Of course, they say you should never judge a book by its cover, but I know we all do. Hell, I know I do. I try not to, but it’s only natural. The chances are the cover is the first thing you see when it comes to books. I’m no expert on that front, but I’m sure it’s all to do with marketing. And they must pay people a lot of money to design those eye-catching covers.
The Sun Down Motel was one of those books. I think I was just scrolling through Goodreads one day, and this cover just jumped out at me. The motel on the front of the cover just looked like the sort of place that time forgot. Maybe it especially stood out to me because we don’t really have motels in the UK. If you are passing through somewhere on a long journey, you’ll probably happen across a Premier Inn or a Travelodge. You might find a quaint little bed and breakfast. But we just don’t tend to have motels over here.
As soon as I saw that cover, I knew that I would go on to read this book eventually. It wouldn’t happen for another year or so, and in that time, I actually ended up reading a different book by Simone St James. Murder Road. After enjoying that one, I decided it was time to revisit the Sun Down Motel.
This book is set in dual timelines. In 1982, we spend time with Viv Delaney. A teenage girl who runs away from home because of a fallout with her mother. She intends to build a new life for herself in New York, but on the way she ends up in the sleepy town of Fell. It’s there that she happens upon the Sun Down Motel. The motel is in need of a clerk to work the night shift, and Viv is in need of money. So she decides to stick around for a little while. But while she’s working there, Viv notices something strange is happening. Women and teenage girls are going missing, but Viv seems to be the only one who thinks the disappearances are linked by one serial killer. She’s determined to get to the bottom of it. And then she goes missing.
In 2017, we spend time with Viv’s niece, Carly Kirk. Of course, Carly has never met her aunt, but has lived her entire life in the shadow of that story. She’s haunted by it. Then, when her mother dies, Carly finds herself in danger of going off the rails. She takes off for Fell with the intention of finding out what happened to her aunt Viv. Then Carly finds herself working the night shift at the Sun Down Motel. Could history be about to repeat itself all over again?
This novel is part ghost story and part psychological thriller on the hunt of a serial killer. Think Arthur Kipps from The Woman in Black meets Clarice Starling from Silence of the Lambs. With the dual POVs and dual timeline, we tend to spend time with Viv and then Carly in alternating chapters. There is still a lot of uncertainty for the reader, because while Carly’s chapters are set in 2017, we don’t know exactly what happened in 1982. We discover those scenes through Viv’s eyes for the first time.
Whenever you come across a book with dual POVs, there’s always a danger that you’ll like one character more than the other and feel the temptation to skip through chapters so you can spend time with the one character you do care more about. Thankfully, that’s not the case here. It doesn’t matter if you’re reading a chapter with Viv or Carly, because I believe you’ll love spending time with both of them. They are both compelling characters. They are both independent and strong-willed females. They’re also very, very alike for two women who have never met each other. But then they are aunt and niece. Perhaps blood really is thicker than water.
My Goodreads rating: ★★★★☆ (4 stars)
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