Upstate New York, 1982. Viv Delaney wants to move to New York City, and to help pay for it she takes a job as the night clerk at the Sun Down Motel in Fell, New York. But something isnʼt right at the motel, something haunting and scary.
Upstate New York, 2017. Carly Kirk has never been able to let go of the story of her aunt Viv, who mysteriously disappeared from the Sun Down before she was born. She decides to move to Fell and visit the motel, where she quickly learns that nothing has changed since 1982. And she soon finds herself ensnared in the same mysteries that claimed her aunt.
The Sun Down Motel: Horror Book Review Blog
I’m a fan of true crime, horror, mysteries, and ghost stories so when I discovered that The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James combined all of these sub-genres into one novel picking this up was a no-brainer. St. James tells this story in two parts, one takes place in 1982 and the other in 2017. Thirty-five years ago, Carly’s aunt Vivian disappeared from the Sun Down Motel without a trace. At the same time, a string of murders are being investigated and it is speculated that Vivian is just another victim. Carly has never met her aunt but is compelled to try and understand what happened to her and put the mystery of her disappearance to rest. She moves to the town of Fell, NY, gets a job at the Sun Down Motel like her aunt, and even rents the same apartment. Before long, Carly is immersed in the town’s history, its shady characters, murders, and how they relate to Vivian’s disappearance. Oh, she also learns that the Sun Down is haunted.
St. James weaves a striking tale of mystery and suspense with a supernatural twist that kept me on my toes throughout… for the most part. While the novel worked well as a whodunit and a crime mystery, everything else – the ghosts, the haunting and supernatural elements, to me, did not, for the most part, seem necessary. The story, without the ghosts, would still have worked. Was the supernatural just added for the sake of adding complexity or for just adding another layer? Perhaps. While this element did hook me in, by the book’s conclusion I asked myself, “Was it all needed?”
I was intrigued by the detective aspect, uncovering a cold case aspect of the story that was handled by amateur “sleuth” Carly as St. James painstakingly explained how both Viv, in 1982, and Carly, in 2017, unraveled the mystery. While the haunting of the Sun Down was prevalent throughout it seemed to serve only to propel the story and to remind the audience that something was afoot. Heck, there were some ghosts whose sole purpose was to be just that, a trapped ghost of the motel who served no purpose other than to creep us, the audience, and our protagonists out. Again, the main story would have worked without this. But, to be fair, the novel itself may have been lost amongst the probable hundreds, maybe even thousands, of similar stories. I can see the initial pitch: A young girl comes to town searching for her long-lost aunt who disappeared from a motel one night. The producers scoff at this, and St. James tries again. A young girl comes to town searching for her long-lost aunt who disappeared from a haunted motel one night. This time, they raise their eyebrows. To her, they are saying using only a verbal cue, Go on, we’re listening! Now, she has them hook, line, and sinker! Of course, this is mere speculation.
It was November 29, 1982, 11:24 p.m. By three o’clock in the morning, Viv Delaney had vanished. That was the beginning.
– Simone St. James, The Sun Down Hotel
The concept is excellent, working the overnight shift at a purported haunted motel where a loved one disappeared from thirty-five years ago, and the prospect of her aunt being murdered in the very same motel where she now worked is terrifying. Who was the murderer, where is he, will he come back again? I was really into this narrative for a good portion of the book but, I found myself not being scared at all when the ghostly things happened. This was not the problem as I was more intrigued with the mystery behind the disappearance and the work Carly put into uncovering the truth despite the roadblocks that were put forth in her way. There were also a few other things that I could have done without, twists that were not needed and went nowhere. There were a few swings and misses that I wish someone told St. James about in order to get rid of unnecessary fluff for the sake of prolonging the story. In addition, the ending felt rushed and took away a lot of the revelation. Because of this I really did expect something more (extra?) at its conclusion that blew me away. Alas, there was not and, while I did enjoy The Sun Down Motel, I really wanted to love it as, initially, it had the makings of being something great.