Review: The Night Shift by Alex Finlay

Author: Alex Finlay
Publisher: Minatour Books
Publication date: March 2022

It’s New Year’s Eve 1999. Y2K is expected to end in chaos: planes falling from the sky, elevators plunging to earth, world markets collapsing. A digital apocalypse. None of that happens. But at a Blockbuster Video in Linden, New Jersey, four teenage girls working the night shift are attacked. Only one survives. Police quickly identify a suspect who flees and is never seen again.

Fifteen years later, in the same town, four teenage employees working late at an ice cream store are attacked, and again only one makes it out alive.

Both surviving victims recall the killer speaking only a few final words... “Goodnight, pretty girl.”

In the aftermath, three lives intersect: the survivor of the Blockbuster massacre who’s forced to relive her tragedy; the brother of the original suspect, who’s convinced the police have it wrong; and the FBI agent, who’s determined to solve both cases. On a collision course toward the truth, all three lives will forever be changed, and not everyone will make it out alive.

The Night Shift is a mystery that follows a therapist who, 15 years before, was the sole survivor of a fatal attack in a video rental shop.  Now, there has been another attack in an ice cream shop and there is another final girl left alive.  The story is told in multiple perspectives and in two timelines.  

I really enjoyed this one.  I didn't call most of the twists or the killer.  The alternating timelines and multiple perspectives kept the pace of the story moving quickly.  It wasn't hard to keep everyone straight.  I felt like the author did a good job of making each voice distinct enough.  It was refreshing because that can be hard to pull off.  My favorite character was the FBI agent.  She is a character I would love to read more about. Her husband was so stinking sweet.  This is the first book I have read by this author and it won't be my last.  I highly recommend it.