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DEEP NIGHT
by Caroline Petit
Soho , December 2008
288 pages
$24.00
ISBN: 156947530X


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

When this thriller opens, Leah Kolbe is successfully running her recently deceased father's antique business in Hong Kong, and living the good life. She's engaged, dashing off to parties with the likes of Hemingway, holding court at the Peninsula Hotel. War appears on the horizon, however, and an old colleague of her father proposes a tempting offer: to assist the British by spying on one of her customers, a Japanese businessman whose family's business is steel, an important war materiel.

Leah agrees, and thus begins her descent into a hellish state of war and espionage. As the Japanese attack, life soon becomes impossible. Her fiancé is sent off to fight, and when a loyal servant makes it possible for her to go to Macau, she leaves with nothing but the clothes on her back. Once she manages to land on the island (another harrowing experience), she seeks refuge at the British Consulate, where she is soon employed.

The spying continues, indeed accelerates, and soon she finds herself in too deep, with enemies around every corner. If she can just hang on until the war ends, she can reconnect with her fiancé, who has become a prisoner of war. Unfortunately, just when everything builds to a climax in DEEP NIGHT, the main character becomes almost listless and one dimensional. It's fair that the war has taken its toll, but as readers, we end up caring less about what happens to Leah and when she finally reunites with her fiancé, everything becomes even drearier as he begins to figure some things out.

In the end, Leah is left alone, and that seems a proper ending. She is likely to go on, building a new life for herself (and author Petit is likely to have more ideas about another book, post-war), but readers will need to see new life in this character, who becomes increasingly unlikable as the end of DEEP NIGHT approaches. Overall, the historical setting and hardships of war are portrayed brilliantly in this novel, but losing interest in the main character's success or failure makes for some disappointment.

Reviewed by Christine Zibas, January 2009

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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