Date Night

'Date Night' is another instalment into the evergrowing collection of mystery thriller books that Samantha Hayes has published. It isn't part of the most recent releases but it is only a few years old. We are first given the hook, drawn into the book through what we see first, and that is our main character, Libby, in the back of a police car, being arrested on suspicion of murder. We are then quickly given an unofficial run down on the other characters in this book, those being Sean, her husband, Dan his son, Sean's ex-wife Natalie, and Marion her mother-in-law. And on her side there is her daughter Alice and then here is Sasha, the murder victim. I don't know if these are going to be all the important characters, but they are the only ones mentioned while Libby was being arrested.

From a formatting point of view, I did find it pretty interesting that Samantha decided to switch from the first-person POV that we were introduced to in the first chapter to the third-person one we received once the book actually started. I can definitely see it being something to get the reader more attached to the main character before the actual book starts, but I can also see it being used because there are so many characters so we aren't meant to be living through the protagonist, but alongside them, watching them. It isn't really something that I've seen before so I found it interesting.

While going to her car Libby ends up finding a note that had been recently left on the front windshield saying that her husband is cheating. Although this shakes her she obviously isn't going to believe a random person who she doesn't know, as it could be a lie, a prank, them putting it on the wrong car or really anything, as she doesn't know. So instead of doing anything drastic about it her friend, Fran, convinces her to observe and watch him, not following or stalking him but at home paying closer attention to his habits, where he goes, or if there is a time that he specifically isn't available at the same time every day, or once a week or something like that. It isn't even definitive what she is looking for, just that she wants to believe her husband isn't cheating on her she isn't going to do anything drastic about finding the note, but she also isn't just going to pretend it doesn't exist as it is already in her mind and something that she is thinking about. She tries the more subtle approach, checking where he has been, calling his work to check that the time he said he'd left was correct (it wasn't) and also checking in his jacket pocket to see if there was something suspicious in there but she ends up finding nothing except the receipt for lingerie that she had bought together with Sean.

With how she is though she isn't able to hold it in for long, and instead of being offended Sean seems to like the fact that she is concerned and confronted him over the note because to him it shows that she cares. With how much she was struggling already I'm not surprised at all that she ended up confronting him so early and didn't wait and just observe for longer.

This book flips between after she was arrested and before it happened as well. Before, we can see that there is something wrong with Sasha the night Libby and Sean go for their date night. Not only is she more reserved than she usually is, which is something that Libby notes, but she is also on the verge of telling Libby what is going on, and what is wrong when the taxi arrives and she clams up. While on their date when she brings up the weird behaviour from Sasha, Sean seems a bit nervous and tries to dismiss it as if nothing is wrong, even though it very clearly is. Even after coming back from their date night, which was ruined because Sean's phone kept going off and when Libby asked to check it, it showed no signs of all the texts and calls that should have been there, Sean acts extremely weird especially once they realise that Sasha has disappeared and left Alice alone. They try for a bit, but Sean wants to almost instantly give up, and even says something along the lines o, "Whatever happened to her wasn't our fault." as if he already knew she was potentially in danger or was the cause of whatever happened to her happening, which would explain his erratic behaviour and insistence to move on without investigating further.

What we do know about Natalie, Sean's ex-wife is that she is a bit crazy. He mentioned, early on in their relationship that the reason Natalie knew so quickly that they were dating is because she was watching them. Now, while we are getting a flashback and Libby is over at Marion's house, Natalie arrives. Not only does she arrive but we get to see the family dynamic and see that although Marion likes Libby when talking about her father-in-law he much prefers Natalie. Another thing that is built on here as well is that Alice had previously mentioned some kind of commotion that happened earlier and how a woman had scared her before. After seeing Natalie she says that Natalie was the one who scared her last night when she came by, which would have been after Sean and Libby left and while Sasha was alone with Alice.

Some suspicion also starts to fall on Fran, the person who told Libby to keep everything a secret in the first place, as she knew where the note is, something that not only did Libby not tell her but she didn't see either (those were the two things Fran claimed might have happened, her not remembering which one it was). And then we start to get deeper insights into who Sean is as a person, and how he changed after some kind of accident from a sweet boy to someone who hides himself and his emotions. Well, there is also the fact that he slapped Libby across the face and then managed to blame it all on her and even got her to apologise, and the fact that she slapped a glass cup out of her hand when she was questioning all the weird things that had been going on, on his end, and how he quickly made love to her as if it were a distraction. I wasn't sure about him at first, but with how abusive he is, not only physically where he slapped her, but also mentally where he is dismissing all her points, making her think that she is crazy (when talking to her lawyer she doesn't believe that her lawyer is actually there to help her and keeps hearing Sean's voice, even though he isn't there). It is horrible to see how quickly she is willing to accept anything that he says, even being fine in the end with him trying to lie to the police about her going out after drinking in search of Sasha. There is definitely something more to his story and something that is causing all this behaviour, even though that doesn't excuse it. There was also a point where Sean mentioned how Marion, his mother, was the one who set him and Natalie up, and how his previous girlfriends broke up with him after meeting his mother.

