What Happened That Night

April 9, 2018
Dahlia, the heroine of this propulsive tale of revenge from Thriller Award–finalist Block (The Secret Room), was a Harvard student and aspiring lawyer until she attended a finals party and was sexually assaulted. Five years later, Dahlia, now a Beretta-carrying, tattooed paralegal living in Boston, still doesn’t remember what happened that night. Suffering from PTSD and stress-related-seizures, she seeks solace with her cat and her best friend, Eli, who like her attempted to commit suicide. When a video of the fateful party surfaces online, Dahlia sees her attackers for the first time and decides to take matters into her own hands. She teams up with James, a quirky IT geek she meets through a suicide survivors support group, and together they hatch a plan to uncover the truth and execute their own version of justice. Dahlia thinks she has everything figured out, but there’s another secret—a shocking betrayal that turns her world upside down again. Only the draggy ending, in which Block ties up loose ends, disappoints. Until then, this is a satisfying page-turner. Agent: Rachel Ekstrom, Irene Goodman Literary Agency.