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3.5
That Night
ByPublisher Description
What would you do to protect your family?
ANYTHING.
That night everything changed.
The night Frannie commited a murder, but she didn’t mean to…
That night we helped her bury the body, what else could we do?
One hot summers night in Italy, Joe and Cathy Plant receive a phone call that will change their lives forever.
Their sister Frannie has killed a man, and she needs their help.
They were always close, some might say too close, siblings who worked together, lived next door to each other
And now they’ve buried a body together…
But when they return to England, Frannie, Joe and Cathy become tangled in lies in they’ve been telling,
to the police, to their friends, to each other…
But if you can’t trust your family, who can you trust?
ANYTHING.
That night everything changed.
The night Frannie commited a murder, but she didn’t mean to…
That night we helped her bury the body, what else could we do?
One hot summers night in Italy, Joe and Cathy Plant receive a phone call that will change their lives forever.
Their sister Frannie has killed a man, and she needs their help.
They were always close, some might say too close, siblings who worked together, lived next door to each other
And now they’ve buried a body together…
But when they return to England, Frannie, Joe and Cathy become tangled in lies in they’ve been telling,
to the police, to their friends, to each other…
But if you can’t trust your family, who can you trust?
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesThat Night Reviews
3.5
“Hello, dysfunctional family! Gillian McAllister writes complicated social dynamics so well. There were several revelations I didn’t see coming in this one. I enjoyed the structure, with mixing the past and present. This is not really a murder mystery, courtroom drama, or psychological thriller. It has some pieces of all 3 genres that work together quite nicely.”
“McAllister has a knack for setting up the most gripping what-would-you-do scenarios for her fiction. If you’ve read her before, you probably don’t need me to tell you that. That Night is more of the same. And while it does allow you to live in the headspace of this crazy situation, I can’t say it’s among my favorite of hers.
That Night has one big problem for me and it’s a personal one—I am really am not a fan of POV twists. McAllister purposely hides who’s talking in some scenes for a large part of the novel and I can’t say it adds anything to the story. By the time of the reveal, the momentum has been lost and there’s a pretty good chance you’ve figured out who’s speaking anyway (process of elimination does the trick). Which makes the whole thing seem like a cheap parlor trick when a more straight-forward approach might have worked much better.
Also, as in several other McAllister novels, the scenarios are absolutely riveting, but I’m never sure the characters in these scenarios are actually sympathetic or enjoyable enough to carry the narrative. McAllister might rely a little too heavily on your own what-would-i-do investment in order to scaffold your enjoyment. Several central characters here just aren’t ever that sympathetic and when things go bad, you might think, “Well, yeah. They deserve that.”
That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy my time with That Night. As usual, the scenario of how far you’d go for family is a great one, and the plot actually plays out quite believably. The plot rings true and the characters behave right in tune with how you think it should go. It’s authentic. It’s gripping. I…just wish I cared and rooted for them more. And I just didn’t.
It’s a light recommendation. If you love the types of scenarios McAllister is so adept at conjuring up, That Night is right in line with those. I can’t say it’s my favorite. That’s easily The Choice and if you’re new to her, I’d start there. Also, if you’re looking for a thriller to care deeply about the characters involved, I’d look elsewhere too. But if the headspace of a what-would-you-do scenario is what your reading needs, McAllister is as good a place to look as any in the genre.
Thank you to William Morrow for providing an uncorrected DRC via NetGalley.”
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