2021 Most Anticipated - Survive the Night

My 2021 Most Anticipated list continues with a book that is basically perfect for all of my fellow Murderinos out there. 

The book revolves around a woman who takes a ride with a stranger who just might (or might not) be a serial killer. It's called Survive the Night and is written by Riley Sager.

The Goodreads synopsis captures everything I need to know to be completely obsessed with this book. 

It’s November 1991. George H. W. Bush is in the White House, Nirvana’s in the tape deck, and movie-obsessed college student Charlie Jordan is in a car with a man who might be a serial killer.

Josh Baxter, the man behind the wheel, is a virtual stranger to Charlie. They met at the campus ride board, each looking to share the long drive home to Ohio. Both have good reasons for wanting to get away. For Charlie, it’s guilt and grief over the murder of her best friend, who became the third victim of the man known as the Campus Killer. For Josh, it’s to help care for his sick father. Or so he says. Like the Hitchcock heroine she’s named after, Charlie has her doubts. There’s something suspicious about Josh, from the holes in his story about his father to how he doesn’t seem to want Charlie to see inside the car’s trunk. As they travel an empty highway in the dead of night, an increasingly worried Charlie begins to think she’s sharing a car with the Campus Killer. Is Josh truly dangerous? Or is Charlie’s suspicion merely a figment of her movie-fueled imagination?

What follows is a game of cat-and-mouse played out on night-shrouded roads and in neon-lit parking lots, during an age when the only call for help can be made on a pay phone and in a place where there’s nowhere to run. In order to win, Charlie must do one thing—survive the night.

Here are the top three reasons I cannot wait to get my hands on this book:

1. The 90s setting. Not only will it be nostalgic but it heightens the stakes quite a bit. No cell phones means you cannot call for help (or can only do so from a pay phone like the synopsis teases).

2. The tension. Is he the Campus Killer or isn't he? It's a delicious premise all the more promising by the Hitchcockian vibes the synopsis has going on. Less is more and I predict this one will have our imaginations working overtime.

3. Riley Sager's previous books. I have a few friends who love all of Riley's other books and I have enjoyed the ones I have read. I feel like I know what to expect going in.

Survive the Night releases July 6, 2021 which is perfect because it is exactly the kind of book you want to read while by the beach or sitting near the pool. Be sure to grab your copy because I expect it might be one of THE big books of next summer.

Chapters // Amazon // Barnes and Noble // BAM

You can find out more about Riley by following him on Twitter, and by visiting her his website. You can also find out more about his books on the publisher website.

Be sure to stop by tomorrow to for the next book on my 2021 most anticipated list.