Book review, full book summary and synopsis for Middle of the Night by Riley Sager, a spooky thriller about the long-ago disappearance of a childhood friend.
Synopsis
In Middle of the Night by Riley Sager, Ethan is a middle-aged man who has moved back into his childhood home after going through some personal difficulties.
For the past 30 years, he has been haunted by a reoccurring dream about a traumatizing night before he left when he was 10 years old, when his best friend Billy was abducted from the tent where the two boys were camping out in Ethan's backyard. The case was never solved.
Now that he's back, Ethan starts sensing Billy's presence there, and soon he finds signs that Billy might be trying to reach out to him, though in what form, Ethan is not entirely sure...
Three-paragraph version: Recently divorced, Ethan moves back into his parents house on Hemlock Circle, the cul-de-sac where he grew up. He left 30 years ago after his childhood best friend, Billy, was abducted from the tent in his backyard where they were camping out together when they were 10 years old. In present day, Billy's remains are found at the base of a waterfall on the grounds of the Hawthorne Institute, a private research facility, nearby. Billy, Ethan and some other neighborhood kids -- Russ, Ashley and Ragesh -- had all gone exploring there the day before Billy's abduction.
Ethan becomes determined to solve Billy's case when he senses that Billy's ghost is trying to contact him by leaving messages and baseballs on his lawn. Ethan looks into the Hawthorne Institute and eventually learns that it's a private research facility studying parapsychology (in inexplicable phenomena such as clairvoyance or ghosts).
In the end, it's revealed that 30 years ago, Russ had torn the tent open in jealousy over Billy and Ethan camping out without. Billy had awoken due to the noise and headed towards the Institute to explore. He had crossed a street in the process and Ashley had been driving and hit him. She disposed of his body in the waterfall. It turns out that the messages and baseballs from "Billy's ghost" were actually from Billy's younger brother Andy who suspected Ethan of having killed Billy.
By Jenn Marie on Jul 2nd, 2024 (Last Updated Jul 5th, 2024)
Middle of the Night by Riley Sager came out earlier this month. I’ve enjoyed most his mysteries quite a bit in the past, so been looking forward to this one.
In Middle of the Night, Ethan has moved into his parents old house on Hemlock Circle, the cul-de-sac where he grew up as a kid. But Ethan is haunted by memories from 30 years ago, when he and his best friend Billy, both ten years old at the time, were camped out in a tent in his backyard, and Billy was abducted in the middle of the night. An investigation ensued, but they were left without answers as to what had happened to Billy, and the case eventually went cold.
Now that Ethan is back, odd and inexplicable things seem to be happening, triggering memories of that night three decades ago…
The book hints at something ghostly and supernatural going on, and it’s soon revealed that there’s a mysterious place known as the Hawthorne Institute situated just outside their cul-de-sac.
The story starts out a little slow, but not terribly so. There’s just a lot of background information to get through for the first quarter of the book or so to set the stage. It kept my interest for the most part, but it felt a little ho-hum if I’m being honest.
Overall, the book is moderately paced and quite readable. I think for me, the plot just didn’t particularly grab me. A lot of the book is about this mysterious “Hawthorne Institute” and the idea of some cryptic research institution just wasn’t all that compelling to me, honestly. There’s also some stuff involving childhood friendships that was more interesting to me, but it wasn’t developed quite enough to feel satisfying.
In terms of the twists in the book, I found them fairly guessable. The ending is fine, but I would consider it a mystery-thriller with some of the weaker or less thrilling twists and turns that I’ve read. I do like that the book wrapped things up nicely and has a full character arc for the main protagonist of the story.
Read it or Skip it?
I think the book is perfectly readable and reasonably paced for the most part. The storyline just didn’t particularly interest me, but if the idea of a boy’s disappearance that’s tied to some type of mysterious privately-owned research institution sounds intriguing to you, plus delving a little into childhood friendships, maybe you’ll like this book more than I did.
There are some twists and turns at the end, but I thought they were a little underwhelming.
I’ve liked Riley Sager’s mysteries in the past, though this one was a miss for me. I’ll still be looking forward to what he comes up with next!
Average Published June 18, 2024
Page Count 352 pages
Goodreads3.79 (out of 5)
From the Publisher
The worst thing to ever happen on Hemlock Circle occurred in Ethan Marsh’s backyard. One July night, ten-year-old Ethan and his best friend and neighbor, Billy, fell asleep in a tent set up on a manicured lawn in a quiet, quaint New Jersey cul-de-sac. In the morning, Ethan woke up alone. During the night, someone had sliced the tent open with a knife and taken Billy. He was never seen again.
Thirty years later, Ethan has reluctantly returned to his childhood home. Plagued by bad dreams and insomnia, he begins to notice strange things happening in the middle of the night. Someone seems to be roaming the cul-de-sac at odd hours, and signs of Billy’s presence keep appearing in Ethan’s backyard. Is someone playing a cruel prank? Or has Billy, long thought to be dead, somehow returned to Hemlock Circle?
The mysterious occurrences prompt Ethan to investigate what really happened that night, a quest that reunites him with former friends and neighbors and leads him into the woods that surround Hemlock Circle. Woods where Billy claimed ghosts roamed and where a mysterious institute does clandestine research on a crumbling estate.
The closer Ethan gets to the truth, the more he realizes that no place—be it quiet forest or suburban street—is completely safe. And that the past has a way of haunting the present.
