Jaw-dropping. Layered. Triumphant.” - The New York Times
“Sarah Pekkanen’s startling, breathtaking tale of a mother and daughter will plunge you into a plot layered by lies and trauma but still infused with love. Through deft writing and thoughtful character development, she’s created a fast-paced thriller in Gone Tonight, daring to ask deep questions about love versus fear, and control versus protection.” —Readers Digest
"This riveting, original, and powerful mother-daughter story kept me glued to the pages. I'm a huge fan of Sarah Pekkanen's books, and GONE TONIGHT is her best yet." —Colleen Hoover
“Gone Tonight is all the best of Pekkanen’s last few collaborations... easily the best thriller I’ve read all year. In an oversaturated market where even the best authors seem to be phoning it in, Pekkanen is here to remind her readers that thrills can still be shocking, twists can still be unexpected, and reading can still keep you up way past your bedtime. This is the thriller I’ve been waiting for.”—Bookreporter
"Filled with buried secrets and jaw-dropping deception, Sarah Pekkanen's GONE TONIGHT is a page-turning thriller about a mother-daughter you won't soon forget.. What would make a teenage girl vanish into the night and live a life on the run for two decades? Read Gone Tonight. It's a wild ride." — Harlan Coben, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author
“Gone Tonight is an intense, harrowing story about long-buried secrets and the trauma they inflict. The mother-daughter relationship is both thrilling and heartbreaking, with characters you won’t soon forget. Captivating from beginning to end.” – Samantha Downing, internationally bestselling author of My Lovely Wife.
"With prose that cuts like knife—full of both emotion and twists—GONE TONIGHT proves why Sarah Pekkanen is one of the finest thriller writers working today. Just when you think Pekkanen couldn't possibly outdo herself, she delivers with what will undoubtedly be crowned one of the year's best novels. Fresh, inventive, and with a gut-punch you won’t see coming, GONE TONIGHT is this decade’s Gone Girl. Believe the hype."— Alex Finlay, author of The Night Shift
"Catherine Sterling’s personal and professional worlds are beginning to collide: she’s a nurse who cares for patients with Alzheimer’s disease, and her mother is starting to show classic symptoms. The two live together, making the forgetfulness hard to miss, with Ruth Sterling looking very confused when recent events are discussed and forgetting words—calling ice cubes “water squares,” for example. Ruth is reluctant to get any scans that could confirm the likely diagnosis—her mother died of Alzheimer’s, she says, and she knows what’s ahead. But then Catherine makes a discovery that causes her to doubt that her mother’s problems are real. As the point of view shifts between the two women, readers get Ruth’s first-person point of view; her odd behavior is hiding an explosive past that Catherine knows nothing about. Readers are in for a wild cat-and-mouse game as this tight duo (boundaries, what are they?) faces terrible odds when Catherine delves into her mother’s past and Ruth hides the pair from an encroaching threat. There are some very sad moments here, related to dire poverty and child sexual abuse. Overall, it’s an eye-opening look at how “our minds…talk us out of things we don’t want to know.”—First Clue
"Prepare to stay up until the wee hours devouring GONE TONIGHT by Sarah Pekkanen." —Real Simple
“Your heart will race until the final page.” —Westport Magazine
07/28/2023
This solo effort from Pekkanen, coauthor of several thrillers with Greer Hendricks, including The Golden Couple, touches on the commonplace struggle between parents and children—the desire of a parent to protect at all costs and the rights of children to know certain truths. Catherine Sterling's mother, Ruth, is the only family she has ever known. Ruth says her family disowned her when she became pregnant with Catherine as a teen. She refuses to speak about them or anything else about her past, including the identity of Catherine's father. In light of devastating medical news, Catherine feels that it's important to learn her mother's story. But Ruth is resistant, even responding with anger when she is asked. Alternating chapters from both characters' points of view divulge most of Ruth's secrets from her past, including incidents of domestic violence and sexual assault. The tension lies in the cat-and-mouse game between mother and daughter, as one works hard to unravel the other's secrets, while the other goes to extreme measures to keep the truth from being revealed. Each of their motives also lies in question, as well as their reliability as narrators. VERDICT Recommended, especially for domestic-thriller fans interested in something other than marital dramas.—Joanna Harris
Kate Mara gives a quiet powerhouse of a performance of this taut and original thriller. Catherine Sterling and her mother, Ruth, are unusually close. Keyword "unusually." Note also the title's nod to the iconic twisty thriller GONE GIRL. This book earns the association; the plot takes turn after turn you won't see coming, and its revelations are persuasive and earned. Why do Ruth and Catherine have no family or friends? Why have they moved so often? Is Ruth protecting Catherine, or keeping her prisoner? Is Catherine the innocent she seems? Every time we shift from the private thoughts and memories of one to the other, the picture reveals surprising new size and detail. Skillful plotting is matched by Mara's crisp, well-paced, and beautifully controlled delivery. B.G. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
