BOOK REVIEW: ‘Parents Weekend’ is good summer read

From the moment I started reading “Parents Weekend” by Alex Finlay, I could easily see it being made into a streaming service movie or a limited series.

Set at Santa Clara University, the novel follows five college students — Libby Akana, Blane Roosevelt, Mark Wong, Felix Goffman, and Stella Maldonado — who mysteriously vanish during the much-anticipated parents weekend.
The summary from the book jacket hooked me from the beginning. In the glow of their children’s exciting first year of college at a small private school in Northern California, five families gather over dinner and cocktails for the opening festivities of parents' weekend. As the parents stay out way past their bedtimes, their kids — five residents of Campisi Hall — never show up to dinner. 

At first, everyone thinks they’re just being college students, irresponsibly forgetting about the gathering or skipping out to go to a party. But as the hours tick by and another night falls with not so much as a text from the students, panic ensues. Soon, the campus police call in reinforcements. Search parties are formed. Reporters swarm the small enclave. Rumors swirl and questions arise.
Libby, Blane, Mark, Felix, and Stella — The Five, as the podcasters, bloggers, and TikTok sleuths soon call them — come from very different families. What drew them out on that fateful night? Could it be the sins of their mothers and fathers come to cause them peril? Or is it a threat to the friend group from within?
The story was told from each family’s point of view and marked the return of FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller from Finlay’s other books, “Every Last Fear” and “The Night Shift.”
This book had several twists and turns along the way, with multiple points of view in the past and present. It was a wild ride, but I kept up with them, and “Parents Weekend” delivered a fast-paced story, which allowed the reader to chase the clues with Agent Keller. I thought I had figured everything out, only to discover I was wrong.  

I enjoy a book where the reader must put the puzzle pieces together to get the full picture.
“Parents Weekend” is the first book I have read by Alex Finlay, but it won’t be my last.