The Literate Kitty

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 “po...

Where were you on the eve of the new millennium? Taking Prince’s words to heart, out partying like it was 1999 (for one final, crazy night)? Perched nervously in front of your computer, which was—if a host of doomsayers were actually onto something with their wild theories—about to trigger a meltdown of epic proportions, due to some numerical programming snafu that would kick in as the internal clock and calendar ticked over to 2000? Or, maybe you feared [hoped?] the biblical apocalypse was nigh, and you were doing… well, whatever one does to prepare for all of that? No matter where you were or what you were doing on Y2K, though, it was infinitely better than what happens in Alex Finlay’s chilling thriller The Night Shift , wherein that fateful night sees four teenage girls brutally attacked at the Blockbuster where they all work… three of whom are killed, and a fourth, injured. [See? Things could always be worse.] The police quickly come up with and subsequently arrest a suspec...