AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERSomething hasn’t been right at the roadside Sun Down Motel for a very long time, and Carly Kirk is about to find out why in this chilling new novel from the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of The Broken Girls.Upstate New York, 1982. Viv Delaney wants to move to New York City, and to help pay for it she takes a job as the night clerk at the … pay for it she takes a job as the night clerk at the Sun Down Motel in Fell, New York. But something isnʼt right at the motel, something haunting and scary.
Upstate New York, 2017. Carly Kirk has never been able to let go of the story of her aunt Viv, who mysteriously disappeared from the Sun Down before she was born. She decides to move to Fell and visit the motel, where she quickly learns that nothing has changed since 1982. And she soon finds herself ensnared in the same mysteries that claimed her aunt.
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Deliciously creepy. A chilling blend of mystery and ghost story that will thrill fans of both.
I loved this book, which combined horror and thriller perfectly. Great writing, great characters and I loved the tone and mood throughout and the way the author seamlessly moved from 1982 to 2017 with the two main characters. I will definitely be reading more from her in the future, too.
Simone St. James has once again provided a chilling, atmospheric mystery with her signature supernatural elements.
Decades ago, Carly’s aunt went missing. No. Vanished, her purse still sitting at the front desk of the Sun Down Motel, where Viv had worked as the night manager.
Carly leaves Illinois to find answers. She arrives in Fell, N.Y., to find a town that time forgot. She ends up taking her aunt’s old job — and working on the same mystery she was trying to solve thirty-five years ago.
The story alternates between Carly and Viv as they work to find who is killing women in Fell. Carly is convinced her aunt is one of the victims.
Though they both uncover the killer — and experience the ghosts that literally haunt the Sun Down — what happens in the climax and denouement is supremely satisfying.
This book is a must read for thriller fans…part Stephen King, part Riley Sager.
Ghosts! Murder! Haunted motel in a small town! Cold cases! What more could you want?? Thirty-five years ago, Carly’s aunt Viv disappeared during her night shift at the Sun Down Motel. Although Carly never met Viv, she’s determined to find out what happened to her aunt, even going as far as moving in to the apartment where Viv once lived and taking Viv’s same shift at the motel. But as Carly retraces her aunt’s footsteps to try to solve the mystery of her disappearance, she finds herself inhabiting more of Viv’s life than she bargained for—and now can only hope that she doesn’t share Viv’s fate. Part ghost story, part murder mystery, this book is for all the murderinos out there. (In fact, Simone St. James included a shoutout to murderinos in her dedication!) The Sun Down Motel serves as a vividly spooky setting for the story, and I found myself sucked in from the very first page, rushing through the first third of the book in little over an hour. I loved (and was thoroughly creeped out by) how Viv and Carly’s stories intertwined, and there are plenty of strange, intriguing characters in this book to keep you suspicious of nearly everyone. I did sometimes have trouble distinguishing between what had been happening in Carly’s timeline, versus what happened in Viv’s timeline, since so many things are so similar as Carly retraces Viv’s path, but it always became clear pretty quickly. Overall, I really like how Simone St. James injects the supernatural into her stories, and I enjoyed this one in particular even more than her previous book, THE BROKEN GIRLS. I had to stop reading it right before bed because it was freaking me out so much! But then I couldn’t stop thinking about how I was missing out on finding out what happened, so I couldn’t sleep anyway!
Wow! The ghosts came out and all the lights went on in my house. Then I realized lights don’t work against ghost and I almost cried. This book was a roller coaster ride between intrigue and horror. I wanted to know about the ghosts even though I was terrified of them. The mystery is layered. Ghosts. Murdered women. Missing women. It is told from two views, Viv in 1982 and Carly in 2017. They both are looking for answers. They both are haunted by the ghosts.
As a child I traveled a lot in summers with my family. We stayed at many of these type motels. Some of them scared me. They just looked bad and gave me the heebie jeebies. Even now, I hate walking the hallways in hotels and corridors of motels. After reading this I’m not sure that’s going to continue to be a problem. I’m not certain I could sleep in one now.
I was able to picture the Sun Down perfectly. I could totally see all the ghostly happenings in my mind. I loved the chills it gave me. I found the mysteries interesting. I wasn’t certain either Viv or Carly would get the answers they sought. There were several people involved that I wouldn’t trust. I enjoyed the way the story unfolded as well as the twists and turns it took. I would definitely recommend this to my friends who were looking for a good story. I might even tell them it’s a good book to read on vacation..in a motel, because I’m funny like that.
