A Today Show and New York Post Summer Reads Selection! First dates can be murder. “Ferociously smart.” –AJ Finn “Riveting.” –Riley Sager “Addictive.” –Liv Constantine “Wonderfully tense.” –Aimee Molloy “Irresistible.” –Mary Kubica “Impossible to put down.” –Megan Miranda Riveting and compulsive, national bestselling author Wendy Walker’s The Night Before “takes you to deep, dark places … national bestselling author Wendy Walker’s The Night Before “takes you to deep, dark places few thrillers dare to go” as two sisters uncover long-buried secrets when an internet date spirals out of control.
Laura Lochner has never been lucky in love. She falls too hard and too fast, always choosing the wrong men. Devastated by the end of her last relationship, she fled her Wall Street job and New York City apartment for her sister’s home in the Connecticut suburb where they both grew up. Though still haunted by the tragedy that’s defined her entire life, Laura is determined to take one more chance on love with a man she’s met on an Internet dating site.
Rosie Ferro has spent most of her life worrying about her troubled sister. Fearless but fragile, Laura has always walked an emotional tightrope, and Rosie has always been there to catch her. Laura’s return, under mysterious circumstances, has cast a shadow over Rosie’s peaceful life with her husband and young son – a shadow that grows darker as Laura leaves the house for her blind date.
When Laura does not return home the following morning, Rosie fears the worst. She’s not responding to calls or texts, and she’s left no information about the man she planned to meet. As Rosie begins a desperate search to find her sister, she is not just worried about what this man might have done to Laura. She’s worried about what Laura may have done to him…
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Wendy Walker proves her ingenuity with her latest hair-raising chiller. Teeming with taut writing, an abundance of jaw-dropping revelations, and Walker’s uncanny insight into the dark side of human nature, The Night Before is irresistible.
Laura and her sister, Rosie, along with Joe and Gabe, all grew up in the same neighborhood, tight friends from early childhood. Rosie and Joe are now married with a toddler, and Gabe has married. After her most recent relationship ends badly, Laura moves into her sister’s home to recover. It isn’t long before she connects with “Jonathan,” a man from an online site and agrees to a date. When she doesn’t return home the next morning, Rosie fears the worst.
What sets this slick page turner apart from others in a similar vein is that Rosie’s concern isn’t only for her sister. If the date went bad, she’s also terrified what Laura might have done to Jonathan. That unexpected curveball sold me on the book, and I was not disappointed.
When she was a teen, Laura’s boyfriend, Mitch, was bludgeoned to death during a party. The events of the night have always been murky, though a homeless man with a mental disability was eventually convicted of the crime. Even so, suspicion has hung over Laura given she was found standing beside Mitch’s body, a baseball bat in her hand, blood on her clothing. Combined with a rough-and-tumble childhood and her own doubts about what she did that night, she has been trapped in a downward spiral ever since.
The story alternates between Laura’s first person POV during her date with Jonathan, Rosie’s third person POV as she, Joe, and Gabe frantically search for Laura, and transcripts of Laura’s sessions with her psychologist. There are plenty of false leads to make the reader think they’ve figured things out, several jaw-dropping moments, and enough plot twists to make this work as both a psychological thriller and a twisty whodunit. It’s hard to say more without giving away spoilers, but suffice to say I was riveted from page one and devoured this book in a single night. Highly recommended!
I raced through The Night Before, another page-turning cracker from Wendy Walker. You’re in for a treat!
A sharp, suspenseful, roller-coaster of a thriller… Walker unravels the hidden secrets between families and friends in this smart, compelling read. Impossible to put down!
A clever, insightful, shrewdly plotted psychological thriller, which starts out strong and keeps building to a final, heart-pounding conclusion. The pacing is fast, the characters life; this unique and dark story is one you won’t want to miss! What I loved about this book is that, while there are surprising twists, they are smooth and realistic, rather than sharp and shocking. Walker’s plotting is so clever that each twist seems inevitable, but only after the fact. An engrossing and stunning tale of sisterly love and dark secrets.
A dazzling hall-of-mirrors thriller: ferociously smart, furiously paced, and—best of all—honest-to-goodness surprising. All hail Wendy Walker.
This was the 3rd of Wendy Walker’s books I read within a few weeks. I normally don’t read mysteries but she got me hooked. I definitely preferred the other two (Don’t Look for Me and Emma in the Night), but this was still good and kept me reading.
This book, in a lot of ways, was tragic. It’s tragic listening to the way Rosie, the big sister, believes the worst about Laura. It’s tragic listening to Laura’s own internal monologue where she doesn’t even trust herself or what she feels. It’s tragic how long it takes for these people who are supposed to be family and the best of friends to realize what is right in front of their faces.
This was a good book. It had solid characters and a good number of twists and turns throughout the book. Midway through, I thought I’d figured out what had happened/was happening but then a completely different revelation left me staggering and had me realizing that what I’d put together made sense, but for completely different character. None of this probably makes sense to you however, because if you’re reading this, you haven’t read the book and you likely have no idea what I’m rambling on about. That’s okay. I’m trying not to spoil anything for you so just go read the book and you can thank me later.
I don’t read many thrillers, so I can’t compare this with others, but I enjoy this author’s writing voice and liked the twist in the premise–where the woman is potentially the threat in an online dating situation. I also like the way it explore the psychology of children of emotionally distant or abusive parents. Very realistic, in my opinion. This is a great rainy-day or airplane read!
Pulse-pounding action makes you race to the finish of this addictive thriller… Just when you think you have everything figured out, Walker pulls the rug out from under you and leaves you staggered. The writing sings, and the twists deliver.
