Laid-off and ready to give up, Riley Sager rebounded and returns with thriller ‘Survive the Night’

She’s on a late-night drive in a slate gray Pontiac Grand Am driven by Josh Baxter, a man she’d only briefly met at a message board on campus in New Jersey.

Author Riley Sager’s latest psychological thriller, “Survive the Night,” published on June 29 by Dutton, tells the story of Charlie, a film studies major and movie buff who studied cinema as a way of dealing with childhood trauma.

On top of including Nirvana’s “Come as You Are” and “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” he references “Kiss Them For Me” by Siouxsie and the Banshees and “Just Like Heaven” from The Cure, both of which play a significant role in the book.

In “Survive The Night,” he sees Charlie turn from a supporting character in her own life to its protagonist as she struggles to put the correct scenes together in her mind.

With 15 years in reporting and editing under his belt, Sager was laid off from the New Jersey Star-Ledger five years ago.

I had published a few books under my real name and they did nothing, then I was laid off and I literally couldn’t find another job.

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