Parents Weekend
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Overview
In the glow of their children’s exciting first year of college at a small private school in Northern California, five families gather over dinner and cocktails for the opening festivities of Parents Weekend. As the parents stay out way past their bedtimes, their kids—five residents of Campisi Hall—never show up to dinner.
At first, everyone thinks they’re just being college students, irresponsibly forgetting about the gathering or skipping out to go to a party. But as the hours tick by and another night falls with not so much as a text from the students, panic ensues. Soon the campus police call in reinforcements. Search parties are formed. Reporters swarm the small enclave. Rumors swirl and questions arise.
Libby, Blane, Mark, Felix, and Stella—The Five, as the podcasters, bloggers, and TikTok sleuths soon call them—come from very different families. What drew them out on that fateful night? Could it be the sins of their mothers and fathers come to cause them peril—or a threat to the friend group from within?
Told from each family’s point of view—and marking the return of FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller from Every Last Fear and The Night Shift—Parents Weekend explores the weight of expectation, family dysfunction, and those exhilarating first days in the dorms when friends become family.
Praise
One of Goodreads’ Biggest Mysteries and Thrillers of 2025
One of BookBub’s Must-Read Mystery and Thriller of 2025
“[Parent's Weekend] is a popcorn thriller from ONE OF THE GENRE’S BEST... Finlay has a gift for intertwining many storylines and characters in a cohesive, compelling way. The tropes used here don’t feel stale, and plenty of surprises and red herrings will keep readers interested. Fans won't want to miss Finlay’s latest.”—Booklist
“Smart, fast-paced and intense, Parents Weekend depicts every parent’s worst nightmare. Alex Finlay is A MASTER AT CREATING COMPLEX, HIGH-STAKES THRILLERS that are charged with emotion. Readers will love this one.”
—Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of Local Woman Missing and She’s Not Sorry
“Let’s call it: there is nothing as addictive as an Alex Finlay novel. Prepare to sit transfixed as the action in Parents Weekend explodes from page one, introducing readers to five missing students and their families, each unhappy in their own way, with plenty to hide. In classic Finlay fashion, the novel combines astute character studies with shocking twists, turning the growing pains between parents and their college-aged kids into mesmerizing fodder for high-tension thrills. FINLAY IS AT THE VERY TOP OF HIS GAME—I loved it and readers will too.”
—Ashley Winstead, bestselling author of Midnight is the Darkest Hour
“Finlay writes with conventional register, with RED HERRINGS GLORE, and he caps the proceedings with a particularly SHOCKING CONCLUSION.” —Publishers Weekly