The Sun Down Motel

Simone St. James

Paranormal Mystery

The secrets lurking in a rundown roadside motel ensnare a young woman, just as they did her aunt thirty-five years before, in this new atmospheric suspense novel from the national bestselling and award-winning author of The Broken Girls.

Upstate NY, 1982. Every small town like Fell, New York, has a place like the Sun Down Motel. Some customers are from out of town, passing through on their way to someplace better. Some are locals, trying to hide their secrets. Viv Delaney works as the night clerk to pay for her move to New York City. But something isn’t right at the Sun Down, and before long she’s determined to uncover all of the secrets hidden…

-Excerpt taken from Goodreads.

Check Goodreads to see the book’s ratings.

My Opinion

(4.5 / 5) I’m feeling pretty lucky lately. Almost all of the backlist titles I’ve received from PRH Audio have been very high ratings. The book geek in me could not be happier.

Simone St. James is an author I’ve heard about for years. I listened to her new one, Murder Road and was surprised by the paranormal content that entertained me. So I figured I’d give her another try and I couldn’t be happier with the outcome. I’ve found a new-to-me-author that is quickly becoming an auto-buy author.

We are presented with two POV in two different timelines. One is present day Carly, the other is her aunt Viv from 1982. Carly is investigating her aunt’s disappearance and possible murder. Both characters were easy to care for and brought such a great dynamic to the story.

My favorite “character” was the motel. Yes, it’s weird to think of an inanimate object as a character but it truly was. It held all the mysteries and answers if you just paid attention. Each POV was balanced well and all my questions were answered.

I loved the end and I loved the journey it took to get there. I was entertained throughout and couldn’t wait to get back to listening. It was a fun read that made it near impossible to guess!

AUDIO REVIEW: Brittany Pressley and Kristen Potter had voices that were done well. They had enough variations to tell the difference between characters. They both also rendered the spookiness so neatly that it stayed throughout the book.

General content summary: F words= 17

Body found (naked, bloody)

Missing woman

Parent death (previous, cancer)

Deaths (previous, multiple, drowning, heart attack, stabbing)

Murder (previous, father shot son, women found with injuries and raped)

Ghosts and paranormal activity (multiple)

Child graves found (during building 6 child bodies were found who died of typhoid)

Infidelity (assumed, previous)

Stabbing death (details)

Physical violence (push, brief)

Virginity (brief mentions)

Thank you to PRH Audio for the copy!

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