Gone Tonight

• Author: Sarah Pekkanen
• Genre: Mystery/Thriller
• Publication Date: August 1, 2023
• Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

CONTENT WARNING: parental abandonment, death of a parent, terminal illness, alcoholism, child abuse, emotional abuse, racial slur (for Latines), prejudice, bullying, sexual assault, violence, murder, blood, mention of self-harm

Catherine Sterling thinks she knows her mother. Ruth Sterling is quiet, hardworking, and lives for her daughter. All her life, it’s been just the two of them against the world. But now, Catherine is ready to spread her wings, move from home, and begin a new career. And Ruth Sterling will do anything to prevent that from happening.

Ruth Sterling thinks she knows her daughter. Catherine would never rebel, would never question anything about her mother’s past or background. But when Ruth’s desperate quest to keep her daughter by her side begins to reveal cracks in Ruth’s carefully-constructed world, both mother and daughter begin a dance of deception.

I’ve loved the Hendricks/Pekkanen books, so when I saw this, I just couldn’t resist. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but I still had some high hopes for this one. And I was really happy to see that it met all of my expectations plus it briefly featured a chihuahua, so that basically sold me on the book even more.

The narrative switches between the POV of Catherine and Ruth, and we slowly get to see the carefully constructed world of these two women unravel. In the beginning, it’s blatantly obvious that these two have a desperately unhealthy relationship. They’re extremely codependent, and don’t seem to have any other relationships with anyone else, with the exception of an ex of Catherine’s from the past. Of course, it’s really hard to build relationships with others when you’re constantly on the move.

It’s easy to empathize with both main characters. While I don’t necessarily agree with all of their decisions, I could see where they were coming from, at least. Catherine is on the verge of making her first big change in life, by moving to work for Johns Hopkins hospital as a nurse after graduating. But her mother is determined to keep Catherine close to her. For her part, Catherine is working hard to unravel all the little lies and inconsistencies that she discovers slowly about her mother. Pekkanen is fantastic at misdirection, revealing small clues and letting the reader try to put things together for themselves before everything is revealed.

As for Ruth, bits and pieces of her story are revealed over the course of the book, and I liked learning about her slowly. It was interesting to compare present-day Ruth to the younger version of herself and see how much she has changed. And I appreciated how realistic the escape plans that Ruth maintains were—she’s watchful and prepared to run at a moment’s notice, with money, a go-bag, a burner phone, and identification. Seeing how far in advance she’s been prepping was impressive.

While this isn’t the kind of book that has a lot of jump scares in it, the tension both between the two main characters as well as the tension that builds in the story itself kept me hooked. I was invested quickly, and the short chapters kept me reading late into the night. This is a wonderful thriller, and I will definitely be looking into reading Pekkanen’s backlist, which I didn’t even know existed until now. Just adding them to the extra-long TBR. 

People who have sat around with me while I’m reading, especially when there’s a surprising reveal, a shocking plot twist, or an unexpected event often look up in alarm when I gasp audibly. The gasp factor is directly related to the number of times I audibly gasp during a reading, and there isn’t an upper limit.

Gasp Factor: 14