Nic Joseph | THE NIGHT IN QUESTION

Plot (via Goodreads):

When Paula picks up her last passenger of the night, all she sees is a few more dollars to put toward her husband's medical bills. That's before she recognizes the quiet stranger in her back seat as a world-famous musician and realizes the woman waiting at his destination is not his equally famous wife. So, Paula does what any down-on-her-luck woman would do.

She asks for money in exchange for silence.

But when a woman is murdered in the same building days later, Paula discovers she is the only witness to the secret affair—an affair that incriminates the musician. Now, Paula's silence comes at a much more dangerous price.

Review:

The Night in Question is psychological suspense with mystery at its best. When this one began, it really just kept my interest right from the start. What I enjoyed was that with the initial beginning to this one, it very well could have went in a ton of different directions. At one point, I found myself smiling only a few chapters in thinking "damn, this could've been a cool love story", but then this went straight up into thriller and suspense mode and I was lost at the point of no return.

When I began this novel, I wanted to just read about 50-100 pages the evening I opened it as I wanted to get a general idea as to where the story was going. What happened next was like a reader blackout. I read this entire novel in one night. I was so hooked with the story that I just simply couldn't stop. Nic Joseph has a fine way of combining some rich characters with an anxious setting and adding in a brutal murder intertwined with mystery and providing the reader with one bombshell of a novel.

It was really refreshing to read a novel that didn't rely on an unreliable narrator to build the suspense. I thoroughly enjoyed not only the story, but riding along with Paula as she tries to figure out what happened to the victim in this novel, if her instincts are correct, and what exactly happened that dreadful night. Combining these characters with a ferocious detective that was a bit cliche at times but still enjoyable, a pop-star, and a wild group of suspicious friends was just completely immersive. I wanted to know all of these characters inside and out.

I couldn't stop reading and devoured this read all the way down to the shocking and wild conclusion.  I don't know where Nic Joseph came from, but I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next.

Special thanks to Sourcebook Landmarks for this copy in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: 4/5