Winner of the Agatha Award, Macavity Award, and Anthony AwardFinalist for the Mary Higgins Clark Award, Left Coast Crime Award, Strand Critics Award, and Library of Virginia Literary Award“A subtly but relentlessly unsettling novel.” —TANA FRENCH, author of The Witch ElmIt was the perfect place to disappear…One sultry summer, Maureen Haddaway arrives in the wealthy town of Opal Beach to start … sultry summer, Maureen Haddaway arrives in the wealthy town of Opal Beach to start her life anew—to achieve her destiny. There, she finds herself lured by the promise of friendship, love, starry skies, and wild parties. But Maureen’s new life just might be too good to be true, and before the summer is up, she vanishes.
Decades later, when Allison Simpson is offered the opportunity to house-sit in Opal Beach during the off-season, it seems like the perfect chance to begin fresh after a messy divorce. But when she becomes drawn into the mysterious disappearance of a girl thirty years before, Allison realizes the gorgeous homes of Opal Beach hide dark secrets. And the truth of that long-ago summer is not even the most shocking part of all…
“A heart-wrenching and suspenseful novel of betrayal and revenge. Stunning!” —Carol Goodman, award-winning author of The Night Visitors
“Featuring a brilliantly executed dual timeline with two unforgettable narrators, One Night Gone is a timely and timeless mystery that will keep you obsessively reading well past your bedtime.” —Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World
*Don’t miss The Mother Next Door, Tara Laskowski’s next novel of suspense. On sale October 12, 2021 and available to preorder now!
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An excellent audiobook that transported me to another place during COVID. The narrator did a wonderful job of bringing the characters and setting to life in both timelines. Opal Beach is haunting and atmospheric throughout, but I especially enjoyed the winter scenes in the contemporary character’s story.
Allison, a disgraced television meteorologist, is attempting to recover from a nasty, very public divorce. Seeking anonymity, she takes a house sitting gig at the beach, out-of-season. But from the beginning, she picks up on weird vibes in her affluent surroundings, and feels a strong connection to a young carnival worker, Maureen, who disappeared thirty years earlier. She too was an outsider running from her past, trying to start over.
This character-driven thriller is a glorious slow burn with just the right about of unsettling and creepy. Toward the end, events twist and turn quickly, creating layers of betrayal and leading to an incredibly satisfying conclusion about women who are treated as disposable; women who disappear and are forgotten; and women who fight back. The last chapter is outstanding.
Absolutely gripping. This multi-layered and gorgeously structured tale of betrayal, murder, and redemption will haunt you long after the book is over. The talented Tara Laskowski, with her confident hand, beautifully drawn characters and unique style, is sure to be a major voice in crime fiction.
One Night Gone’s strength lies in its all-pervading sense of precariousness: everything is fragile, unstable and under threat, from Maureen’s prized freedom and Allison’s hard-won recovery to the intricate framework of relationships and hierarchies that underpins life in the small seaside town. It makes for a subtly but relentlessly unsettling book.
Very deserving of every accolade this book wins. Beautifully written with characters that have stuck with me well after I finished the book.
Even if Tara Laskowski weren’t a friend, I’d still recommend this evocative novel for its gorgeous, lyrical writing and a terrific edge-of-your-seat plot.
One Night Gone by Tara Laskowski was a great read! I was pulled in quickly and found myself reading faster as the story went on.
The author did such an amazing job of setting the scene – Opal Beach was so real feeling that had I woken up there, I wouldn’t have been surprised.
The characters of Maureen and Allison were well written, real and relatable. They mystery of what happened to Maureen was well plotted, interesting and even though I figured out what happened, it didn’t lessen my interest at all.
I would definitely recommend this book to mystery / thriller readers.
Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me an ARC at my request. All thoughts in this review are my own.
Tight, mysterious, and pacey!
One Night Gone is an atmospheric, suspenseful thriller that takes us into the life of Allison Simpson, a depressed, heartbroken meteorologist who after moving to Opal Beach to house sit for the fall inadvertently gets drawn into a thirty-year-old missing persons case involving the young carnival teen, Maureen Haddaway who one day just vanished without a trace.
