The Charlotte Austin Review
-
Mystery -
charlotteaustinreviewltd.com
Home
Get Reviewed
Editor's Office
Editors
Reviewers
Interviews
Columns
Resources
Short fiction
Your letters
Editor
Charlotte Austin
Webmaster Rob Java
Review
Midnight Hour
Midnight Hour by
Mary Saums
Silver Dagger Press
188 pages, 2000
ISBN 1570721238
Reviewed by PJ Nunn


Enter the secluded world of nameless background singers involved in the production of music. Soft and hard supporting voices that lay the foundation for popular singers we all know and love. Willi Taft is one of them and has been for a long time. She’s getting pretty tired of it. Maybe it’s a mid-life crisis, maybe it’s just time for a change, but she’s definitely not having a good time.

With her birthday on the horizon forcing her to take stock of her life, the last thing she needs are complications. BAprivate investigator who is stalking her falls into that category. When she confronts him, he seems like a nice guy. Whether by calling or by coincidence, she finds herself drawn into his world. If all she lacked was a little excitement, she has found it, but she’s not sure getting shot at or having her house wrecked is the kind of excitement she really needs.

MIDNIGHT HOUR is not a light read, becoming quite dark at times yet not depressing. It is complex and examines a world most of us will never know, revealing circumstances and obstacles that are all too familiar. Saums has created a world that is easy to visualize, and populated it with characters that are sketchily drawn, yet vivid enough to come alive on the pages.



© 2000 The Charlotte Austin Review, for Web site content and design, and/or writers, reviewers and artists where/as indicated.