Vanished from Campus -- (Review of Alex Finlay's thriller, Parents Weekend)

The only thing worse, to a typical college freshman, than having their parents come for a visit, is having everyone’s parents on campus to visit. 

 

In other words? The dreaded Parents Weekend... full of assorted activities for students and parents alike, beginning with the opening night dinner, when groups of parents and their kids mingle.

 

But for five families—who’ve traveled from all over the U.S. to see how their offspring are coping with freshman life—that dinner takes an unexpected turn... when not one of their kids shows up.

 

Is it just a matter of irresponsible teens, acting out? Perhaps some sort of fraternity/sorority hazing ritual they’re fulfilling? Or... something else??

 

That’s the million-dollar question on everyone’s mind in Alex Finlay’s latest thriller, Parents Weekend.

 

 

At small, private Santa Clara University, located on the coast of Northern California, freshmen are divided into small “pods” within their residence halls, to encourage friendships in the new environment.

 

One of those pods, whose members all live in Campisi Hall, has bonded well. Handsome Blane Roosevelt, from D.C., has embraced the California lifestyle. New Yorker Stella Maldonado oozes self-confidence and charm. Felix Goffman, the rare local, is a shy, considerate, scholarship kid. L.A.-native Libby Akana is a pleaser and overachiever. And Mark Wong, who reveals little of his background, is the prankster of the bunch.

 

The parents, of course, are vastly different—from their children, as well as from one another—and feeling awkward, without benefit of the kids that would’ve united them. So, they take a page out of (most) college-students’ handbooks... breaking the ice via trays of tequila shots, before dinner and drinks.

 

Annoyances at their absent offspring are—understandably—somewhat muted, for the rest of the evening.

 

When the next day dawns—and wanes—with nary one of the kids showing up... not calling, texting, or anything... the parents begin to worry, once more.

 

But, when word hits campus that another student—a grade or two ahead—has been discovered at a nearby beach, dead, well... that’s when panic sets in, hard.

 

It’s also when the students’ disappearances become a national media frenzy... and when newly-relocated FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller gets pulled from her nearby office onto the scene.

 

For Sarah, who has two grade-school-aged children of her own, there couldn’t be a more important—or more terrifying—case... and she’ll stop at nothing to try to bring those missing kids back to their families.

 

 

Parents Weekend is, at its core, your basic missing persons story. Finlay does some very clever things, though, to make it feel modern and fresh.

 

First, the five students come across as very real, very believable characters. He nails all of the angst, uncertainty, frustrations, temptations, and petty sniping so common among college freshmen. 

 

He also gives us an intimate look at their lives and the family relationships (child-to-parent, and parent-to-parent), which is helpful in understanding why all of them do the things they do.

 

Probably the coolest thing, for me, that Finlay does lies in his structuring of the book. Each chapter either concerns the missing kids (going back and forth in time), or one of the sets of parents. (So, a chapter that’s going to focus on, say, Libby’s parents/family, is headed, “The Akanas”.)

 

It’s a device that makes it immediately clear who he’s focusing on for the next several pages—whose POV we’ll be getting—and it also gives us handy little brackets, to easily remember what we’ve already read about them.

 

Even better, he doesn’t just reserve this technique for the students’ families—he begins chapters dealing with Special Agent Sarah (and/or her family) with “The Kellers”, thus making her family life equally relevant to us, as well as to the case.

 

Of course, it’s crucial that the Big Reveal at book’s end seems “right”, given what we’ve been told and learned in all those previous pages... and happily, it does, with Finlay nailing the ending. 

 

Parents Weekend was a treat to read... the action, confusion, and all of the suspicions kept me hooked from the first few pages. 

 

If you’re looking for engaging, fast-paced suspense—in an unusual setting—this should definitely find its way onto your shortlist!

~GlamKitty

 

 

 

[My sincere thanks to St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books, for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are, as always, entirely my own.]