My Readers Guide to The Anniversary by Alex Finlay has a character list, a plot summary, spoilers and the ending explained. Let’s discuss this new summer 2026 suspsene book with a long timeline and a creepy premise!
Readers Guide to The Anniversary
Table of Contents:
- Jen’s Quick Take on The Anniversary
- Spoiler Free Character List
- Plot Summary
- Spoilers and The Ending Explained
Jen’s Quick Take on the Anniversary
- I’ve enjoyed Alex Finlay’s other books, like Every Last Fear, The Night Shift, What Have We Done, If Something Happens to Me, and Parents Weekend.
- His books are a bit hard to describe. I’d call them suspense, with a slower pace and a lot of characters.
- This book has a ten-year timeline, which was interesting to me! I enjoyed seeing the characters over that time span and it was a straight timeline, with no back and forth.
- I feel like The Anniversary was a bit like a cross between The Night Shift (90s throwback) and If Something Happens to Me (couple followed after the aftermath of a crime)
- My fellow readers seem to be really enjoying this one. I liked it, even if I had my eye on the correct May Day Killer (I had two suspects, to be fair.)
- Publication date: May 12, 2026 by Minotaur Books. Thanks to them for my advance copy.
Spoiler Free Character List for the Anniversary
- Jules Delaney
- Clare Delaney: Jules’s younger sister
- Quinn Riley: classmate of Jules
- Mr. Vanderman: high school guidance counselor
- Nadine Riley: Quinn’s mother
- Uncle Pat: Nadine’s brother and Quinn’s uncle
- George Riley: Quinn’s younger brother
- Holly: works at George’s group home
- Randy Calhoon: Quinn’s mom’s boyfriend
- Miranda: Jules’s best friend
- Brad: Jules’s boyfriend
- Toby: Quinn’s former co-worker at the Burger Hut
- Kenny Pearl:
- Giuseppe: served in the military with Quinn
- Alessia: Guiseppe’s sister
- Carrie and Lucy: survivors of the May Day killer
- Pastor Jim: Carrie’s father
- Jack Smith: FBI agent
- Megan Tucker: a missing teen
- Minnie Agbayani: missing child
- Reverend Agness: friend of Minnie’s parents
Plot Summary for The Anniversary
Year One: May 1, 1992 ; Monarch, Nebraska
Jules Delaney, a popular girl in town, and Quinn, a not-very-popular guy, hang out in study hall and talk about an upcoming concert in Omaha.
During the concert, Jules learns that her best friend Miranda and boyfriend Brad are cheating behind her back.
She takes the bus back to Monarch, and to Brad’s house, where her car is parked.
There’s a man hiding in the back seat. Meanwhile, Quinn gets into a a fight and gets arrested.
Year Two: May 1, 1993
Quinn is in juvenile detention, but gets to attend his mother’s funeral. He runs into Jules, who survived her attack but never told anyone. She’s now in an alcohol abuse program, because she drinks to forget what happened to her. She gives him a ride back to Monarch, and he asks her “did Brad ever tell you about that night?”
Quinn runs into Toby, his former co-worker at Burger Hut. Toby saw the man who killed his mother with a hammer, a man in a suit.
Jules hangs out with Brad and Miranda, who she’s forgiven. Miranda says the May Day killer struck again, in Ralston.
Quinn goes to pick up his mom’s work stuff. Ms. Glomm, a co-worker, says his mom was going to report something at the potato chip factory, and that she kept evidence in a green folder.
Jules decides to write down everything her attacker did and mail it to the police. She feels guilty that staying quiet has let the guy strike again.
Quinn visits his younger brother George in his group home, then goes to his house to look in his mom’s hiding place. Unfortunately, he does not find a file in there. There’s a hammer covered in blood.
Year Three: May 1, 1994
Quinn is in Italy to deliver a letter to the parents of a fellow soldier, Giuseppe, who died in Somalia.
Jules is also in Italy doing modeling. She sees that the “May Day Killer” has struck again and wonders why he let her live. She calls her mother, who says that they caught the man who killed Quinn’s mom.
While at a club, she meets a male model named Gabe and then punches a famous photographer who is assaulting another model n the bathroom . Back at her hotel, she gets a call from the FBI. They know she wrote the anonymous letter, and they need her help.
Year Four: May 1, 1995
Quinn is back in Nebraska attending the trial of his mom’s killer: her boyfriend Randy. Jules is also back in the US, meeting with the FBI. She and two other survivors, Carrie and Lucy, meet with FBI Agent Jack Smith. He tells them that the May Day killer is now going after the victims he didn’t kill.
