The Night Before

I love the way Wendy Walker writes and the cleverly obfuscated way she plots, The Night Before was an excellent page turner, where the usual lines are slightly blurred.

Laura is missing after leaving for a date, Rosie her sister is desperate to find her…But who is Rosie most worried for? Her sister or the man her sister went to meet…

It was refreshingly honest in its narrative about human nature and how dangerous we can be.. as men or women..that plus an intelligent mystery element made The Night Before a really engaging read.

I read it fast and whilst not surprised by the “bad guy” reveal, did not feel this took away from the enjoyment of the story, this had many levels all of them compelling.

Recommended.

What would you do if your sister disappeared?

I mean, it’d be a toss-up between taking all my favourite clothes from her wardrobe and calling the police. But Wendy Walker’s new book is the kind of spine-chillingly good read that makes you rethink everything you know about family (and ESPECIALLY this family).

It’s written from the perspective of the night before, and the days after, Laura Lochner goes missing from her first date in months. Her sister, Rosie, instinctively knows that something is wrong, and starts trying to track her down. Because Laura has a dark past, and Rosie isn’t sure whether Laura needs saving from other people, or from herself…

Good, eh? This book hits the ground running at a hundred miles an hour and doesn’t stop there, as the two stories start unfolding in parallel. What happened that night, and what’s still happening? Drip by drip, we start finding out more about the web of secrets and lies that have sprung up around the Lochner girls’ lives.

The result is pretty mesmerising to watch- kind of like a car crash in slow motion. Laura’s been traumatised ever since her first boyfriend was brutally killed in her teens. Rosie doesn’t know her sister as well as she used to, but is desperately trying to believe the best in her. The dynamic between the two sisters is gorgeous and, above all, believable: proof that you don’t have to like your family, but you’d always do anything for them. The worn patterns of the sisters’ conversation and the old, outdated views they have of each other, is the kind of relationship that only comes from growing up together.

It’s also disturbingly on the nose when it comes to the question of love. What would we do to be loved, and what do we do to those who love us? Walker hits unnervingly close to the mark in a few cases, using her damaged heroine Laura to ask some hard questions about what humans do to each ot

And the tension. I’m pretty sure I gave myself a paper cut from gripping the book so hard. Walker is a master at giving you exactly the right information to drive the plot forward- but also, somehow, leaving you more confused than ever. The nifty combination of present-day, night-before and past experiences, as well as conversations with Laura’s therapist, gradually gain more and more significance the more you read, leaving you desperate for answers and increasingly uneasy. She’s also great at the grand reveal; some whipcrack plot twists left me gasping, though the reveal of who the real baddie is was something I did manage to guess a few chapters beforehand.

Dark as a night in the woods, morally murky, desperately sad and thrillingly written, The Night Before was a treat to read. Though I probably won’t be sleeping for a week.

Rosie and Laura are sisters, but are different as can be. Rosie was their parents' golden child, while Laura was the difficult sister. They have grown up in the Connecticut woods, running wild with their close friends Joe and Gabe, in what should have been a happy childhood - but all families have secrets.

Rosie, as the eldest, has always tried to protect fierce little Laura, especially after their father walked out on them as children, but Laura's past is troubled - there is a darkness about her that seems unfathomable, and she has found it difficult to get over the brutal murder of her first boyfriend one night in the woods around their home. No one is really sure what happened that night, including Laura.

In the present, Rosie is happily married to Joe, and they have a young son together. They are content. Gabe still lives nearby, but Laura has moved away - trying to escape her past and find the love that she feels has always been missing from her life.

Laura goes from one doomed relationship to the next. Her latest relationship has broken down and she has left her high-powered Wall Street job and New York apartment to return home to spend some time with Rosie and her family.

One night, Laura goes on a blind date with a man she has met on an on-line dating site, still trying to find the man who will offer her everything she needs. Rosie is concerned that Laura is taking things too fast, after the latest break-up, but tries to be as supportive as she can.

Unfortunately, Laura does not come home from her date. Where is she? Is she safe?
Rosie starts to question Laura's state of mind, as the search for her missing sister gets underway. Should she be worried about Laura, or should she be concerned for the man she was dating instead? What is Laura really capable of?

This is a great, pacy thriller with some excellent twists that I did not see coming at all. This is one of those books that pulls you in and you will not be satisfied until you have read to the very end - it is always good when that end is satisfying too.

The story alternates between the night before the date, mostly from Laura's point of view, and the day after when Laura is found to be missing and the search begins - with snippets of Laura's sessions with her therapist thrown in. I really liked this, as it builds suspense well and slowly reveals the horrifying truth about what happened "the night before" and all those years ago in the woods.

I have read a few psychological thrillers this year, some of which were hyped to the max, but this is actually the best one so far. The story is gripping, the pacing is good, and the twists actually work. Good job, Wendy Walker!