ARC Review: The Anniversary by Alex Finlay

The Anniversary
Author: Alex Finlay
Publication: Minotaur Books (May 12, 2026)

Description: Every May 1st, a serial killer stalks a small town. Every year he comes for them . . .

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.

My Thoughts: May 1 is the anniversary. This story begins in 1992 when Jules and Quinn meet in high school study hall. They are from different cliques. Jules is upper class and Quinn comes from the wrong side of the tracks. They do begin a tentative friendship though. Events come to a head on May Day when Jules is abducted and raped after ditching her cheating boyfriend at a concert and Quinn takes part in a fight that almost kills a guy. Jules doesn't tell anyone, but her life is disrupted. Quinn finds himself in Juvie and also has his life disrupted when his mother is murdered.

The next May Day Jules is discovered by a model agency and Quinn joins the Army. And the May Day Killer continues to take and kill young girls.

And the years go on. Jules has a successful career as a fashion model and masks her pain with drugs and alcohol. Quinn is invalided out of the Army after action in Somalia and, with a career in law enforcement impossible because of his injuries, becomes a private investigator in Omaha. Between his cases, he continues to investigate his own mother's murder because he doesn't believe the boyfriend did it. He is also working on the case of missing 8-year-old that the police have given on and put in the cold cases file. 

Then Jules younger sister is taken by the May Day Killer. She finally tells her parents that she was one of the lucky ones the killer didn't kill. She opens a nonprofit which searches for the missing. The May Day Killer is not the only source of missing persons.

Through the years, Jules and Quinn do keep running into each other, but it never seems like the right time for them. She's modeling in New York. He has a girlfriend. 

This was an excellent mystery. It was also an excellent story about friendship and love, lost innocence, and lost opportunities. I really enjoyed it. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.