That night

Review by Booklist Review

We meet Toni Murphy just as she's about to be paroled from a Canadian penitentiary. When she was 18, she and her boyfriend, Ryan, were convicted of killing Toni's younger sister. Flashbacks to the months before her sister was killed and the years she spent in prison help the reader understand the woman Toni is today and why she is torn between clearing her name and keeping her head down and avoiding a parole violation. Moving back to her hometown, Toni knows that the truth behind her sister's murder is just out of reach. She's certain, though, that it's not a coincidence that her sister died shortly after befriending Shauna, a prototypical mean girl who made a hobby out of harassing Toni all through high school. Stevens does an excellent job conveying Toni's near-constant state of unease as a victim of teenage bullying, a prison inmate protesting her innocence, a parolee who's prohibited from coming in contact with the people who could clear her name. And she supplies a corker of an ending. Fans of Alex Marwood's The Wicked Girls (2013) will enjoy this suspenseful tale.--Keefe, Karen Copyright 2010 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In this riveting, if overly ambitious thriller, Stevens (Always Watching) raises significant themes-bullying, troubled families, the difficulties ex-cons face-but doesn't do them all justice. In 1998, high school sweethearts Toni Murphy and Ryan Walker went to prison for killing Toni's younger sister, Nicole-a haunted girl with secrets no one guessed. The most damning-and false-testimony came from classmate Shauna McKinney and her friends, who had tormented Toni for months before the murder. Fifteen years later, Toni and Ryan return home on parole to Campbell River on Vancouver Island. Although they're legally prohibited from contact, Ryan asks Toni to help him clear their names. Meanwhile, Shauna is determined to send them back to prison. Toni finds an unlikely ally in Shauna's teenage daughter, Ashley, perhaps the only person who wholeheartedly believes Toni and Ryan are innocent. Despite some wooden secondary characters, this is an exciting page-turner with an incisive twist. Author tour. Announced first printing of 150,000. Agent: Mel Berger, William Morris Agency. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Review by Library Journal Review

Moving back and forth from the mid 1990s to the present, Stevens's latest thriller conveys the at times agonizing story of Toni Murphy and her boyfriend Ryan as they are wrongly convicted of her sister's brutal murder and later clandestinely try to prove their innocence when they are paroled after serving a hard 16 years in prison. At times, the story is tedious and stereotypical in the high school hazing scenes and Toni's prison experiences; Toni's mother is actually quite intolerable. However, Stevens comes through in a surprising and tension-filled finale. Excellent narration by Jorjeana Marie adds to the suspense and listeners' sympathy and hopes for Toni. VERDICT Recommended for fans of crime fiction by such authors as Gillian Flynn, Lisa Gardner, and Nicci French. ["Fans of layered mysteries will love this novel. A compelling, exceptional read," read the starred review of the St. Martin's hc, LJ 3/1/14.]-Sandra C. Clariday, Tennessee Wesleyan Coll., Athens (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

