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Emma in the Night by Wendy Walker

Mystery

Emma in the Night

by Wendy Walker

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Quick take

"I love an edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller that feels authentic, current, and keeps you up way too late at night."

Synopsis

One night three years ago, the Tanner sisters disappeared: fifteen-year-old Cass and seventeen-year-old Emma. Three years later, Cass returns, without her sister Emma. Her story is one of kidnapping and betrayal, of a mysterious island where the two were held. But to forensic psychiatrist Dr. Abby Winter, something doesn't add up. Looking deep within this dysfunctional family, Dr. Winter uncovers a life where boundaries were violated and a narcissistic parent held sway. And where one sister's return might just be the beginning of the crime.

Free sample

Emma in the Night

From chapter one:

Cassandra Tanner—Day One of My Return

We believe what we want to believe. We believe what we need to believe. Maybe there's no difference between wanting and needing. I don't know. What I do know is that the truth can evade us, hiding behind our blind spots, our preconceptions, our hungry hearts that long for quiet. Still, it is always there if we open our eyes and try to see it. If we really try to see.

When my sister and I disappeared three years ago, there was nothing but blindness.

They found Emma's car at the beach. They found her purse inside, on the driver's seat. They found the keys in the purse. They found her shoes in the surf. Some people believed she had gone there to find a party or meet a friend who never showed. They believed that she'd gone for a swim. They believed that she'd drowned. Maybe by accident. Maybe a suicide.

Everyone believed Emma was dead.

As for me, well'”it was not as simple as that.

I was fifteen when I disappeared. Emma would never have taken me to the beach with her when I was fifteen. She was a senior in high school and I was a nuisance. My purse was in the kitchen. Nothing of mine was found at the beach. None of my clothes were even missing from the house, according to my mother. And mothers know things like that. Don't they?

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Why I love it

I love an edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller that feels authentic, current, and keeps you up way too late at night. Throw in a little teenage angst, an unpredictable mystery, and unsettling family dysfunction, and I am IN.

Emma in the Night slams open with the reappearance of 18-year-old Cass Tanner, one of the two missing and previously presumed dead Tanner sisters, three years after they both vanished. But her homecoming is far from joyful. Cass’s return forces her entire family to look back on the time when she and Emma vanished, and the disturbing events that precipitated their disappearance.

The story is told through the alternating perspectives of the recovered Cass Tanner and forensic psychologist Dr. Abby Winter. Cass’s side of the story, a tale of captivity, a stolen baby, and an escape from a mysterious island, seems both more guarded and more calculated than a traumatized kidnapping victim’s account should be.

Dr. Abby Winter can’t help but notice the major holes in Cass’s story. As Abby becomes more and more skeptical, she also becomes more emotionally invested in finding the truth. As she delves deeper into the case, she glimpses similarities between the girl's mother and her own mother—and based on her personal experiences, begins to believe the dysfunction in the Tanner family may have intergenerational roots.

Dealing with themes of unconditional love, mental illness, incest, and revenge, Wendy Walker’s taut and fast-paced writing masterfully unveils the broken backstory behind an unhappy family. Each and every one of the characters is flawed, surprising, complex, and dynamic—so much so that their overarching story hits you at a gut level.

Emma in the Night starts with many unanswered questions that slowly resolve, ramping up to the biggest and final mystery: What really happened to Emma? Once you think you have the story figured out from Cass’s perspective, another idea or discovery from Winter changes your mind completely, keeping you reading and guessing until the final satisfying page.

Member ratings (7,765)

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One by One
We Solve Murders
The Return of Ellie Black
All the Colors of the Dark
The Paris Apartment
Arsenic and Adobo
Long Bright River
The Maid
The Turn of the Key
The Woman in Cabin 10
When the Stars Go Dark
The Broken Girls
Still Lives
The It Girl
Like a Sister
Death on the Nile