I received an electronic uncorrected copy of this book, from NetGalley, for review purposes. I voluntarily reviewed it. I recommend it because I really had a hard time putting it down.
The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James had me turning the pages quickly and staying up late until my eyes couldn’t stay open any longer. While most of the book didn’t give me the creeps, I did get chills towards the end with the little boy in the pool. I thought for sure it was going to get really dark, and I think if St. James had taken it that way, she and the reader could have had a lot of fun with that part of the story.
It’s a mystery that evolves into a second mystery 35 years later that is engulfed in the world of the supernatural. You also get feminist power and rage which grows more as the book goes on. At times I felt my own rage because women being gaslighted or not believed just because they are female has been going on forever. Even other women not being able to help because it would be detrimental to their own lives. It is so frustrating and Viv’s emotions were written so well in regards to this.
I kept thinking that Carly was actually a ghost reliving her past, and when the novel didn’t end up going in that direction I was pleasantly surprised. After reading The Sun Down Motel, I want to check out more of her books, especially The Broken Girls. Highly recommend!
Creepy motel thriller
I’ve always enjoyed movies, TV shows, and books about creepy motels, starting with PSYCHO. My husband and I recently watched an older CRIMINAL MINDS show that was really great about – you guessed it – a creepy motel.
The Sun Down Motel sits outside the small town of Fell, New York. It opened in 1979 but not before finding a murder victim at the construction site. Since then other deaths have been associated with the motel.
The story is told mainly from two points of view – Viv in 1982 who is the night shift clerk at the motel and then Carly in 2017, who is Viv’s niece and wants to find out what happened to her aunt. She also takes the job of night shift clerk at the motel when she gets to town and starts her investigation.
This is a spooky story with some paranormal aspects but then also looks at a serial killer who has operated in the Fell area for years.
I loved this story and it had a surprising twist at the end that I did not see coming.
I received this book from Berkley Publishing through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.
The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James is a split time suspense thriller. Within the first few sentences I felt the danger surrounding the character. Ms. St. James is an artist with words, conveying and evoking her character’s emotion to her readers. A mysterious disappearance of a young woman in 1982 and in 2017 another young woman searches for answers to this mystery. Live the fear, sorrow and urgency to find who is behind the evil.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. I appreciate the opportunity and thank the author and publisher for allowing me to read, enjoy and review this book. 5 Stars
A well-paced, edge-of-your-seat mystery, expertly intertwining the past and present, all set in a ghostly setting. I loved it!
Now THIS is how you write supernatural suspense! I don’t know if I have ever loved a supernatural thriller quite as much as I love The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James. Serial killer? Check. Creepy, secluded location? Check. Ghosts? Check. And so many other things that combined to make this the PERFECT October read for me. I listened to the audio and was incredibly excited to find out Brittany Pressley was voicing our current day Carly. Kirsten Potter who I haven’t listened to before read the past viewpoint which is Carly’s aunt Viv, and I loved her as that character. Pressley is one of my favorite narrators of all time and I ADORED her as Carly partly because she sounded the way I would expect Carly to sound. I literally can’t say enough good things about the audiobook, and I would highly recommend doing The Sun Down Motel that way.
I was absolutely glued to this book and I listened to the audio all in one day because I just could NOT stop. I think it starts out on the slower side before it speeds up, but the whole thing is very pacy and it made the thing fly by. I also loved the inclusion of the two viewpoints past and present, and loved how they eventually come together so you know exactly what happened in 1982 when Viv disappeared. I honestly loved both viewpoints equally and thought they each brought so much to the book and story. You really can’t have one without the other and it made The Sun Down Motel even more perfect.
There were so many creepy, ghostly things happening and it had exactly the right level of supernatural for me. This clearly isn’t going to be a book for people who are looking for realistic, but if you love ghost stories and books with supernatural elements then The Sun Down Motel is going to be a must-read for you. The serial killer is positively terrifying and having him mixed in with all the ghosts and unexplainable things happening made the book that much more intense. St. James has become an instant autobuy author for me with this book and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next! Now please excuse me while I go back and read The Broken Girls.
Thank you to the publisher for my advance review copy via Edelweiss. All opinions and thoughts are my own.
I normally don’t read ghost stories, but this was my book club’s selection for October (appropriate). This was an intriguing tale! The story is set at the Sun Down motel in Fell, NY with two storylines – one in 1982 and one in 2017. It is about an unsolved disappearance of the night clerk and the unsolved murders of 3 women in 1982. The night clerk’s niece comes to town in 2017 trying to find out what happened to her aunt. When she goes to check out the motel where her aunt worked, she accepts a job as the night clerk at the Sun Down. She quickly learns that the motel is haunted and that the ghosts are connected to the unsolved cases.
