Parents Weekend: A Novel

When Five freshman from Santa Clara University do not show up to the University’s Parents weekend dinner, is it a coincidence or is there something more sinister happening? Blane, Stella, Felix, Libby and Mark had all spoken to their parents earlier that day to finalize plans for dinner, but by dinner time, all five were unreachable and nowhere to be found. Typically, the parents and campus police would not be overly concerned about their students not showing up. They would have figured they were side tracked by a party or friends, but earlier in the week, a student was found dead. When Sarah Keller asked for a temporary transfer to the Northern California office so that she could be with you husband Bob and the twins to take care of Bob’s ailing father. But in true Special Agent Keller fashion, she is asked to investigate the missing five students. There is a large cast of characters that we follow through this fast-paced journey. It seems that every family has plenty of secrets. From infidelity to betrayal and tragic losses, which hints at a deeper connection to the disappearances. I absolutely love Alex Finlay’s fast-paced, action-packed writing style, but this one was a little bit too much of a cozy thriller. I felt that there were so many families, faculty, police officers and FBI agents, that I kept needing to pause to remember who that was. Overall, this one was a 4 star read for me, I did enjoy the book and the unstoppable Agent Keller. I can’t wait to read more from this author.

This one hooked me! Fast-paced and twisty in all the right ways, Parents Weekend delivers a tense, layered mystery with a unique setup. I was convinced Natasha faked her death to get revenge on The Five—and while I wasn’t completely wrong, the way things actually played out still caught me off guard. Told across multiple timelines and POVs, the story builds suspense while slowly revealing how a prank turned tragic and what grief can drive people to do. The sea cave scenes were chilling, and I could easily see this becoming a limited series. Some elements do stretch believability, but it was so entertaining, I didn’t mind. If you like thrillers with secrets, revenge, and moral gray areas, this one’s worth the read.

This is a twisty, suspenseful mystery set at a private college in Northern California. Five students go missing during Parents Weekend. What connects them? What secrets are their parents hiding? And will they make it back alive?

I loved unraveling each family's story—so many layers and secrets to uncover. My favorite character? Hands down, FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller. She was a total standout.

This was my first Alex Finlay novel, but definitely not my last. Solid, fast-paced mystery that kept me hooked from start to finish.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the E-ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts!

Alex Finlay has a formula for his thrillers - lots of characters and lots of backstories. Sometimes it works for me (Every Last Fear), sometimes it doesn’t. This time it didn’t. The story had so much promise! The plot sounded sooo good that I couldn’t wait to dive into the audiobook, ℅ netgalley (many thanks) But, within the first 5 chapters I was introduced to about 15 characters and it completely shattered my excitement and interest in the story. It was hard to stay engaged when new characters were constantly introduced and I just lost the momentum for seeing how all of these stories and characters would connect. I would really love to read a book with this same plot, with maybe 30 less characters. The narration was pretty good. I liked her tones and flows throughout the story.