The Book:
Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen
Published August 1, 2023 by St. Martin’s Press
Date read: July 16, 2023
The Characters:
Catherine and Ruth
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The Plot (from Goodreads):
Catherine Sterling thinks she knows her mother. Ruth Sterling is quiet, hardworking, and lives for her daughter. All her life, it’s been just the two of them against the world. But now, Catherine is ready to spread her wings, move from home, and begin a new career. And Ruth Sterling will do anything to prevent that from happening.
Ruth Sterling thinks she knows her daughter. Catherine would never rebel, would never question anything about her mother’s past or background. But when Ruth’s desperate quest to keep her daughter by her side begins to reveal cracks in Ruth’s carefully-constructed world, both mother and daughter begin a dance of deception.
How did Gone Tonight end?
The Reveal:
Ruth’s real name was Ava. Her poms coach molested her when she was in high school, and her high school boyfriend killed him in revenge. They were supposed to run away together, but Ava was afraid of James and ran away alone instead. James was caught the same night and spent 25 years in prison.
Ava found out she was pregnant after she ran away. Catherine started asking questions right around the time that James was meant to be released from prison. Ruth/Ava had faked the alzheimer’s (I’m not entirely sure why other than to stop Catherine from asking questions). Catherine kept digging, and happened to contact James on Facebook when looking into Ava’s past employment. Catherine went to the pizza parlor to try to find out more. James showed up too, but Ruth/Ava had followed Catherine and set a fire to get Catherine out of there. They went home and hid out at Catherine’s job, the senior care center. James tracked them down and used some of Catherine’s clients to lure them together. When he found out that Catherine was his daughter, Ava came forward to save her. Ava and James fought, but Catherine killed him with a dose of insulin. They buried the body a few states over.
The Ending:
Catherine moved out and went to school for nursing after all. She felt better than ever after killing James–Ava worried that they both were sociopaths. Ava met up with her father and Timmy and apologized for running away.
The Review:
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for this gifted copy and to Macmillan Audio for the ALC. I’m a big fan of Sarah Pekkanen’s cowritten books with Greer Hendricks, so I was excited to try one of her solo novels.
This thriller was refreshingly unique. This review will be vague as I don’t want to spoil anything, but I enjoyed unraveling the secrets between this mother and daughter. The plot unfurled at a perfect pace. I really enjoyed the audiobook production and Kate Mara’s performance.
Pekkanen explores mother-daughter relationships in such an interesting way. I certainly recommend you add this book to your summer reading list.
