Night Watcher

by Daphne Woolsoncroft ★★★☆☆

Nola Strate hosts a long-running radio show focused on paranormal and unsettling stories from listeners who call in. On one night, a woman calls in, convinced that someone is watching her in her home. Nola and her producer, Harvey, aren't sure if the woman is putting one over on them, but it sounds authentic. But as she continues to describe her situation, Nola becomes increasingly unsettled. The woman screams, it sounds like there's a struggle and the call abruptly ends. Did they just broadcast a murder live on air? "All I can do is blink, mouth agape. My whole world is imploding in front of me as I process what I heard. I think I just witnessed a woman’s final moments. Mask. White face. Stitched eyes. Stitched mouth. The Hiding Man is back. And he’s watching me, too. Just like he’d warned me he would."

Nola is, as far as she knows, the only person to see the serial killer known as "The Hiding Man" and live to tell about it. When she was eight years old, he entered her home while her parents were out and murdered Nola's babysitter, Mia. "The details of all seven murders from the Hiding Man case are starkly similar: stalking, paranoia, the slitting of the victim’s throat, a clean crime scene." The one difference is that The Hiding Man never left witnesses, except for Nola. The case was left unsolved, the killer never captured, and Nola can't help but wonder if, after nearly twenty years, he's come back to tie up loose ends and add her to his body count.

It's a strong premise for the novel, and the creepy stitched mask and seemingly uncatchable serial killer give Night Watcher as much of a horror vibe as a mystery/thriller. Nola becomes increasingly convinced that The Hiding Man is back, and signs continue to point to this being true and to Nola as a potential target, or at least a common connection points as bodies begin to pile up. She also can't shake the thought that he may not be a complete stranger. "After that horrible night, I never stopped wondering if He was someone I already knew, and if I would ever be safe again."

Despite the strong premise, there is plenty of first-novel clunkiness to Night Watcher. For as good a job as Woolsoncroft does building tension around a serial killer on the loose, she misses badly when trying to misdirect the reader on the identity of The Hiding Man. The budding potential romance between Nola and Harvey is awkward as well and never seems to naturally flow in the story. Lastly, Nola is worried that she might be the target of a serial killer, yet she gets blackout-drunk on multiple occasions. For someone who should be—and is—on pins and needles throughout, it seems like a particularly unlikely choice, and it's sort of a cheap way for Woolsoncroft to advance the plot without Nola fully aware of certain things. All of that combined to give me more eye-roll moments than appreciative nods while reading, and dropped this one down into the middle of the pack.