If you are looking for a book with lots of twists, secrets, and suspense, you need to check out The Night It Ended by Katie Garner. Nothing is what it seems in this book. It is gothic academia at its best. It is chocked full of secrets and has that dark atmosphere for which gothic novels are famous.
Dr. Madeline Pine, a criminal psychiatrist, appears to have the perfect life. She has a wonderful family, a reputation as an expert in female violence, and a thriving mental health practice. She is asked to investigate a mysterious death at a boarding school for troubled female teenagers. She nearly turns down the job as she has just recently finished a tragic case that almost destroyed her. But when she hears about the victim Charley Ridley, she can’t seem to turn the case down. The girl was found in the snow without shoes and in pajamas at the bottom of a ravine on the campus of the boarding school. The police have ruled it an accident, but a private investigator hired by the girl’s mother has his doubts. Madeline feels that if this had been her daughter, she would want answers, and so she takes the case.
It is the winter break at the school. When Madeline gets to the campus, she is greeted by a skeleton crew and the four students who are still on campus. Each student seems to have secrets as does Madeline herself. The question is who would kill to keep their secrets?
The author does a skillful job of building the suspense through a series of twists. She uses flashbacks to a year earlier when an unknown psychiatrist is interviewing an unknown patient. Garner does an excellent job of tying all of this interview into the current storyline. The characters are well-drawn, including Madeline herself who is desperate to solve the mystery surrounding Charley’s death even through the drug-induced haze of her own mental health prescriptions.
This is a story that will have you turning the pages as you try to keep up with everyone’s secrets. An engaging read, you will love this book.
