Goodreads

Release date: May 6, 2025

Publisher: Minotaur

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Synopsis:

From the bestselling author of If Something Happens to Me, comes one of the year’s most anticipated thrillers.

In the glow of their children’s exciting first year of college at a small private school in Northern California, five families plan on a night of dinner and cocktails for the opening festivities of Parents Weekend. As the parents stay out way past their bedtimes, their kids—five residents of Campisi Hall—never show up at dinner.

At first, everyone thinks that they’re just being college students, irresponsibly forgetting about the gathering or skipping out to go to a party. But as the hours click by and another night falls with not so much as a text from the students, panic ensues. Soon, the campus police call in reinforcements. Search parties are formed. Reporters swarm the small enclave. Rumors swirl and questions arise.

Libby, Blane, Mark, Felix, and Stella—The Five, as the podcasters, bloggers, and TikTok sleuths call them—come from five very different families. What led them out on that fateful night? Could it be the sins of their mothers and fathers come to cause them peril or a threat to the friend group from within?

Told through multiple points of view in past and present—and marking the return of FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller from Every Last Fear and The Night Shift—Parents Weekend explores the weight of expectation, family dysfunction, and those exhilarating first days we all remember in the dorms when our friends become our family.

Review:

If you’re someone that is new to the mystery/thriller genre I feel like this would be a great place to start. It’s super fast paced, there’s a decent mystery and there’s plenty of characters giving you lots of options as to whodunnit. For me personally it wasn’t surprising enough for me, I found the reveals predictable, but this wasn’t a bad read for me at all. It kept my attention and although there were a lot of characters to keep track of, I didn’t have trouble keeping them straight. I really liked some of them, especially Keller and would love to see her character again in the future. If you like fast paced mysteries with an ensemble cast and lots of drama, this may be for you.

Overall rating: 3.5/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy.