Middle of the Night in Play Book Tag

Jun 06, 2025 Flo rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 3-star, mystery-thriller

I feel like I always have a love-hate relationship with Riley Sager novels. I've read some really good ones and then I've read some really meh ones. This one fell more on the meh side. It was okay, not terrible but not amazing, and as always with mystery/thrillers, nothing memorable.

For me, character development and generally good characterization is key to a good book, and that's definitely non-existent here. The main character was actually super annoying because he kept harping on about his m I feel like I always have a love-hate relationship with Riley Sager novels. I've read some really good ones and then I've read some really meh ones. This one fell more on the meh side. It was okay, not terrible but not amazing, and as always with mystery/thrillers, nothing memorable.

For me, character development and generally good characterization is key to a good book, and that's definitely non-existent here. The main character was actually super annoying because he kept harping on about his missing friend who disappeared 30 years ago and about how he felt super guilty about it, etc etc...even though he was literally a kid who was just camping out with his friend and was asleep when the friend disappeared. We don't really know much about him beyond his guilt, the fact that he has severe insomnia and anxiety, and a dead wife. His need to make the whole situation about his own guilt was super frustrating tbh.

I didn't guess who the murderer was but I did guess the twist/reveal, but tbh it felt super obvious if you were just paying attention to the details. In general, the plot was not amazing. The whole situation with the Hawthorne Institute felt sort of...out of place. I know that it was a huge red herring and did somewhat (very lightly) have to do with the mystery, but it just felt like it was shoved in there without really fitting the rest of the plot. The whole novel could have been fine ultimately without a mysterious institute studying the paranormal/ghosts/etc. I know that this author always puts a hint of supernatural stuff into his mystery books, but this just felt too awkwardly tacked on compared to some of his other books, and again, it didn't end up really factoring into the resolution much.

A lot of people have commented on how repetitive things got in this novel, which I definitely saw as well. Certain phrases/actions/thoughts were repeated multiple times to the point where a third of the book probably could have been cut and it would all have been fine.

I am always saying that I'm not going to read any more of Sager's books but I still read them, so I'm sure I'll read more of his books and then complain about them in reviews oops. ...more

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