Quinn testifies in the trial and we learn that May 1 is his birthday. Interesting! The defense lawyer suggests that Randy Calhoon was framed. Quinn can’t help but wonder: Randy had an alibi, and his mom’s co-worker insisted she was murdered because of her whistleblowing at the plant. After the verdict, the defense lawyer slips Quinn a piece of paper. He confides in Holly, an employee at George’s group home, who says George has a green folder. They find it, and it’s filled with cryptic notes. The word “Pearl” could mean Kenny Pearl, his mom’s supervisor.
Lucy and Jules are supposed to be in protective custody at a hotel, but Lucy takes her to the home of a registered sex offender and sprays him with pepper spray. It’s a hobby hers.
The two of them do it to another guy, and Lucy gets punched in the face. Then Jack Smith tells them that Jules’s younger sister Clare is missing.
Year Five: May 1, 1996
Quinn is working as a PI, while Jules is back to modeling. Clare still has not been found. Jules goes to Carrie’s father’s megachurch. She’s perplexed to see her former guidance counselor there, Mr. Vanderman.
Quinn is on the case of a missing young girl named Minnie. He’s been dating Holly for year. He tells her law school classmates that he’s trying to get Randy freed on a Brady violation (that the prosecution didn’t turn over excuplatory evidence.) Then he sees Jules at the bar.
Jules is followed by Brad, while Quinn stalks Kenny Pearl. Pearl says Quinn’s father had enemies. Quinn researches a name Pearl gave him: Megan Tucker. His father was a suspect in her disappearance.
Year Six: May 1, 1997
Jules is modeling in the Bahamas. She’d reported Vanderman and he resigned and moved here. Quinn visits George in hospice and then heads to talk to the detective in the Megan Tucker case.
Jules breaks into Vanerman’s house. Detective Rupert, now in a nursing home, says Megan came from a meth cooking family.
Rupert’s theory: that Megan flirted with a guy who had a girlfriend and she insisted he kill Megan. The girlfriend was Quinn’s mom Nadine, and her brother was Quinn’s Uncle Pat. But both had alibis. Rupert thinks a man named John Smith was involved.
Vanderman denies having anything to do with Jules’ attack. He also claims both Clare and her sister Amy had a crush on him.
Year Seven: May 1, 1998
Quinn is still trying to find Minnie and his mother’s killer. In addition, he wants to figure out why his mom wrote “Megan” in her files. Finally, Quinn wonders if Reverend Agness, who is friends with Minnie’s parents, might hire ex-cons for deliveries.
Lucy and Jules try to get Pastor Jim, Carrie’s father, to donate money for her missing persons nonprofit.
Quinn tries to track down Agness and comes up with a suspect: a one-eyed man named Keith Cratch. Then he sees a school bus drop off Minnie at the Agness farm. Someone shoots at him.
Jules is asked to come to the reunion between Minnie and her parents. Quinn is there.
Spoilers and The Ending Explained for The Anniversary
Year Eight: May 1, 1999
Jules is holding a fundraiser to honor Quinn. Clare is still missing. Jules goes to a bar to meet Quinn and his colleagues and is confronted by the man who abducted her. A witness says she was talking to a man in uniform outside the bar.
Jules lies in a car trunk. Her abductor takes her out and suggests he killed Clare. She runs.
Quinn is racing to save Jules. The May Day Killer is Uncle Pat. She hides in an old bunker and hears another victim crying.
Quinn arrives. Pat and Quinn’s dad were murder partners. Quinn’s mom was given the earring and recognized them as Megan’s.
Suddenly Jules is strangling Pat from behind with a cord. Quinn locks Pat in a cell and Jules sets Pat on fire.
Year Nine: May 1, 2000
Quinn finally tracks down Giuseppe’s killer and beats him up. Jules gives an interview to Barbara Walters.
Not only is Pat the May Day Killer, he also killed Megan, and his own sister Nadine, Quinn’s mom.
Year Ten: May 1, 2001
Quinn and Jules are celebrating his birthday. They go to the cemetery to leave flowers on the graves of Quinn’s mother, father and sister. They see a grave for a Tanya Smith, mother of John, who died May 1 1967. John Smith is Jack, the FBI agent. He is Pat’s partner, the one who liked to watch.
Epilogue: 2011
Quinn and Jules have two kids, George Guiseppe and Clare.