Senior Kat Palmer observes several of her classmates acting suspiciously on the first day back to school. Her boyfriend was one of them.
One night, she follows him out to Lemmon’s Park. A fight breaks out and she hears a terrifying scream. Four of the five classmates flee the area. Kat goes looking for the fifth. All she finds is a shoe, an abandoned car, and a cell phone. What happened to the classmate who owned these things?
As Kat continues to search the woods, she is knocked unconscious. She wakes up in the hospital with no recollection of what had happened. As the days go by, she starts to remember bits and pieces of that night. She can’t rest until she knows what really happened to the missing classmate.
Kat drives back out to Lemmon’s Park, hoping to recall more of that night. But this time she finds a broken watch with an engraving on the back. How did her father’s watch end up at the scene? He’d told her that the watch had been stolen when someone broke into their home last week. Had he been there that night?
The more Kat investigates, the more secrets she uncovers. She finds out that even the ones closest to her aren’t who they pretend to be.
I have been following all of Donna Zadunajsky’s novels since her very first novel. All of them have the most intricate plots I have ever encountered by any writer. Much thought goes into her manuscripts which border on the psychological as well as the dramatic. This latest book, “That Night”, which is part of a series about a small town in the mid-west, deals with a Murder Mystery told from the POV by the main character Kat, who has a secret of her own hidden even from herself! One thing new I loved about this book of Donna’s is her personal quotes that lead you into the story. I quote the first one here and promise other readers that you will marvel at the other ones which follow:
Through the thickness of the trees.
Through the darkness.
Do you feel it?
It’s the very existence of your soul,
leaving your body.
Do you see it?
The surprises never end in this incredible novel! The reader thinks many, many times through the story that they have it all figured out, but then Zadunajsky throws you a curve you could never have anticipated. THIS IS BY FAR HER BEST NOVEL!
You just have to read it to find out for yourself. I give it 5 STARS!!!!!!!
