Split between Fell New York, 1982 and Fell New York, 2017 the story follows two women (Viv in 1982 and Carly, Viv’s niece in 2017). Viv goes missing in 1982, leaving Carly, the niece she never knew with a family mystery on her hands. Carly goes to Fell in search of her aunt and takes a job working at the same Motel (the Sun Down Motel of the title) her aunt was at before she vanished. She ends up working the same shift her aunt had- that of the night clerk.
The Sun Down Motel hasn’t seen better days because it hasn’t had better days. The motel business never really kicked off, leaving the hotel with its ‘vacancy’ sign always lit up in 1982 and 2017. The guests that check in all have their own stories, and some bring danger with them. But what might be the most dangerous thing at the motel is the guests that never checked out – because this hotel is seriously haunted. The back of the book kind of plays coy a bit, saying there is “something haunting and scary” at the motel, but let me assure you there are ghosts.
In the 1982 timeline, Fell also has perhaps more than its fair share of murdered women, and Viv finds herself drawn into the mystery of their murders. In 2017, Carly also finds herself looking into the mystery of the murdered woman, and hunting down any connections that that might have to her aunt’s disappearance. Both women encounter the super creepy hauntings at the Sun Down Motel, chief amongst them is a woman who tells people to run.
At one part Carly thinks she is the type to sleep in a haunted house just to see what happens. That is laid out early on and helped me understand what the heck the character was doing just sticking around the very haunted hotel. And I guess helped me understand some of the other …choices she made. I mean just me, personally, I wouldn’t have taken a job being the solo night clerk at the motel, the same one my aunt vanished from while working the night shift. But you know, there would be no novel or a short unsatisfying one if Carly made the choices I would make. (I mean as soon as an obvious ghost tells me to run, I am going to run.)
The narrative jumps back and forth between Viv and Carly, with the mystery moving along at a pretty good clip. I enjoyed the way the two timelines blended together and the way information slowly rolled out between the two of them. I also really enjoyed the way the mystery and detective work the characters did (especially in the 80’s timeline when trying to google the answer to something was just – not an option) was balanced together with ghosts. Like some serious motel-haunting action takes place, and it’s often very creepy. Loved that part!
What I didn’t enjoy was – the ending. It made a certain sort of sense, but a few of the twists felt unearned to me. I liked the build-up to the end, but then we got to the end and I was left feeling meh. There is also a line at the end that made me roll my eyes so hard I feared they would fall out of my head. It wasn’t terrible, just felt kind of silly and unimportant in the overall narrative. Also on my list of things I did not like, the supporting characters didn’t make a lot of sense. I’m fine with some being there to serve the plot but some worked as plot devices and I was left with questions at the end. Namely, what was their deal? I know life doesn’t always have answers or tie things up in a neat bow, but I would have liked a few more answers in a haunted motel novel.
I am being a bit harsh on this book because I had some high expectations as I was looking forward to the combination of true crime and a haunted motel. When those expectations didn’t get met by the novel, well then I got salty. I didn’t dislike it enough to not finish it, so I feel that does say something. I enjoyed the other Simone St. James book I’ve read, so I’ll continue to keep the author on my radar, but this was a real letdown to me.