Gone By Midnight

On Saturday I was treated to a spa day and for the most part I did have a lovely, relaxing time, although I’m pretty sure my stress levels were slightly higher than most people there that day. Why? Candice Fox’s new book, Gone by Midnight, is such a compelling page turner, it kept me on the edge my lounger all day long!

This is the first of her books I have read, and although it is the third book in a series, I didn’t have any problem reading them out of sequence. If anything, I’m now just desperate to go back and read the first two.

The story centres around every parent's worst nightmare; a missing child. A group of parents decide to leave their young sons alone in a hotel room so they can enjoy dinner together in the restaurant. They take turns to check the boys every hour. The evening is a success and so they agree to do the same the following night. However, the next night at the midnight check one of the parents discover that a boy is missing

The boys swear they stayed in their room all night. CCTV confirms that none of them left the building. No trace of the child is found and so the hunt is on to find him before it’s too late.

I tore through this book, I was completely unable to put it down. There are some absolutely brilliant characters here. Detective Ted Conkaffey is one of the most interesting fictional characters I have read in a while. He is a man who was accused, but not convicted, of the abduction of a young girl and is very much hated by the local community and the police force. When the boy goes missing, the police know that they need his help.

Ted’s partner, private investigator Amanda Pharrell, is an equally interesting and unpopular character who I really enjoyed, she’s a little outrageous.

There is such a great pace to this book, I found I had to stop every now and again to try and let my thoughts catch up but was quickly drawn back in and I did not work it out at all.

Thank you so much to Penguin Random House for sending me an advance copy. I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Gone by Midnight is out on 24 January and I would highly recommend it. As for me, I will definitely be snapping up her other books very soon.