The Night Out by Wendy Clarke grabbed me from the very beginning, and I couldn’t put it down. It’s not often I say that about a psych thriller, but there you go. Trust me; this one has it all.
Elise and her husband, Sean, are on the night out in question when they realize there are police at their house. But their daughter Megan is at home with their baby Kitty. And upon a quick investigation, everything seems to be fine.
So, why did someone call the police?
Fittingly, and perhaps ominously, the opening event lays the groundwork for a tightly written plot that saves the biggest twists for the end.
I don’t often put trigger alerts in my reviews. But it seems proper to say that domestic and psychological abuse figures very heavily in Elise’s story.
Audio:
UK: zpr.io/6FkbHta7FCxf
US: zpr.io/cNgXChxKWSzw
I liked how the author laid out the story. It was mostly from Elise’s point of view, with a few from Megan’s. I also think she did a good job with Megan. She was a very realistic teenager, moving between responsible big sister, to thinking her mom was too strict and that she knew what was better.
Unfortunately, that almost turned out tragic for her a couple of times. But there will be no spoilers here.
I guess if I had to pick on anything – and I had to dig deep for this criticism – it’s that I didn’t feel like Alex’s part in the present was big enough. I thought he would have had more to do. Conversely, it seems like Amity is thrown in as an afterthought. I didn’t get much from her either.
I’ve written several times about how I like to try to outguess the author on the twists in a psych thriller plot. Surprisingly, I did NOT guess the most jaw-dropping one in this story.
Wendy Clarke is becoming one of my favorite psych thriller authors, and The Night Out is just about as perfect as one can get.
