The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

Title: The Sun Down Motel

Author: Simone St. James

Publisher: Berkley 

Release Date: February 18, 2020

The secrets lurking in a rundown roadside motel ensnare a young woman, just as they did her aunt thirty-five years before, in this new atmospheric suspense novel from the national bestselling and award-winning author of The Broken Girls.

Upstate NY, 1982. Every small town like Fell, New York, has a place like the Sun Down Motel. Some customers are from out of town, passing through on their way to someplace better. Some are locals, trying to hide their secrets. Viv Delaney works as the night clerk to pay for her move to New York City. But something isn't right at the Sun Down, and before long she's determined to uncover all of the secrets hidden…

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This is the way a book should be! Spooky and entertaining to the max!

I love everything about The Sun Down Motel. I could see it in my head happening like a movie. A movie which I probably would be too scared to watch.

The book begins in 1982 with the disappearance of Viv Delaney, a young woman from Chicago who has stopped at the Sun Down Motel while she was on her way to NYC. Viv decides to take a job as the night clerk for the motel but she soon realizes that something very wrong is happening at this place. The doors of the rooms open on their own accord, she can smell smoke when there's no one smoking, noises and voices are heard in the middle of the night. Then, she learns Fell is a town full of secrets. Multiple women have died and Viv starts believing their deaths might all be related. 

In 2017, Carly Kirk is a college student who recently has lost her mother. She decides to take a trip to Fell, NY. She is in search of clues as to what happened to her aunt at The Sun Down Motel in 1982. When she gets to Fell, she finds a roommate, Heather. Heather is a night owl who likes true crime, just like Carly does. In order to investigate her aunt's disappearance, Carly decides to take the job her aunt once had, as the night clerk for The Sun Down motel. Not long after, eerie things start happening to her. Carly with the help of Heather, and a stranger, Nick Harness, knows she must find out the truth of what happened at the motel the night Viv disappeared.

Such a good book. Great story with great writing. Excellent plot and characterization. I was completely immersed in this novel.  I highly recommend it.

Cliffhanger: No

5/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by Berkley via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.