New Year’s Eve, 1999. A Blockbuster store in New Jersey. Everyone thinks the world is ending, but they have no problem partying the night away, except for 4 teens who are working. Just as the store is closing, three of them are murdered, including the store manager. One girl manages to escape, but never sees the killer. He whispers something in her ear, which she never forgets.

Present day, New Jersey. Four teens are working at an ice cream shop when the same thing happens. Three die, and one girl escapes. The killer whispers the same thing in the ear of the girl who survives, “Good night, pretty girl.”

Told through multiple perspectives, The Night Shift is a thrilling and engaging page-turner that keeps you guessing until the very end. It was highly addictive, and I read it in two sittings, turning pages furiously as the night grew later and later, wanting to figure out who the murderer was.

The main characters are Ella, the survivor of the Blockbuster attack; Chris, a lawyer and the brother of the accused Blockbuster attacker; and Sarah Keller, an FBI agent trying to solve both cases.

In 2000, Vince Whitaker was charged with murder in the Blockbuster attack, based on the fact that he was present at the scene of the crime, but he was let go shortly after, due to weak evidence. He ran away after that and was never found. Chris has been searching for his brother for years now, believing him to be innocent and wanting to get justice for him. He obsessively follows a travel vlogger who he thinks is his brother, but Chris isn’t the only one hunting Vince Whitaker down…

Keller, an FBI agent, is called as a special consultant on the ice cream store case, especially as many of the details mirror the Blockbuster case. Through her investigations, she discovers that many things didn’t add up the first time around, but the case was suspiciously closed, despite all the loose ends. She tracks down the families of the original victims, her path crossing into Ella Munroe’s, the lone survivor of the Blockbuster attack.

Ella’s life is a mess, and she constantly feels anxiety, ever since that day when her life changed. She’s a therapist and a compulsive cheater whose fiancé dumps her the day when the ice cream shop attack happens. She gets called by her former principal to talk to Jesse Duvall, the sole survivor of the ice cream attack. Jesse is an unnerving character, a girl who needs help processing the horrors she witnessed, yet there’s more to her than meets the eye.

The chapters are short, and the story takes place over three days. There is more than one mystery at play during the story, which means many chapters end on cliffhangers as perspectives switch. The ending wasn’t my favourite, and there were still a few loose ends, but for the most part The Night Shift is a thriller that will keep you up well into the night. Just be sure to keep the lights on…