That Night; Chevy Stevens

That Night; Chevy Stevens

St. Martins Press/Blackstone Audio

That Night tells the story of Toni Murphy, a young woman who is released from prison in 2012 after serving nearly 15 years for the murder of her sister, a crime she didn't commit, but was found guilty of. She's an angry young woman and bitter for what she has had to endure by being locked in prison unjustly.  Upon her release, she finds all the people she cared about are either dead or do not want her in their lives. Even Ryan, her old boyfriend who she still cares for is off limits as part of her parole, (he was seen as a bad seed and together the two were wild and into trouble as teens). The only positive thing seems to be the fact that her old boss has given her a job and she has a place to live. 

The story is told in two timelines - Toni's high school days where she has been tormented by the in-crowd, her time in prison and her release and her search for the truth about who murdered her sister Nicole.  The story is told from Toni's perspective and moves kind of slow in the first half of the book. I wanted to believe Toni was innocent, even though we know she was a wild child, that she had  a less than perfect childhood and that she was subjected to intense bullying at school. I often felt bad for Toni and could understand why she was constantly wondering when the next bad thing was going to happen to her.

Toni also came across at times as an unreliable narrator, so on occasion I wondered whether she could have played a part in her sister's death. Yes, this story is part mystery, and there are a few twists along the way, but it also felt like a psychological character study as well.  Overall, this was an okay  -- who-dun-it, even though I wanted to hurry it along at times. The audio book was read by Jorjeana Marie who did a decent job with the narration, but another case I switched between both the eGalley and audio.

3.5/5 stars (audio and ebook)