As timely as it is compelling, The Night Before gripped me from the first page all the way to its stunning conclusion. Through twist after twist, the story takes you to deep, dark places few thrillers dare to go. A riveting read!
Twisting and Turning!
A psychological thriller told from the different POVs of two sisters starting in the present after one sister disappears along with flashbacks to a disturbing incident in the past. As the story unfolds, new twist and turns keep appearing and changing the reader’s expectations. The characters and their still solid childhood friendships add another element to the depth of the characters.
It’s a psychological thriller which makes it extremely difficult to just pick up and put down the book. It keeps your attention all the way through!
Thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
Excellent title and according to the whole plot from the beginning to the end. Beautiful cover. A well written novel, excellent characters and a good plot. Good pace very fast like I prefer and well detailed. It connects you with the reality of the plot and its shutters to the point that you can not stop reading it, excellent indication of a good job. When you are not reading it, it leaves you intrigued and wanting to resume reading. It is not predictable which writing today is very difficult since there are many suspense novels in circulation. I love the author. I had never read anything about her that led me to buy her 2 previous novels. And this must be one of the purposes of Net Galley not only to take the reader’s current opinion in a book but also to encourage him to read more about the authors. very good for net galley and the publishing house now I am new fan of the author. Thanks to Net Galley for the opportunity. This opinion is strict and only mine.
This is a fast paced, edge of your seat novel. There are so many red herrings that I kept changing my mind about who was responsible for what had happened in the main characters life – was she crazy? was it her brother in law? Sister? someone unknown? When it was finally revealed, I was very surprised until I went back and re-read parts of it and found that the clues were there all along but well hidden!
Laura was so emotionally devastated from her last break up that she quit her high level job and moved back to her home town with her sister and brother in law. Moving back brought lots of memories to her – many of them very bad memories. The novel is told from several points of view – Laura present day and Laura talking to her psychiatrist in the past, Rosie (her sister) in the present day and past. This was an interesting way of making sure that we had all the information we needed about both characters but their memories of the same event were often very different and you never know whose memory is correct.
We know right from the beginning that when Laurie was younger, a tragic event occurred when she was a teenager that causes her to have problems being around men and falling in love. Her sister convinces her to go on a blind date and she goes reluctantly but then she never comes back. As her sister frantically looks for her, the question becomes – Did he harm her or did she harm him?
Wendy Walker has brought us another book full of dark secrets that and a plot that will keep the reader’s tension high as they race through the pages.
This is the first book I have read by this author and though I did not love it, it was not horrible either…just really different and not really my reading style. The premise was intriguing and enough to pull me in to give it a try; it was just not one that I would rate as memorable. With that said, I was still flipping pages because I really wanted to know the outcome…did Laura or didn’t she? It was a complicated, suspenseful thriller told by multiple (both sister’s) POV’s and also included some flashbacks into Laura’s psychologist’s sessions, which added a bit more insight into her character. There were also a couple of twists and a surprise thrown in that I was not expecting, nor did I see coming. If you are a fan of this author and really enjoy her work, I am sure you will probably be happy to add this one to your list.
*I received an advanced copy via the publisher thru NetGalley and I am providing my honest review. All thoughts/opinions are strictly my own.
4* Be Careful Stars
This was a fast paced well written eerie thriller.
The story of the disappearance of Laura alternates between 3 timelines, the night of her blind date, the days after and her therapy session’s months before she left her Wall Street Job and moved into her sister Rosie’s house in Connecticut, which also happened to be the suburb where they both grew up. The chapters are short which makes for a page turning read.
Just when you think you have it all figured out you are thrown a twist two which keeps you guessing until the end. The characters were interesting, some likeable and some not.
I would recommend this book to lovers of a good thriller, with interesting characters and red herrings that will have you guessing and entertained to the end.
Wow! Just wow! Wendy Walker has proven once again that she knows how to hook her readers and bring them in to shore. Rosie and Laura are sisters, but they are very different. Rosie is married with a husband and child and a very stable lifestyle. Laura, on the other hand, has just moved in with Rosie and family, and she seems to have a multitude of problems, not the least of which is maintaining a relationship. Unfortunately, the one thing that Laura really wants in her life is love, but it is more than a little elusive for her. When the book begins, Laura is getting ready for a blind date with a man that she “met” on a dating site.. When Laura doesn’t come back from her date, the real suspense of the book begins. The novel is told from the viewpoints of the sisters, and from the time of the night before Laura’s date and the day after. It also includes vignettes with Laura talking to a therapist, so we know that she has problems that are revealed slowly throughout the book. This is a wild ride of a psychological suspense! Several times I thought I had things figured out, only to be proven wrong. That’s the way I like my suspense novels…with enough secrets to keep me guessing until the shocking conclusion. This is a creepy but realistic novel about relationships and damages that may never go away. I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys psychological thrillers because this is one of the best I have ever read!
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from St. Martin’s Press via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”
The story jumped from from past to present. The main character, Laura, was not likable. The end was disappointing and predictable. I would not recommend it.
Very interesting story that twists and turns well so that you have to keep reading. However when the ending came closer and you were plodding towards the “big” reveal my interest flagged quickly.
I couldn’t get into it-Felt it went on on on-with no sense of purpose
The characters were not particularly likeable -and totally hung up on the past -and their own unresolved issues-
Even when the key to the tale was finally revealed / not really a surprise -I just wanted it over -and the denouement -locked in with the bad guy -pretty trite-