Nightwatching

A Novel

By: Tracy Sierra

Narrated by: Emily Ellet

Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Unputdownable · Psychological Suspense · Horror · Tense · Gripping

A FALLON BOOK CLUB PICK

“Pulse-pounding locked-room suspense.”—Elle

“Nightwatching is like nothing I've read before. I wolfed it down in two sittings; it's amazing.”—Lisa Jewell

A footstep on the stairs. A second to react. What happens next will determine everything.

Home alone with her young children during a blizzard, a mother tucks her son back into bed in the middle of the night. She hears a noise—old houses are always making some kind of noise. But this sound is disturbingly familiar: it’s the tread of footsteps, unusually heavy and slow, coming up the stairs.

She sees the figure of a man appear down the hallway, shrouded in the shadows. Terrified, she quietly wakes her children and hustles them into the oldest part of the house, a tiny, secret room concealed behind a wall. There they hide as the man searches for them, trying to tempt the children out with promises and scare the mother into surrender.

In the suffocating darkness, the mother struggles to remain calm, to plan. Should she search for a weapon or attempt escape? But then she catches another glimpse of him. That face. That voice. And at once she knows her situation is even more dire than she’d feared, because she knows exactly who he is—and what he wants.

©2024 Tracy Sierra (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“How many of us have had the experience of hearing an old house creak in the night and wondering if it was something more? That uneasiness becomes terror in Sierra’s riveting debut. . . . What happens next falls between horror and suspense, landing with almost unbearable intensity. . . Nightwatching [is] among the best debuts I’ve read in years.” —LA Times

“Nightwatching grows in stature and becomes not just a nerve-shredding page-turner but also an ingenious guessing game and an absorbing account of a woman's struggle to make her voice heard.” —Minneapolis StarTribune

“So terrifying that it can easily be considered horror-adjacent. . . The intense plunge into the main character’s traumatic experience feels incredibly real and immediate, and the suspense doesn’t let up until the last moments of the novel.” —BookPage

Opening was grabbing

Too much audible introspection and characters not realistic especially the cops who were obviously sexist idiots.

It was okay

I had hoped for a better story .It was just okay .The ending was so weird .It was like a cheesy 80’s movie starring David Arquette as the town cop without all the masked slashing .Awkward ending,complete but just weird

Scary good!

I loved it! Edge of your seat, kept me thinking about it long after it ended. Very creepy! A true thriller!

Good

Too drawn out. It really needed something more, but I still listened to the end.

Very smart thriller

This was a terrific and horrifying plot with a smart relatable point of view. Can’t wait to listen/read her next book!

Riveting storytelling

Loved this! The description the suspense and the ending! I could relate to the main character and loved the end!!!

Realization’s

That real things can be recognized and help any of us know we are not dumb. And we do need to help each other and kindly accept what makes us different.

Couldn’t put down

Kept me on the edge of my seat. Author drew me in and never let me go. Great debut novel.

Hold on to your seat…

Terrifying though this is, there is an intelligence and sensitivity in the writing that made me trust that the roller coaster would come to a stop in a satisfying way. I was not disappointed.

Good listen

Very creepy, listen with the lights on story! Narration was great! Kept me wondering what was happening!