Parents Weekend by Alex Finlay on May 6, 2025
Genres: Fiction / Thrillers / Psychological, Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense
Pages: 320
Format: ARC
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Alex Finlay’s Parents Weekend was one is his typical writing style. It was a thrilling ride that I couldn’t put down. I read this one in one sitting because I just couldn’t put it down and I was lucky it was a Saturday and I didn’t have to! I think this is going to be a popular mystery/thriller this summer because it’s a light, easy mystery.
This one does have a larger cast of characters because this one centers on the 5 kids (or young adults) that go missing. I think the reason I was able to keep everyone straight is because I read this one so quickly and had them all fresh in my mind. If you slow read books, you may need to keep the character list handy. I grabbed this from a friend’s page:
he Roosevelts (Divorced parents: mother works in the State Department, father is a teacher and former writer, son Blaine was abducted as a child),
The Maldonados (David, a doctor with marital issues, and Nina, his fuming wife, have a daughter Stella with a rebellious streak),
The Goffmans (Alice, a divorced school administrator, is raising her bullied, introverted son Felix alone),
The Akanas (Ken, a Superior Court judge known for convicting a movie star, and Amy, his grieving wife, mourn the loss of their youngest son while raising their model daughter, Libby),
Mark Wong (Best friend of Blaine, with a troubled family background).
And of course we see Agent Sarah Keller return in this one. She had recently made a move to help care for her husband’s father. I did like their little bits of the story as well.
This is told in multiple points of view and it’s told in the past and present so the story comes together nicely. There were a few twists and I can’t say that it was totally predictable, but some things were a bit predictable, but sometimes I wonder if that is because of how many mysteries I have read. I liked that this one was easy to read and just a little mystery that wasn’t too dark. I would say this is an entertaining mystery and it was just what I needed at the time.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. This book is scheduled to release May 6, 2025.