father of one of the other students is a judge who recently gained notoriety (and a raft of hostile adversaries) when he presided over the trial of a popular celebrity, There are secrets in the other families as well, plus some disturbing campus gossip that paints several of the missing students in an unflattering light. A fifth member of the cohort who has no close family also turns out to be missing; added to the recent disappearance of another of the university's students, a young woman friendly with the students who have dropped off the radar who later turned up dead in what appears to have been an accidental drowning, and tensions mount. An FBI agent just recently transferred to the local office gets called in to work with campus police and other local law enforcement. As the hours pass, it becomes more and more clear that The Five (as they have been tagged) are in danger...but why, and from whom?
Parents Weekend is a fast paced thriller featuring FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller, a protagonist featured in previous novels by author Alex Finlay, in addition to a raft of new characters. The narrative bounces around between multiple characters' points of view, and the plot integrates college partying, family secrets (infidelity, the loss of a child, hostile divorces) and trust issues as the plot unfolds...the large number of characters may have contributed to an overall lack of development for most (with Keller and her husband being two exceptions). This is a quick read, with short chapters that keep the suspense building and allow for some twists and turns. Did I figure out where things were likely headed early on? Yes...I am an avid reader of thrillers, so that happens fairly frequently, but if you're looking for a solid (3.5 ⭐️ rounded up to 4) quick read with a fast-moving plot this will do the trick. Fans of Harlen Coben, Lisa Unger and Peter Swanson should give this a try as well. My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books for allowing me access to Finlay's latest thriller in exchange for my honest review.
It is Parents' Weekend at Santa Clara University, a small private Jesuit university in the heart of Silicon Valley. A group of four students, linked by the capstone project which they have been assigned to complete together, are supposed to meet up with their parents for dinner at a local restaurant, but while the parents (two couples, two single mothers) arrive none of their children show up. Its tempting to write this off as typical irresponsible behavior, but when the students remain missing the parents aren't convinced that it isn't something....more. One of the mothers is a high ranking State Department official who not only has a bounty on her own head courtesy of a disgruntled foreign regime, she also lived through this same son's kidnapping years earlier. The father of one of the other students is a judge who recently gained notoriety (and a raft of hostile adversaries) when he presided over the trial of a popular celebrity, There are secrets in the other families as well, plus some disturbing campus gossip that paints several of the missing students in an unflattering light. A fifth member of the cohort who has no close family also turns out to be missing; added to the recent disappearance of another of the university's students, a young woman friendly with the students who have dropped off the radar who later turned up dead in what appears to have been an accidental drowning, and tensions mount. An FBI agent just recently transferred to the local office gets called in to work with campus police and other local law enforcement. As the hours pass, it becomes more and more clear that The Five (as they have been tagged) are in danger...but why, and from whom?
Parents Weekend is a fast paced thriller featuring FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller, a protagonist featured in previous novels by author Alex Finlay, in addition to a raft of new characters. The narrative bounces around between multiple characters' points of view, and the plot integrates college partying, family secrets (infidelity, the loss of a child, hostile divorces) and trust issues as the plot unfolds...the large number of characters may have contributed to an overall lack of development for most (with Keller and her husband being two exceptions). This is a quick read, with short chapters that keep the suspense building and allow for some twists and turns. Did I figure out where things were likely headed early on? Yes...I am an avid reader of thrillers, so that happens fairly frequently, but if you're looking for a solid (3.5 ⭐️ rounded up to 4) quick read with a fast-moving plot this will do the trick. Fans of Harlen Coben, Lisa Unger and Peter Swanson should give this a try as well. My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books for allowing me access to Finlay's latest thriller in exchange for my honest review.