Review | THE NIGHT BEFORE by Wendy Walker

Riveting and compulsive, national bestselling author Wendy Walker’s The Night Before “takes you to deep, dark places few thrillers dare to go” as two sisters uncover long-buried secrets when an internet date spirals out of control.

Laura Lochner has never been lucky in love. She falls too hard and too fast, always choosing the wrong men. Devastated by the end of her last relationship, she fled her Wall Street job and New York City apartment for her sister’s home in the Connecticut suburb where they both grew up. Though still haunted by the tragedy that’s defined her entire life, Laura is determined to take one more chance on love with a man she’s met on an Internet dating site.

Rosie Ferro has spent most of her life worrying about her troubled sister. Fearless but fragile, Laura has always walked an emotional tightrope, and Rosie has always been there to catch her. Laura’s return, under mysterious circumstances, has cast a shadow over Rosie’s peaceful life with her husband and young son – a shadow that grows darker as Laura leaves the house for her blind date.

When Laura does not return home the following morning, Rosie fears the worst. She’s not responding to calls or texts, and she’s left no information about the man she planned to meet. As Rosie begins a desperate search to find her sister, she is not just worried about what this man might have done to Laura. She’s worried about what Laura may have done to him…

THE NIGHT BEFORE will have you gasping at every twist and turn.

Laura Lochner, after a bad break up, has returned to her home town, which she ran away from 10 years ago after a tragic murder of her High School “boyfriend” where she was found standing over his body and holding a bat.

As a child, she always felt unloved by her father and overheard her mother tell a friend that she had fists as hands and was hard to love. After her father left the family for another woman, Laura became a very angry child. And as an adult, she tended to have poor choices in men, always trying to make them love her but then the relationship would end.

After returning to her home town, and living with her sister, brother-in-law, and nephew, she tries her hand again at dating via an online site. Borrowing her sister’s car to meet her date, she promises she will return it no later than early the next morning. However, she never returns.

Feeling that something is very wrong, her sister Rosie, husband Joe and another childhood friend Gabe, begin searching for her as the hours and days go by and still they can’t find her. Secrets and betrayals come to light from so many years ago. With too many days that Laura has been missing, Rosie finally decides to contact the police, something she didn’t want to do because of that tragic night as teenagers in the woods. But can they find her? Secrets and betrayals come to light from so many years ago.

This is the first book I read by this author but she is now on my “authors to read list”.

The story will pull you in from the first page and won’t let go until the end. I did have a suspicion, or at least a guess, as to who the murderer was, but then, I also kept going back and forth between the characters thinking that maybe they could also be the killer. However, I didn’t even come close to the “why” until the explosive last chapters.

If you like psychological thrillers, then this book is for you! It will have you guessing until the last word. Highly recommend!

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