Gone by Midnight by Candice Fox: book review

Gone by Midnight by Candice Fox (2019) is the third novel in the Crimson Lake trilogy, set in Queensland, Australia.

Former police detective Ted Conkaffey was wrongly accused of abducting Claire Bingley, sending him into self-imposed exile in Crimson Lake in tropical Queensland. His wife Kelly has left him. But, for the first time in two years, Kelly and their three-year-old daughter Lillian are visiting him, and he can’t wait to see Lillian again.

In Crimson Lake, Ted has joined forces with the weird Amanda Pharrell who established her own private investigations agency. But she has a past too. In her late teens, Amanda was convicted of murder, but she now has a PI license, and a reputation for effectively hunting down killers.

In the White Caps Hotel, three couples and single mother Sara Farrow left their four boys, aged eight years old, in a hotel room while they went to the hotel restaurant. The parents checked on their children hourly. During the midnight check of the boys, Sara’s son Richie has vanished. `

In the hotel room next door, Martin Askin heard the boys making a lot of noise, but the hotel’s CCTV footage couldn’t provide any evidence of what happened. Distrusting the police, Sara hires private detectives Ted Conkaffey and Amanda Pharrell to help find her son.

Can the other boys provide some answers? Are they ‘misremembering’ what happened? Or are they ‘suggestible’ to their parents’ views and local rumours?

So, while Ted Conkaffey and Amanda Pharrell try to make their pasts disappear, Sara Farrow hopes for the re-appearance of her son. The investigators are in danger and risk their own lives as they get closer to the truth. This best-selling crime thriller is full of intrigue till the end.

MARTINA NICOLLS

MartinaNicollsWebsite

Rainy Day Healing

Global Gentlemanliness

SUBSCRIBE TO MARTINA NICOLLS FOR NEWS AND UPDATES

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international human rights-based consultant in education, healing and wellbeing, peace and stabilization, foreign aid audits and evaluations, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009). She lives in Paris.

Comments

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. ...

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass...

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing...

FEAST OR FAMINE

Search This Blog