The Sun Down Motel By Simone St. James
Berkley, 2020. 327 pages. Mystery
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. Thirty-five years later, Viv’s niece, Carly, finds herself at the Sun Down to find answers, but becomes ensnared in the same mysteries as her aunt.
The perfect blend of a traditional ghost story and a murder mystery, The Sun Down Motel is one of my favorite books I’ve read this year! I enjoyed both Viv and Carly as strong, female characters whose choices were courageous, yet relatable. I particularly loved Aunt Viv’s timeline and the 1980s pop culture references throughout, as well as the library being an important setting. How can you be a citizen sleuth without a library? Overall, if you find yourself listening to true crime podcasts in your free time and you enjoy a good ghost story, you’re going to love The Sun Down Motel!
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Twenty-five years ago, Maggie and her parents, Ewan and Jess, moved into Baneberry Hall, a rambling Victorian estate in the Vermont woods. They spent three weeks there before fleeing in the dead of night, an ordeal Ewan later recounted in a nonfiction book called House of Horrors. His tale of ghostly happenings and encounters with malevolent spirits became a worldwide phenomenon, rivaling The Amityville Horror in popularity—and skepticism. Today, adult Maggie, with no memory of these childhood paranormal events, has inherited Baneberry Hall and doesn’t believe a word of her father’s book. She is determined to leave the past where it is and returns to renovate the home and prepare it for sale. As Maggie experiences strange occurrences straight out of her father’s book, she starts to believe that what he wrote was more fact than fiction.
By Ruth Ware
Scout Press, 2019. 336 pages. Mystery
When she stumbles across the ad, she's looking for something else completely. But it seems like too good an opportunity to miss--a live-in nannying post, with a staggeringly generous salary. And when Rowan Caine arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten--by the luxurious "smart" home fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture-perfect family. What she doesn't know is that she's stepping into a nightmare--one that will end with a child dead and herself in prison awaiting trial for murder.
BW
