Emma in the Night

Honest review for my fellow avid readers. This is a great book, I would highly recommend it! Its a quick pace easy read that will keep you between the covers and turning pages until the end! Its a psychological thriller that takes you through the ups & downs of life under the roof of a narcissistic mother, sexual tension with a step brother, and family disfunction all around. You will see family disfunction in many forms, how it effects the lives of everyone in that household, and the psychological damage it will have on those involved. The twist at the end is well thought out & shows how patience and good can prevail in the end. It also shows how despite family disfunction, in the end, family comes through to help one another. Ending with a happy scene that gives you hope for Cas, the main character, and whats left of her family (the good members of it). If you can handle reading all of the family disfunction, which is deeply rooted and very ugly, you will love this book!

4.5 stars I never quite know what I'm going to get with a Wendy Walker book, and I'm saying that as a compliment. The three books I have read by her have this unique feel to them although I can't put into words what makes them feel so special and different. She's just a good storyteller and this book is a wonderful example of that fact. Fifteen-year-old Emma Tanner and her older sister, Cass, disappeared three years ago. Emma has now found her way back home and says she was held captive on an island with her sister. She was able to escape, but without her sister. As law enforcement grills Emma with the hope she will be able to provide enough answers so they can successfully locate and rescue Cass, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Abby Winter can't help but question some of Emma's claims. Abby thinks by learning more about Emma and her family, she might be able to uncover the truth. I thought the mystery was complex enough that I would be rather surprised if any reader was able to figure out every single piece of the puzzle before everything is revealed. It's one of those in which the theory you have floating around in your head will probably change throughout the story and by the end at most you were only partially correct. I liked how the story alternated between Emma and Abby's perspectives and as the story progressed, it was interesting learning some of the things they shared in common but also how they were different. Highly recommend for not just mystery fans but also for anyone who appreciates when an author takes the time and effort to create a well-crafted story with fully developed characters.

Wendy Walker has an intriguing premise here and an interesting approach to telling Cass's story. The problem, for me, is that she does a lot of telling and virtually no showing, making a lot of the narrative seem more like info-dumps than the gradual revealing of character and events that a good thriller with an unreliable narrator really requires. Additionally, the character of Abby Winters never really came Alice for me - she seemed to exist primarily as a way to relay Cass's narrative of events and to fill the reader in on everything you could ever want to know about narcissistic personality disorder, much of which was, frankly, repetitive and/or irrelevant to the story. And can I just ask, why give her a dog who is mentioned maybe twice and never named? That said, parts of the story were intriguing enough to keep me reading, and a few plot twists were a little surprising. No major thrills or shocking reveals (too heavy a hand with the foreshadowing), but a pleasant enough summer vacation read.

Cassandra stood on her mother’s doorstep for 90 seconds before ringing the doorbell. When Judy Martin opened the door, she didn’t recognize her younger daughter. For good reason. Three years before, Cass, then 15, and her 17-year-old sister Emma disappeared in the night. According to Cass this is what happened: A man and a woman took them from a Connecticut beach on Long Island Sound to a remote island off the coast of Maine. Emma was pregnant. The couple kept the sisters captive and took the baby away from Emma. Cass escaped but without Emma and is desperate to find her. Cass’s narrative alternates with chapters about the investigative work by FBI forensic psychologist Abigail Winter and her supervisor Special Agent Leo Strauss. Abby wonders if the sisters’ disappearance is related to their family’s troubled dynamics. The mother is a pathological narcissist, who craves to be the center of attention and sets one member against another. It reminds Abby of her own mother. She is puzzled that the usually precise Cass – who compulsively counts seconds – is vague about important details of her ordeal. Abby convinces Leo that they must tell a lie to Judy and her second husband to find Emma. But how that turns out is not the end. There are more surprises. Like the fate of the baby who was born on the island. Cass says at the beginning of Chapter 1: “We believe what we want to believe.” The statement reappears several times. Near the end, Abby realizes there is a truth no one wants to believe. Author Wendy Walker, a former family lawyer, writes at home in Fairfield County, Connecticut, while raising three sons. She says in the Acknowledgements that her mother “bears no resemblance to Judy Martin.” “Emma in the Night” is Walker’s second suspense novel. Her first was “All Is Not Forgiven.” Both are humdingers. Believe me.

This well written book draws you in from the start, but don’t be fooled into making assumptions about people or events! This is a beautiful exploration of family relationships, secrets and provides unexpected twists.

Très bonne intrigue, une fin à laquelle on ne s'attend pas. C'est un bon thriller qui se lit très facilement

Had a good experience buying my favourite book from AMAZON. Keep up the good work , thank you.

Fabulous book with so many twists, easy to read but totally gripping. Great characters and plot, heartfelt and slightly disturbing yet thrilling. Well worth reading this book!

One of the Mist Beautiful Books i've eher read !! Truly amazing. It was a rollercoaster of a Book. Probably One of the best books ive read