I couldn’t put the book down. I had to know what happened. The author did a good job of weaving the story between the two timelines and kept you guessing. This is another book that I wouldn’t have chosen on my own, but thanks to book club I found a really good story!
The Sun Down Motel blends suspense and serial killers with a ghost story involving multiple ghosts. It is told in two points of view, Viv in 1982, and her niece, Carly in 2017. Vivian is a twenty-year-old who, just to get away from home, takes off for New York City to become an actress. She’s hitch-hiking when she’s picked up by a creep in a truck who wants more that she is willing to give. She gets off in Fell, NY and ends up working as the night clerk in the Sun Down Motel—until she disappears. Carly, in 2017, whose mother has just died, decides to investigate the disappearance of her mother’s sister, Carly’s only relative other than her brother. With what little information she can find, Carly sets off for Fell, NY and coincidentally ends up as a night clerk in the same hotel. Viv’s niece Carly goes on what little information she has to Fell, New York, to find out what happened to her mother’s sister thirty-five years earlier. Carly is also able to land a job at the Sun Down Motel as the night clerk. She learns that her aunt Viv wasn’t the only girl to disappear, so she spends her days investigating these disappearances.
This was a page-turner that kept me reading well into the night, despite its creepiness.
The eerie tone of a Gothic ghost story meets the setting-as-a-character of an urban fantasy in this captivating mystery. With an almost entirely female cast, THE SUN DOWN MOTEL explores the stories used to scare women, the secrets that need to be shared, and the truth buried in nighttime.
The dual POV gives us two timelines—Viv in 1982 and her niece Carly in 2017. The parallels are potent, but what I loved more was thinking I had an answer because of the 2017 timeline and still being surprised by the plot.
The ghastly vibes of the motel made me hesitate to read this one before bed, but then I couldn’t resist staying up to finish it. Total book rec.
Do you remember sitting around a campfire and telling ghost stories? Or maybe your older siblings used to try to freak you out at night or when you had sleepovers with your friend’s creepy ghost stories were always a part of it.
If you love that bit of a creep factor to heighten your reading experience, this story is definitely calling your name. This is exactly what a murder mystery should be about. St. James takes “the who done it” factor and ramps it up throughout the entire story, but she also adds in additional factors that really have you on the edge of your seat.
The foreshadowing is right there in your face and you somewhat know what is going to happen, but you still have that compulsive pull to keep on reading. To see what she is going to throw in there to keep you off balance. St. James does that really well! I could not stop reading!
I am not going to ruin your experience with the story by telling you what goes on, but just before warned that reading it late at night probably wouldn’t be a really good idea. But you are going to do it anyway!
This book is intense, creepy, and not for the faint of heart. But if you love crime stories, with heightened thrills and suspense, this is the book for you.
Well done original story with a terrific twist.
The ending felt rushed. It’s good to see female characters supporting other female characters not like others where female is always on the tail of other. I didn’t care for 2 perspective actually didn’t like it that much. We find something out and then we change the character. Horror : check , creepy vibe : check , strong female character : check , good ending? : Somewhat check , felt like ending rushed : extremely check . Any suggestions for new thriller books? Thank you in advance.
Very suspensful
The ending completely shocked me. Simone St.James pulls you in right from the beginning and doesn’t let go. Could not put this book down until I finished it, and then thought about it all night. Read it.
I loved this book! I loved the setting of the motel and the weird town of Fell. The characters were great and realistic. The story held my interest the whole time, I didn’t want to stop listening! I had to know what happened next. The narrators did such an amazing job.
There is 2 story lines going on here. The chapters alternates back and forth. One is in 1982 and centers around 20 year old Viv. She has escaped her mother and ends up in Fell. She takes a job at The Sun Down Motel and soon learns about all the dead girls in Fell (there’s a few). Viv sets out to solve the murders on her own. Then one night in November of 1982, she disappears without a trace.
The other story line is set in 2017 and in this one we follow Carly, Vivienne’s niece. She’s also 20. Carly is trying to find out what happened to her aunt all those years ago. She takes the exact same job at The Sun Down Motel that Viv had when she vanished. Carly’s story line is almost and exact echo of her aunt’s. But will she share the same fate as Viv? Read it to find out!