(85)Emma in the Night by Wendy Walker

Friday, October 13, 2017


It has been three years since Cass and Emma Tanner disappeared. To the outside world, their home life appeared to be perfect, but it was far from perfect. Their parents divorced, their mother is a raging narcissist, their stepbrother, Hunter, is a classic jerk with a drug problem. Cass was just fifteen years old the night they disappeared and their mother milked the attention for all it was worth.  Now only Cass has returned home and everyone wants to know what happened to Emma.  The authorities are determined to get to the bottom of what happened, but Cass's story is unbelievable.  She says that she was hiding in Emma's car the night that Emma disappeared.  She says that Emma was pregnant when they left.  She says that they have been living on an island, held captive.  Cass says that Emma had a little girl.  Cass says that she escaped.  Dr. Abby Winter is the forensic psychiatrist assigned to the case and it has haunted her for three years.  Now that Cass is back she is determined to get to the bottom of the story and hope that it helps to put her own demons to rest.   But first, where is Emma and her daughter?

Is there anything better than a good psychological thriller? I sure don't think so.  Almost immediately I was hooked on this story.  I think having a narcissistic mother made Emma and Cass the most sympathetic characters ever.  Cass wasn't even allowed to call her mother anything but "Mrs. Martin" as a punishment for wanting to live with her father.  Even after three years away, she only called her "Mrs. Martin."  Right away that made me want to gather Cass into a hug and "mother" her the right way.  The dynamic between Hunter and the girls made my spidey senses tingle almost immediately.  Same goes for Mr. Martin. He just seemed "off" to me.   I really liked Dr. Winter and knew immediately that was going to be an ally.  Her own experiences made her the perfect person to identify the real Mrs. Martin.  Cass's return turned out to be a carefully crafted attempt at revenge, but who was doing the crafting?  It was genius really.  I tried to figure it all out and I thought I had all of the secrets uncovered,  but it turns out that I was only half right.  CLICK HERE FOR SPOILERS


Bottom line -- Emma in the Night was an absolute masterpiece of a psychological thriller. There were so many twists and turns that just when you thought you had a handle on the situation Wendy Walker reveals something to make you realize just how wrong you were.  An absolutely thrilling read, be sure not to miss this one!

Details:




Latest Instagrams

© Charlotte's Web of Books. Design by FCD.