Publisher: Minotaur Books
Release Day: May 6, 2025
Many thanks to Minotaur Books for a complimentary arc of this title for review. Opinions expressed are my own.
Review first published in Mystery & Suspense Magazine
From the bestselling author of If Something Happens to Me, comes one of the year’s most anticipated thrillers.
Told through multiple points of view in past and present—and marking the return of FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller from Every Last Fear and The Night Shift—Parents Weekend explores the weight of expectation, family dysfunction, and those exhilarating first days we all remember in the dorms when our friends become our family.
Review:
PARENTS WEEKEND is a fast-paced, propulsive suspense thriller that's impossible to put down. Author Alex Finlay explores the highs and lows of first-time college students and their parents, beginning with the thrill of students moving into dorms and making new friends and quickly morphing into every parent's worst nightmare - a missing child.
It’s Parents Weekend at the University of Santa Clara and the excitement, nervousness and lofty expectations of first-time college students and their parents is evident as they begin a new phase of their lives. Four families are meeting their kids, Libby, Stella, Felix, and Blane, for dinner and cocktails on the first night along with Tom whose parents aren't attending. The parents are enjoying drinks and small talk when it begins to dawn on them that not one of their kids have shown up. At first, there's little concern. After all, everyone recalls how it is being a college student, right? However, as time passes without a word and phones go unanswered, concern turns to fear and eventually panic. A call to police produces a quick response, search parties are formed, and FBI Agent Sarah Keller is brought in to assist. It doesn't take long for reporters to swarm in as rumors run rampant, spreading like flames through gathering crowds with whispers of another student who was found dead a few days prior. While it’s true that death was ruled accidental, it elevates the level of concern fueling a greater sense of urgency for the missing five. How could five students disappear without a trace?
Author Alex Finlay utilizes short, past/present chapters and multiple points of view to draw readers into this twisted, edge-of-your-seat thriller. As the story unfolds, secrets surface among both parents and teens. The drama builds when masks begin slipping among the vastly different group of anxiously waiting parents, allowing readers insight into the dynamics of each family. A large cast of support characters muddy the waters, giving readers a wide array of red herrings to sift through. As time passes with no word, a foreboding tone intensifies fueling the steadily increasing pace that eventually leads to an unpredictable, explosive climax. I loved the return of FBI Agent Sarah Keller of THE NIGHT SHIFT and EVERY LAST FEAR fame, two of my favorites by Finlay, and her presence serves as a steady force lending an air of authenticity to this story. PARENTS WEEKEND is a mesmerizing thriller that explores the dynamics of dysfunctional families and the emotional uncertainties experienced by parents and students leaving the nest for the first time. Highly recommended to fans of well-crafted suspense thrillers.
Synopsis:
It’s Parents Weekend at the University of Santa Clara and the excitement, nervousness and lofty expectations of first-time college students and their parents is evident as they begin a new phase of their lives. Four families are meeting their kids, Libby, Stella, Felix, and Blane, for dinner and cocktails on the first night along with Tom whose parents aren't attending. The parents are enjoying drinks and small talk when it begins to dawn on them that not one of their kids have shown up. At first, there's little concern. After all, everyone recalls how it is being a college student, right? However, as time passes without a word and phones go unanswered, concern turns to fear and eventually panic. A call to police produces a quick response, search parties are formed, and FBI Agent Sarah Keller is brought in to assist. It doesn't take long for reporters to swarm in as rumors run rampant, spreading like flames through gathering crowds with whispers of another student who was found dead a few days prior. While it’s true that death was ruled accidental, it elevates the level of concern fueling a greater sense of urgency for the missing five. How could five students disappear without a trace?
Author Alex Finlay utilizes short, past/present chapters and multiple points of view to draw readers into this twisted, edge-of-your-seat thriller. As the story unfolds, secrets surface among both parents and teens. The drama builds when masks begin slipping among the vastly different group of anxiously waiting parents, allowing readers insight into the dynamics of each family. A large cast of support characters muddy the waters, giving readers a wide array of red herrings to sift through. As time passes with no word, a foreboding tone intensifies fueling the steadily increasing pace that eventually leads to an unpredictable, explosive climax. I loved the return of FBI Agent Sarah Keller of THE NIGHT SHIFT and EVERY LAST FEAR fame, two of my favorites by Finlay, and her presence serves as a steady force lending an air of authenticity to this story. PARENTS WEEKEND is a mesmerizing thriller that explores the dynamics of dysfunctional families and the emotional uncertainties experienced by parents and students leaving the nest for the first time. Highly recommended to fans of well-crafted suspense thrillers.
Synopsis:
In the glow of their children’s exciting first year of college at a small private school in Northern California, five families plan on a night of dinner and cocktails for the opening festivities of Parents Weekend. As the parents stay out way past their bedtimes, their kids—five residents of Campisi Hall—never show up at dinner.
At first, everyone thinks that they’re just being college students, irresponsibly forgetting about the gathering or skipping out to go to a party. But as the hours click by and another night falls with not so much as a text from the students, panic ensues. Soon, the campus police call in reinforcements. Search parties are formed. Reporters swarm the small enclave. Rumors swirl and questions arise.
Libby, Blane, Mark, Felix, and Stella—The Five, as the podcasters, bloggers, and TikTok sleuths call them—come from five very different families. What led them out on that fateful night? Could it be the sins of their mothers and fathers come to cause them peril or a threat to the friend group from within?
Told through multiple points of view in past and present—and marking the return of FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller from Every Last Fear and The Night Shift—Parents Weekend explores the weight of expectation, family dysfunction, and those exhilarating first days we all remember in the dorms when our friends become our family.
At first, everyone thinks that they’re just being college students, irresponsibly forgetting about the gathering or skipping out to go to a party. But as the hours click by and another night falls with not so much as a text from the students, panic ensues. Soon, the campus police call in reinforcements. Search parties are formed. Reporters swarm the small enclave. Rumors swirl and questions arise.
Libby, Blane, Mark, Felix, and Stella—The Five, as the podcasters, bloggers, and TikTok sleuths call them—come from five very different families. What led them out on that fateful night? Could it be the sins of their mothers and fathers come to cause them peril or a threat to the friend group from within?
Told through multiple points of view in past and present—and marking the return of FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller from Every Last Fear and The Night Shift—Parents Weekend explores the weight of expectation, family dysfunction, and those exhilarating first days we all remember in the dorms when our friends become our family.
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