Genre: Mystery Thriller

It would’ve been nice to end 2023 on a high note with my last read for 2023, but unfortunately it was not meant to be with The Sun Down Motel. At a first glance and for the majority of the book, there was nothing inherently wrong with the story. A murder mystery told via a split narrative perspective switching between Viv Delaney in 1982 and her niece Carley Kirk in 2017. Feeling listless after the recent death of her mother, she goes on a spur of the moment trip to Fell, New York. Looking into the great family mystery, Carley retraces Viv’s movements 35 years later in an effort to uncover what led to Viv’s sudden disappearance. Carley finds herself eventually working the night shift at the rundown and empty Sun Down Motel, the same job Viv occupied and happens upon some rather unusual and supernatural entities. Sounds interesting right? Unfortunately, the execution and contents are better suited and were probably written for a Book Club type of genre read. On the plus side, the Sun Down Motel itself (as in the actual building) is described well and is a great setting. I don’t know why the book cover design…

A strong opening chapter followed by a lot of slow plodding around sleepy Wakarusa, Indiana, I had my doubts about All Good People Here being able to close things out and salvage itself after a very lackluster first half. Fortunately I thought it did just that once Ashley Flowers’ background in True Crime podcasting pick up in the last third of the book and lends itself to a successful and at times exciting resolution. My biggest gripe with All Good People Here lies with the main protagonist leads and the perspectives of Margot Davies in the present 2019 and Krissy Jacobs in the past beginning with her childhood and the sequence of unfortunate events in 1994. For me personally it felt like the two women were in constant competition of who was more insufferable to read about and who would make the unintelligent emotion-driven decision at any given moment (which is quite counterintuitive for a supposedly successful journalist). I realize this is to show character development and growth; for Margot it’s to show growing validation for her initially off-base preconceived assumptions on the case and for Krissy, to show a young adult trapped and spiraling in a life she never…

Not sure if it’s because I’ve watched endless true crime documentaries, procedural dramas like Criminal Minds and Mindhunter, or I just have high standards for the murder mystery genre, but A Flicker in the Dark did not catch or hold my attention. I felt like I was coasting while reading the first 1/3 of the book and the overall reading experience went downhill the farther I progressed through the story. Most of my negative impression can be chalked up to Chloe Davis’s personality and trauma attributed to her upbringing and exposure to the media/local community associated with her Dad’s arrest. I liked the concept of her backstory and how it affected her mindset, career choices, and paranoia, however the execution felt clunky and off-putting. I hate to stereotype novels into specific demographics, but the Chloe’s monologue skewed so heavily toward a female audience I felt like I was being beaten over the head repeatedly for 100 pages about how dangerous and unfair life can be for an independent woman. Her character’s personality and background as a psychologist with a phd also constantly conflicted with the choices she makes and thoughts she has. The book makes an attempt to highlight anxiety…