The Night Side

LoveReading Says

Set in small-town Montana between the protagonist’s troubled coming-of-age in the 1990s through to dealing with disturbing secrets in the present day, M.M. DeLuca’s The Night Side is a thoroughly gripping thriller of the twistiest order.

After escaping her manipulative, psychic scammer mom at the age of eighteen and forging a new life in England as an archaeologist with an uncanny, “impeccable instinct for finding the perfect dig spots”, Ruby is loath to return home when she learns her mother is missing, presumed dead. While there’s no body, all the signs point to suicide.

Though “her life history is so twisted it defies logic,” and she thinks it might be best to “leave it in the past where it belongs,” Ruby jumps on a plane, hoping her mother’s death will enable her to banish the past forever. Added to that, Ruby couldn’t ignore the fact that she’d found out about her mom from Aidan, the person she loved most in the world.

Alarmingly, though, on arrival Ruby’s childhood demons are quick to rise, and we understand why through a second chilling timeline that plays out through the 1990s. At this time, her mother’s mood would “turn on a dime” as she rattled through a catalogue of cruel scams, manipulating everyone around her to devastating, destructive extremes.

With a cast of intriguing characters, and a tsunami of revelations that’ll surely knock you for six sideways, The Night Side is pretty darn un-put-down-able.

Reviewed by Joanne Owen
Joanne Owen’s lifelong love of reading and writing began when she was growing up in Pembrokeshire, and very much wished that witches (and Mrs Pepperpot) were real.
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