BOOK REVIEW: The Sun Down Motel
- Lauren Catron
- Oct 30, 2020
- 3 min read
Title: The Sun Down Motel
Author: Simone St. James
Pages: 336
Genre: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Upstate New York, 1982. Viv Delaney wants to move to New York City, and to help pay for it she takes a job as the night clerk at the Sun Down Motel in Fell, NY. But something isn't right at the motel, something haunting and scary.
Upstate New York, 2017. Carly Kirk has never been able to let go of the story of her aunt Viv who mysteriously disappeared from the Sun Down before she was born. She decides to move to Fell and to visit the motel, where she quickly learns that nothing has changed since 1982. And she soon finds herself ensnared in the same mysteries that claimed her aunt. - Excerpt from the cover of The Sun Down Motel
This book was all types of spooky, and honestly, I could not put this book down!
It kept popping up on “must read” lists for 2020. I finally got my hands on it (thanks to my subscription to Book of the Month) and dove right in.
The setting is in Fell, New York, at you guessed it – a motel. The story goes back and forth between Viv Delaney in 1982 and Viv’s niece Carly Kirk in 2017.
Viv Delaney worked the night shift at the Sun Down Motel before disappearing one night in November of 1982. Viv’s niece Carly decides to come to Fell after the death of her mother, Viv’s sister. She wants to find answers to the disappearance of her aunt after 35 years of silence. During her trip to Fell, as luck would have it, she ends up getting the same job her aunt had at the motel. She even lives in her aunt’s old apartment. Kinda creepy, but I’m feeling it. Soon she discovers the motel has secrets of its own, and wonders if it has anything to do with her aunt’s disappearance.
There had been three murders in the late 70s and early 80s and they were still unsolved. Did they have anything to do with Viv’s disappearance? Did the same person who killed them, kill Viv?
We follow Carly as she focuses on her aunt’s past and anyone who might have known her.
We also follow Viv on her journey as she works to learn more about the area murders. Soon she becomes obsessed with one of the motel’s guests – to the point of stalking them. She believes he might be a serial killer and does everything in her power to find concrete evidence to prove his guilt.
Eventually, everything comes to light when some old photos lead to an abandoned barn out in the middle of nowhere. There, a body is discovered. Is it Viv’s? Or possibly another victim of the serial killer? What happened that November night at the motel in 1982?
Twists and turns leave you wanting more. And fortunately, you do find out what happened to Viv; what happened at the motel, and if the serial killer had any more victims.
“Viv ran a hand through her hair, her careful curls that were wet now, her pretty makeup that had been rubbed off long ago. ‘He picked her,’ she said. ‘He followed her. He knew where she worked, knew that her husband was away. And after he killed her, he picked this place. He planned it – and he’s local.” Excerpt from The Sun Down Motel (pages 128-129)
Conclusion: I'd Read it Again
I highly recommend this book if you are into ghost stories and unsolved crimes.
This is the first book I have read by Simone St James, and I plan on adding more to my collection. Her other books include: The Broken Girls, The Haunting of Maddy Clare and Lost Among the Living.
XOXO
Lauren
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