Stevens (Always Watching, 2013, etc.) draws a dark crime drama from the beautiful blue-green of Canadas Vancouver Island.In the town of Campbell River, Toni has a rough home life; she can't wait for high school graduation to escape her mothers angry disapproval. Ryans home is worse, his father an alcoholic abuser. Together, however, Toni and Ryan make the broken pieces fit. In school, Toni runs afoul of mean girls Shauna, Rachel, Kim and Cathy, who harass her and spread ugly rumors. Toni has an escape planneda post-graduation apartment with Ryanbut then her younger sister, Nicole, her mothers favorite, joins Shaunas clique and starts dabbling in booze and boys and harassing Toni. It seems like kid stuff, until Nicole is bludgeoned to death. Toni and Ryan immediately become suspects; they're convicted of murder and sent to prison. Stevens' masterful plot spins into evil with "teen girls turning on each other, the viciousness and pack mentality that can arise." She writes from Tonis point of view, shifting easily between past and present while delving into family tensions before the murder, then prison life, then back to Campbell River after Tonis parole. Entirely believable, Toni evolves from a misunderstood, resentful and frightened teenager into an intelligent yet closed-off woman tempered by 15 years in prison. The writing is crisp and the dialogue realistic as Toni speculates about possible suspects and motives, knowing all the while that finding the killer may reveal one of Campbell River's ugliest secrets. Tension cranks to the breaking point when Cathy, now a drug-addled misfit, is murdered. Ryan and Toni become suspects again, but they realize its a sign that the conspiracy that jailed them has fractured. Still vulnerable yet clinging to optimism, the outcasts decide they must find Nicoles murderer. Stevens has woven a warped psychological drama, a melancholy tale that comes to an existential and yet hopeful conclusion.Think James Lee Burke and Sue Grafton: Stevens' dark psychological thriller shares their damaged people and distinctive senses of place. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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CHAPTER ONE ROCKLAND PENITENTIARY, VANCOUVER MARCH 2012 I followed the escorting officer over to Admissions and Discharge, carrying my belongings in a cardboard box--a couple pairs of jeans, some worn-out T-shirts, the few things I'd gathered over the years, some treasured books, my CD player. The rest, anything I had in storage, would be waiting for me. The release officer went through the round of documents. My hand shook as I signed the discharge papers, the words blurred. But I knew what they meant. "Okay, Murphy, let's go through your personals." The guards never called you by your first name on the inside. It was always a nickname or your last name. He emptied out a box of the items I'd come into the prison with. His voice droned as he listed them off, making notes on his clipboard. I stared at the dress pants, white blouse, and blazer. I'd picked them out so carefully for court, had thought they'd make me feel strong. Now I couldn't stand the sight of them. The officer's hand rested for a moment on the pair of my underwear. "One pair of white briefs, size small." He looked down at the briefs, checked the tag, his fingers lingering on the fabric. My face flushed. His eyes flicked to mine, gauging my reaction. Waiting for me to screw up so he could send me back inside. I kept my expression neutral. He opened an envelope, glanced inside, then checked his clipboard before dumping the envelope's contents into my palm. The silver-faced watch my parents had given me on my eighteenth birthday, still shiny, the battery dead. The necklace Ryan had given me, the black onyx cool to the touch. Part of the leather cord had worn smooth from my wearing it every day. I stared at it, felt its weight in my hand, remembering, then closed my fingers around it, tucking it securely back in the envelope. It was the only thing I had left of him. "Looks like that's it." He held out a pen. "Sign here." I signed the last of the documents, put the belongings into my box. "You got anything to dress out in?" the officer said. "Just these." The officer's eyes flicked over my jeans and T-shirt. Some inmates' families send clothes for them to wear on their release day. But no one had sent me anything. "You can wait in the booking room until your ride gets here. There's a phone if you need to call anyone." * * * I sat on one of the benches, boxes by my feet, waiting for the volunteer, Linda, to pick me up. She'd be driving me to the ferry and over to Vancouver Island. I had to check into the halfway house in Victoria by seventeen hundred hours. Linda was a nice lady, in her forties, who worked with one of the advocacy groups. I'd met her before, when she'd taken me to the island for my unescorted temporary absences. I was hungry--I'd been too excited to eat that morning. Margaret, one of my friends inside, had tried to get me to choke something down, but the oatmeal sat like a lump in my stomach. I wondered if Linda could stop somewhere. I imagined a Big Mac and fries, hot and salty, maybe a milkshake, then thought of Ryan again, how we used to take burgers to the beach. To distract myself from the memory, I watched an officer bring in a new inmate. A young girl. She looked scared, pale, her brown hair long and messy, like she'd been up all night. She glanced at me, her eyes drifting from my hair, down to the tattoos around my upper arm. I got them in the joint--a thin tribal bar for each year behind bars, forming one thicker, unbroken band that circled my right biceps, embracing me. The officer yanked the girl's arm, pulled her to Booking. I rubbed my hands across the top of my head. My hair was short now, the middle spiked up in a faux-Mohawk, but it was still black. I closed my eyes, remembered how it was in high school. Feathered and long, falling to the middle of my back. Ryan liked to wrap his hands in it. I'd cut it in prison after I looked in the mirror one day and saw Nicole's hair, thick with blood, and remembered holding her broken body in my arms after we found her that night. "You ready to get out of here, Toni?" A friendly female voice. I opened my eyes and looked up at Linda. "Can't wait." She bent down and picked up one of my boxes, grunting a little as she lifted it. Linda was a small woman, not much taller than me. I was just a shorty at five feet--Margaret used to say a mouse fart could blow me over. But Linda was about as round as she was tall. She had dreadlocks and wore long flowing dresses and Birkenstocks. She was always railing at the prison system. I followed her out to her car, my box in my arms, as she chatted about the ferry traffic. "The highway was clear all the way out to Horseshoe Bay, so we'll make good time. We should be there around noon." As we pulled away, I watched the prison grow smaller in the distance. I turned back around in my seat. Linda rolled the window down. "Phew, it's a hot one today. Summer will be here before you know it." I traced the lines of my tattoos, counting the years, thinking back to that summer. I was thirty-four now and had been in custody since I was eighteen, when Ryan and I were arrested for my sister's murder. We'd been alone with her that night, but we hadn't heard Nicole scream. We hadn't heard anything. I wrapped my hand around my arm, squeezed hard. I'd spent almost half of my life behind bars for a crime I didn't commit. The anger never really leaves you. Copyright © 2014 by Chevy Stevens Holdings Ltd. Excerpted from That Night by Chevy Stevens All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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