About
Reviews
Search
Submit
Home

Mystery Books for Sale

[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]


  

MIDNIGHT
by Stephen Leather
Hodder & Stoughton, January 2011
480 pages
19.99 GBP
ISBN: 1444700669


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Jack Nightingale resigned from his job as a police negotiator after he failed to stop a pedophile jumping to his death from an upper story window. Did he jump or was he pushed? Jack still isn't saying. He now works as a private detective but at the moment he's more concerned with unraveling the mysteries left behind by the father who gave him away for adoption at birth and the sister whose existence he's only just discovered.

His father has left behind a massive mansion, unfortunately mortgaged to the hilt, and a basement full of occult books. He also appears to have bargained away the souls of both his children in return for wealth and success with women. The previous book, NIGHTFALL, tells the story of how Nightingale uses his negotiating skills to win back his own soul, and here, he's pitted against various demons in the struggle for his sister's soul.

This is a book that I very nearly failed to pick up, as the press release contrived to make it sound almost identical to the previous one, and a quick scan of the first few chapters failed to resolve the problem. It wasn't until I managed to locate the previous one that I was able to work out that they were, in fact, different. Leather treads an already well-worn path in this book as Nightingale tries to convince several extremely skeptical police officers that a wide variety of people really do have a nasty habit of either being killed, or killing themselves, just as he happens to appear on the scene. It's hardly surprising their credibility is stretched to breaking point as the death toll rises inexorably around him.

Even if you are prepared to suspend disbelief and accept that demons are willing to trade favours in return for human souls, I would still expect a greater degree of originality on the part of the various denizens of hell when it comes to putting the frighteners on someone, but no, we are treated to a repeat performance of cryptic messages left on mirrors and obvious cases of the temporarily possessed making statements that only Nightingale can hear. The book does contain a few genuinely creepy moments but overall it bore too much of a similarity to Nightingale's previous outing for anything to hold any real shock value.

When Nightingale returns for a third time, which I imagine he will, I hope Leather can come up with a more imaginative way for him to outwit whichever demon he ends up dealing with. I also hope we get to see more of the rather entertaining Proserpine and her dog. She is by far the most interesting character of the lot, and managed to deliver a rather unexpected sting in the tail that went some way to making up for an otherwise predictable story.

§ Linda Wilson is a writer, and retired solicitor, with an interest in archaeology and cave art, who now divides her time between England and France.

Reviewed by Linda Wilson, April 2011

[ Top ]


QUICK SEARCH:

 

Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]