Libby is really weird. I do trust her and don't think she had anything to do with Sasha's disappearance (famous last words!) but she is an unreliable narrator, and some of the things she is doing and the way she is answering questions just don't make sense while being interrogated. The police also don't really make any sense as they question if she is having an affair, or if Sean was having an affair, how their relationship was in the past, and how her past relationships were. They even spoke to her previous boyfriend. Libby doesn't answer simple questions though, such as why she used cash to pay in the restaurant, how she paid for the taxi, or even what time they arrived back home. It is almost to the point where I question if there is someone intentionally trying to make her seem crazy and unreliable so that she will go away for the murder of Sasha, even though she didn't do anything. Or she is actually crazy, which although less likely to me is still an obvious possibility.

It very much seems like Libby and Sean knew what happened with Sasha and tried to cover it up, as the police mentioned how they found Sasha's blood in the back of her car, and there is one point where she is having an in the now flashback where she says something along the lines of, "I didn't know I'd be driving around looking for a dead girl." and Sean gets her to repeat after him that they don't know that Sasha is dead. That is not something you need to do if you actually don't know unless you do know and are trying to hide it.

Almost every time we'd see the events of that night that Sasha disappeared we'd get some new small piece of information that changed things. The latest piece, however, was that Marion was seen collapsed outside their house when she said that she couldn't babysit. The police also confirmed that the event that she said she couldn't babysit for had been cancelled. Marion was then seen later that night driving Sean home.

Sean, in the present, has been arrested after Libby was released, and Marion is very shaken, having been found by Libby mopping the same spot over and over again while singing but without noticing anything in her surroundings. Marion did mention that when Sean got the knee injury that prevented him from joining the army and caused him to have the falling out with his father, he had some sort of blip. We still don't know what this is, but I'm beginning to assume that it has something to do with violence or murder. Marion, in this state, goes back to mopping and Libby sees some blonde hairs from one of the cooler things that they have after opening it she sees Sasha inside. Marion talks about how Sean told her to put her there, and how it is taking longer than Sean said for her body to be dissolved by the chemicals that she is using.

So, here is what actually happened. Marion went to visit, Natalie had been by but it wasn't her that killed Sasha. Sasha had somehow found out that Sean was having an affair, which is why she was acting so strangely when Libby and Sean were leaving for their date. She was hysterical and after Marion made her some food she still didn't calm down Marion ended up pushing her down and she'd hit her head. That wasn't what killed her though, it was the fact that she went into anaphylaxis after being fed the meal by Marion and when she was reaching for her epi-pen Marion ended up taking it away from her, which is the thing that Sean ended up throwing into the fireplace because he knew it had his mother's fingerprints on it. He then blamed Libby, using his already put-in-place mental abuse to make sure that she believe it was all her fault, and that she gave her the wrong food and was the cause of her death. When they came back home they had actually found the body, not the house empty, and Sean had manipulated Libby into helping him and successfully used her fear, including bringing their daughter into it.

The accident wasn't an actual accident it was just Sean's father beating him with a shovel for something he did. It wasn't something like paedophilia like I had first assumed, and it wasn't him killing or hurting someone beforehand. It was because he was gay. He was, and is, gay and in a relationship with Sasha's father. His father found out and is extremely homophobic so he severely beat him and his mother while trying to protect her son, ended up setting him up with Natalie to try and basically placate her husband. It wasn't the ending I was expecting, although because he was with Phil when he was arrested and they told said aloud the reason he was being arrested, Phil punching him wasn't unexpected, the rest didn't really hit the spot that I wanted. It was excellently written, and yes, it does make sense, but at the same time, it doesn't really feel satisfying as I look for in mystery thriller books. Compared to how shocked I was when I read, 'The Reunion' this is nothing but child play by comparison. I am not going to dismiss the rest of the book that was excellent just because the ending wasn't that good though, as there is of course merit to looking at the journey and taking that into account as well.

It is definitely an intricately woven book, where all the pieces tie in together but one thing that I am still wondering about is how his father brutally beating him warped his mind that much. He went from a sweet boy, as his mother said, to being someone willing to cover up the death of his lover's child, cheat on his wife who he has a child with, and throw her under the bus in exchange for his mother and other relationship and do it all with no remorse as he thinks he's completely justified in his action. I think those would need, and do need, more explanation as to how they arose from just a kind person when he was younger.

Some things were done excellently though, which were the parts where we were struggling to see if Libby was crazy or not. She isn't but Samantha did a damn good job trying to convince us that she was, and also trying to convince us that we could trust nothing about what we read with how much everything changed all the time.

Overall I liked this story, the ending let it down though, unfortunately, but it is still a well-written book.

7.8/10