Dead of Night
Lisa Gray
267 pages
Thomas & Mercer
published May 15, 2025
About the book
A crime writer. A cold case. Will she survive to tell the story?
Since the sudden and tragic death of her partner, bestselling crime author Serena Winters hasn’t written a word. With deadlines looming, she packs up her grief and escapes from New York City to a secluded clifftop house in small-town California, hoping the change of scenery will cure her writer’s block.
But as news of her arrival spreads, Serena finds herself facing strange accusations that she’s here to cash in on the house’s history. When she uncovers the chilling story of a young family who mysteriously vanished from the very same house thirty years earlier, she can’t help asking more questions…
Someone in the local community doesn’t want the past dug up, though. Someone willing to push Serena to the limits of her sanity to keep the truth buried. Caught in a spiraling campaign of intimidation, and harboring a dark secret of her own, Serena soon finds herself in the kind of danger she usually only writes about…
My Review
I was blown away by The Final Act, so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the author’s new book. It’s not quite as remarkable as The Final Act, but I was pulled in and compelled to keep reading to see what would happen next.
There are dual timelines and multiple POVs. It seemed pretty obvious how the timelines would intersect even without repeating characters, but it didn’t all play out as I had anticipated. I was intrigued by the family that kept disappearing in the middle of the night.
I love reading 90s fiction, which was the setting of one of the timelines, but humorously I can keep it straight in my head how long ago it really was. I’m not sure if that would have helped me put it all together.
I related to Serena and I’m always a fan of a writer as a character. And I thought it was clever to have her research the disappearing family to try to bring the timelines full circle.
There was one part of the story that I can say I have never seen done and I got such a kick out of it after being surprised. I don’t want to issue any spoilers but you’ll know it when you get there.
I read this in less than a day and because of the fast pace, I never wanted to put it down. It hit my need for a popcorn thriller.
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