Simone St. James’ “The Sun Down Motel” (2020) has a structure that’s almost like cheating. Twenty-ish Viv investigates cold cases in 1982 while working at the titular roadside stop in the Upstate New York town of Fell. That interacts with chapters about Viv’s niece, 20-ish Carly, investigating cold cases in 2017 while behind the same reception desk. The story has an automatic hand-off momentum.
One of Carly’s cold cases is Viv’s disappearance in 1982. It’s fun to see the puzzle pieces snap into place chapter by chapter as Viv’s story catches up with Carly’s information gathering. “Sun Down Motel” has easy appeal to armchair proceduralist readers. And Viv and Carly appeal to us as well, since they are us.
But “Sun Down” runs up against an invisible yet unbreakable wall that separates good from great. I felt there was a slim chance St. James had a trick up her sleeve that would paint her structure as extra-brilliant, but nope. Every puzzle piece snaps into place, but when you crumble it up and return it to the puzzle box, you won’t care to remember the picture.
“The Sun Down Motel” (2020)
Author: Simone St. James
Genres: Mystery, ghost story
Setting: 1982 and 2017, Fell, N.Y.
Note to readers: The Book Club Book Report series features books I’m reading for my book club, Brilliant Bookworms.
A time killer
To pass time on the night shift, one of the protagonists (I think it was Viv) reads Stephen King’s “Firestarter”; St. James also name-drops Robert Bloch’s “Psycho.” Good forebearers to have, but the author at this point in her career lacks the ability to create characters, plots and thematic depth like those masters.
Viv and Carly are both defined by one thing: Their desire to solve these cases. They – and their actions — are too much the same; at least Carly is written in first-person to provide immediacy and a contrast. OK, to be fair, Viv has the second trait of being beautiful, in order to make her a juicy target of the villain. First-person narrator Carly is less glamorous – unruly hair is mentioned — in order to be the audience surrogate.
Sometimes a whole bunch of shallowly colorful characters can make up for a shortage of deep ones, but both Viv and Carly are surrounded by one older low-level criminal good dude and one female roommate. Carly’s Heather is at least different than Viv’s Jenny, in that she is her friend and participates in the investigation.
Both protagonists are surrounded by the same ghosts at the Sun Down, namely Betty – the first of three likely victims of a serial killer, who is likely one of the regular guests at the motel. Betty can flicker all the motel’s lights (there’s no switch that can do that) and she can open and close all the doors at once, even if they are securely locked. And the motel is identical in both time periods; mysterious, but again, a problem for contrasting the times.
St. James doesn’t spectacularly succeed at creating a spooky supernatural mood, even though I like the broad idea of a haunted motel on the night shift. And she delivers other almost-evocative lonely spots like a library’s reference room and a sparsely populated diner.
Not a deep roster of suspects
The whodunit is better, but as St. James focuses far more on one suspect than any others, I began to suspect it’s either a straight how-to-prove-it procedural or there will be some great twist. (The former is the case.)
Carly and her introverted roommate, Heather, openly classify themselves as being among the modern cadre of women who love true-crime podcasts and documentaries. They enjoy the opportunity to solve the late ’70s and early ’80s killings of four women, plus the disappearance of a fifth (Viv). In a young-adult-style way, we’re reminded that this is personal for Carly.
Also communicated through repetition more so than subtlety, “Sun Down” imports via a longtime Fell resident – who had worked the night shift up to her recent retirement – that it’s hard to be a female cop when all her colleagues are male. And via another, that it’s hard to be a black female photographer.
St. James makes a fair point that solo women have to be careful on dark streets; that they must prepare for the possibility of an attack in a way men don’t have to. J.K. Rowling’s latest detective novel, “The Hallmarked Man,” makes a good point that this isn’t because women are of course easier targets, but rather that they are more likely to be seen as desirable targets by the killers out there. St. James likely would agree, as Viv and Carly are not portrayed as weak or stupid, but she doesn’t deliver layered writings on the issue.
By being content with a serviceable YA level of depth and mood, “The Sun Down Motel” might be the first favorite mystery novel of a teenager out there somewhere. And if you were working an overnight job and this book was your only source of entertainment, you’d hold it close. It far exceeds staring at a wall, but doesn’t break through to the level of St. James’ idols.