Gone Tonight - by Sarah Pekkanen

About the Book

Book Synopsis

"I'm a huge fan of Sarah Pekkanen's books, and GONE TONIGHT is her best yet." --Colleen Hoover

"Jaw-dropping. Layered. Triumphant." - The New York Times

When Ruth Sterling was a teenager, she slipped away one night, desperate to escape an abusive home and a troubling boyfriend. Pregnant, alone, and prepared to do anything to survive, she eventually makes a life for herself--and soon, for her newborn daughter Catherine. For more than twenty years, Ruth has lived quietly and has provided for her daughter. But she is always ready to run at a moment's notice, and never allows either of them to put down roots too deeply. Now, Catherine is grown and craves a life for herself. This is something her mother will do anything to prevent--but for what reasons? It has always been just the two of them against the world. But how well do they really know each other? When Ruth's deeply held quest to keep Catherine by her side reveals cracks in her carefully constructed world, both mother and daughter begin a dance of deception. They both have secrets. But which one of them carries the real darkness inside?

Propulsive, brilliantly layered, and a true shocker, Gone Tonight is an emotionally thrilling powerhouse of a novel about the things we do for love, and what we're capable of when pushed to the limit.

Review Quotes

"Jaw-dropping. Layered. Triumphant." - The New York Times

"Sarah Pekkanen's startling, breathtaking tale of a mother and daughter will plunge you into a plot layered by lies and trauma but still infused with love. Through deft writing and thoughtful character development, she's created a fast-paced thriller in Gone Tonight, daring to ask deep questions about love versus fear, and control versus protection." --Readers Digest

"This riveting, original, and powerful mother-daughter story kept me glued to the pages. I'm a huge fan of Sarah Pekkanen's books, and GONE TONIGHT is her best yet." --Colleen Hoover

"Gone Tonight is all the best of Pekkanen's last few collaborations... easily the best thriller I've read all year. In an oversaturated market where even the best authors seem to be phoning it in, Pekkanen is here to remind her readers that thrills can still be shocking, twists can still be unexpected, and reading can still keep you up way past your bedtime. This is the thriller I've been waiting for."--Bookreporter

"Filled with buried secrets and jaw-dropping deception, Sarah Pekkanen's GONE TONIGHT is a page-turning thriller about a mother-daughter you won't soon forget.. What would make a teenage girl vanish into the night and live a life on the run for two decades? Read Gone Tonight. It's a wild ride." -- Harlan Coben, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author

"Gone Tonight is an intense, harrowing story about long-buried secrets and the trauma they inflict. The mother-daughter relationship is both thrilling and heartbreaking, with characters you won't soon forget. Captivating from beginning to end." - Samantha Downing, internationally bestselling author of My Lovely Wife.

"With prose that cuts like knife--full of both emotion and twists--GONE TONIGHT proves why Sarah Pekkanen is one of the finest thriller writers working today. Just when you think Pekkanen couldn't possibly outdo herself, she delivers with what will undoubtedly be crowned one of the year's best novels. Fresh, inventive, and with a gut-punch you won't see coming, GONE TONIGHT is this decade's Gone Girl. Believe the hype."-- Alex Finlay, author of The Night Shift

"Catherine Sterling's personal and professional worlds are beginning to collide: she's a nurse who cares for patients with Alzheimer's disease, and her mother is starting to show classic symptoms. The two live together, making the forgetfulness hard to miss, with Ruth Sterling looking very confused when recent events are discussed and forgetting words--calling ice cubes "water squares," for example. Ruth is reluctant to get any scans that could confirm the likely diagnosis--her mother died of Alzheimer's, she says, and she knows what's ahead. But then Catherine makes a discovery that causes her to doubt that her mother's problems are real. As the point of view shifts between the two women, readers get Ruth's first-person point of view; her odd behavior is hiding an explosive past that Catherine knows nothing about. Readers are in for a wild cat-and-mouse game as this tight duo (boundaries, what are they?) faces terrible odds when Catherine delves into her mother's past and Ruth hides the pair from an encroaching threat. There are some very sad moments here, related to dire poverty and child sexual abuse. Overall, it's an eye-opening look at how "our minds...talk us out of things we don't want to know."--First Clue

"Prepare to stay up until the wee hours devouring GONE TONIGHT by Sarah Pekkanen." --Real Simple

"Your heart will race until the final page." --Westport Magazine

About the Author