The Sun Down Motel

by Simone St. James

First published 2020

Viv Delaney clocks in for another graveyard shift at the Sun Down Motel in Fell, New York. The year is 1982, and she needs every paycheck to fund her escape to New York City. The roadside motel attracts drifters heading nowhere and locals burying secrets they can't face at home. But Viv notices things that don't add up. Guests check in and never check out. Strange sounds echo through empty rooms. The previous night clerk vanished without explanation. As Viv digs deeper into the motel's history, she discovers a pattern of disappearances stretching back years. The same forces that claimed her aunt thirty-five years earlier now circle around Viv. She must choose between fleeing to safety or staying to uncover the truth that could cost her everything.

Genres: suspense, mystery, contemporary, thriller

Vibes: atmospheric, suspenseful, thought-provoking

Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator

Setting: Fell, New York

Period: 1982

327 pages · Hardcover · Berkley

Content warnings: death

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