The prose is descriptive and intense. The characters are troubled, vulnerable, and tenacious. And the plot using a past/present, back-and-forth style unravels and intertwines into a compelling, cunning tale full of deception, manipulation, familial drama, swirling emotions, violence, mayhem, and murder.
Overall, One Night Gone is an eerie, sharp, ominous debut by Laskowski that highlights the selfish, scheming, desperate side of human nature and reminds us that skeletons often find their way to the surface no matter how well they are hidden or buried.
Tara Laskowski’s One Night Gone is an unsettling mystery involving two women, thirty years apart. In the year 2015, Allison, recently divorced, career in shambles, is in Opal Beach hoping to reclaim some of her life. In the year 1985, Maureen, a teenage runaway finds a job in Opal Beach with a traveling caravan.
I love the back and forth between the past and present as Allison begins to unravel what happened to Maureen in 1985. An interesting writing trick Tara Laskowski has used well in this story is the use of past tense in Allison’s story and present tense in Maureen’s. The two characters are very similar, and I think without this distinction of tense, I would have struggled to tell them apart.
Tara Laskowski is wonderful at setings. Opal Beach was easily imagined. I felt as though I was transported to this location and was right alongside Allison, attempting to solve the mystery.
One irk is that I had most of the reveal unraveled before it was shared. This didn’t take away from my enjoyment and all the praise, but I felt it is something to mention in this review.
Overall, I enjoyed One Night Gone. It is not a fast-paced novel, but a more contemplative novel. I found it fascinating and with a beautiful setting and intriguing characters, I would recommend checking it out!
*I received a complimentary copy of this book as part of a blog tour with Partners In Crime Book Tours. All opinions are my own.*
Find this review and more on my blog: https://www.jessicabelmont.wordpress.com
One Night Gone is a well-written mystery spanning 30 years, told in two POVs, Maureen Haddaway in 1985 and Allison Simpson in present day.
Maureen is a girl who has had to fend for herself most of her life. With a drug-addicted mother, she had to grow up fast. She works with a travelling carnival show, and in the summer of 1985, the carnival set up in Opal Beach. She feels an affinity for the town right away, and after yet another run in with her bosses’ brother, she runs away from the carnival and decides to start a new life. She makes friends with some of the elite who summer there and feels as if she is coming into her own. One night, she vanishes. The investigation is pretty cut and dried – she left town on her own. Her new best friend is sure that isn’t the case, but no one will listen to her or take it any further.
Allison is a woman turning 40 who also is trying to start afresh after finding her life turned upside down. She lost her job as an on-air meterologist for a TV station in Philadelphia when, in the midst of a nasty divorce, she went into a rant against her husband during a broadcast. After staying awhile with her younger sister, she is presented with the opportunity to house-sit a home in Opal Beach during the winter months. It seems perfect! It gives her time to put herself back together and explore new options. She becomes caught up in the mystery of what really happened to Maureen in the summer of 1985, and her determination forces the case to be re-examined.
I found this a very good read! I really like the way the author sets the scenes, fleshes out the characters, and keeps things moving along. The alternating time-frames and POVs kept me quite interested. If I hadn’t fallen asleep, I would’ve finished this book in one day!
Treat yourself and mark this for your TBR pile!
Many thanks to NetGalley and Graydon House for allowing me to read a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. Publication is set for 10/1/19.
Featuring a brilliantly executed dual timeline with two unforgettable narrators, Tara Laskowski’s One Night Gone is a timely and timeless mystery, one that will keep you obsessively reading well past your bedtime.
With evocative prose, One Night Gone feels like a journey through a sinister hall of mirrors, bringing to life the off-season menace of a beachfront refuge for the wealthy, still haunted by the disappearance of a teenaged girl thirty years ago.
Alternating points of view and blending stories set decades apart are difficult for an author to pull off. Tara Laskowski, however, does it with ease in One Night Gone. Unreliable narrators, some hard-to-like characters, a touch of the paranormal, and some great twists make this a memorable read.
This one’s going on my Favorites list. Without question, ONE NIGHT GONE is a must-read for mystery fans. The prose is dazzling, the dialogue both credible and completely engrossing. Everything about this book is so crisp and fresh that – to borrow a phrase from its brilliant author – I could almost bite into it.
You need to add this to your TBR pile. What a page-turner. A summer fling, the beach, a carnival, betrayals, roller derby, and a cold case. This is a must read for any mystery and suspense fan.
Hell hath no fury…like a woman scorned
One Night Gone is a story about a common occurrence for women – not being taken seriously. It is also about cheating and the heartbreaking fallout, and boy does this book dish out those consequences. This is a parallel story set thirty years apart in a small beach town located a couple hours outside of Philadelphia. The risk of telling dueling stories is, for me, a propensity to gravitate more strongly to one over the other. Allison, the meteorologist who recently had a very public meltdown thanks to her husband’s cheating, was the one that grabbed me right off. Then, the more glimpses I got into teenage Maureen’s life, I soon found her tragic story to be the heart of this book. This is not a grab-you-by-the-collar-and-pull-you-through-the-story book. Instead, with each chapter building on the last, trading today with thirty years ago, the book lured me in, until I couldn’t put it down for the last third. The characters were honest and realistic. Tammy. Clay. Annie. Some, the entire Bishop family, were defined by their wealth and the power it brings. I really got a kick out of Delores, the roller derby/librarian. I especially appreciated that no one rescued Allison, that through her instincts and intelligence, she deduced the truth about a very cold case, one whose victim still cried out for resolution. Allison accepted the mantle to right Maureen’s unfortunate and far too short life by bringing long overdue justice. It was with great satisfaction that I watched the perpetrators get their comeuppance, and the surprise about who the biggest villain was, and who had actually pulled the strings from the beginning, was pure reading joy. How can you not love a book that has a chase scene through a creepy, scary Hall of Mirrors at a carnival?
Highly recommended.
I’m pretty sure Laskowski’s debut has been nominated for every major mystery fiction award (and if not, she’s darned close) this year, and deservingly so: her haunting take on the stories of two women who’ve never met, told in alternating narratives thirty years apart and linked by a beautiful beach house, is an unsettling, compelling read. Grab a drink and settle into your favorite chair—you won’t want to put this one down.
Two different women find themselves in Opal Beach, an east coast beach town, three decades apart. Both are struggling to find their place in the world. Both are a little bit uncomfortable in their own skins. Allison, the second visitor, becomes involved in the mystery of Maureen’s disappearance. Gothic, compelling, and satisfying. I highly recommend reading this book.
In 1985, Maureen Haddaway dreams of starting her new life in Opal Beach where she develops the promise of love, friends and hopeful for an amazing life. She vanishes before her dreams come to be realized.
Now in 2015, Allison Simpson also trying to start a new life after a messy divorce, house sits for a home in Opal Beach. Allison becomes drawn to the missing woman 30 years prior and start to uncover secrets.
Written in two timelines, about these two women that is full of suspense and all the thrills. The pacing is absolutely amazing and kept my interest going. This is a well written novel that is highly entertaining with well thought out plots and characters you will grow to love.
I really enjoyed this story so much for a debut novel by Tara Laskowski. I look forward to her future works!!
Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy. All opinions expressed are my own. I voluntarily reviewed this book.
One Night Gone
By: Tara Laskowski
*REVIEW*
This story was different than I expected. One Night Gone is the story of a girl, Maureen, who disappeared
about thirty years ago in Opal Beach; it’s also the story of Addison, a girl in present day Opal Beach. Addison wants to know the truth about what happened to Maureen. She may get more than she could imagine. Questions lead to lies that lead to secrets and betrayals that were not meant to see the light of day. Does Addison discover the truth? Who is telling the truth? It’s a suspenseful thrilling read with plenty of twists and turns and drama. I found this book interesting, and I enjoyed reading as the picture started to unravel. I recommend for mystery fans of missing persons.
Amazon Vine Review
If I had started this earlier in the day this could have been a one sit read for me. It started out slow but then it just pulled you into the mystery. Lots of suspects and possible answers but I truly did not see the ending. This story is told by Maureen and Allison’s points of view. With Maureen being the past and Allison being the present. It all started with Allison as she is fresh from a bad divorce looking for a restart on life when she moves to a small beach town. She soon learns that the picturesque town is full of its own secrets. A great mystery/thriller read that stays with you.