Every May 1st, a serial killer stalks a small town. Every year he comes for them...
Sexual assault, kidnapping.
On May 1, 1992, Jules Delaney and Quinn Riley hardly know each other.
Jules is high school queen bee in a small Midwestern town when she survives a brutal attack by the elusive May Day Killer—a predator who strikes every May 1st and then vanishes without a trace. Quinn, a boy from the wrong side of the tracks, is arrested the same night after trying to break up a fight and nearly killing someone.
By morning, their lives are forever connected.
A year later, Jules is haunted by trauma and guilt, tormented by one question: Why was she spared? Quinn is newly released from juvenile detention and returns home to devastating news—the unsolved murder of his mother.
Over the next decade, their lives are revisited on a single day each year: May 1st.
As the years pass, secrets surface, lies unravel, and the paths of Jules and Quinn draw closer together. Two mysteries edge toward the truth—what really happened the night Jules was attacked, and who murdered Quinn’s mother? All the while, the May Day Killer is still out there.
And the clock is racing toward another anniversary.
Twisty, high-concept, and emotionally charged, The Anniversary is an addictive murder mystery and nail-biting thriller—but it’s also a tender, heartrending story about fate, innocence lost, and two people bound by a single day. With its masterful structure and propulsive tension, The Anniversary reaffirms Alex Finlay as one of the leading thriller writers today.
Don't just take our word for it...
“The suspense never lets up, the various story lines come together nicely, and there are a few twists that even the most well-read mystery readers may find surprising. This is Finlay’s best book in years.”
– Booklist (Starred Review) 🌟
“Somehow, Finlay manages to improve with each amazing book, and he has crafted another terrific suspense novel that demands to be read in one sitting. Jules and Quinn fly off the page, and readers will be emotionally engrossed in their journey to see where they are in their lives each May 1.”
– Library Journal (Starred Review) 🌟
“I couldn’t put down this engrossing novel about the intertwined lives of Jules and Quinn . . . As Finlay delicately untangles a web of deception and violence, a gripping novel emerges about fate, family, and the ties that bind us all.”
– Annabel Gutterman, Amazon Editor (Best Mystery/Thrillers of the Month)
Taste the very first page
Jules and Quinn didn’t know that today would be an anniversary they will never celebrate.
“You’re going to the concert?” Quinn asks.
“Why do you say it like that?” Jules replies.
“I don’t know. You just don’t seem like you— ”
“I’m into grunge music,” Jules interrupts. “What, because I don’t wear flannel when it’s ass-hot outside and actually comb my hair and am not, like, ‘intellectual,’ I can’t go see one of your precious bands?”
“Shhhh.” The study hall monitor hisses in their direction. The stern woman patrols the cafeteria like she’s making rounds in the mess hall of a penitentiary, not a high school.
Jules narrows her eyes at Quinn. She’s not sure why she cares what he thinks. If she’s honest, she shouldn’t be talking to Quinn Riley. Her friends would not approve. But somehow she’s started looking forward to the one hour of forced confinement together in eleventh- grade study hall every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
“You don’t have to be mean about it,” Quinn says softly, like he’s withholding a smile.
“Are you going?” she asks.
“To the concert?”
“No, to the circus.”
For someone who seems surprisingly smart—always with his nose in a book, scribbling something in a journal—Quinn can be slow on the uptake.
“No. I need to watch my little brother tonight.”
“On a Friday night?”
He nods. Turns back to the paperback he’s creased and is holding in one hand.
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