Synopsis: Strange things happen at midnight in the town of Bixby, Oklahoma. Time freezes. Nobody moves. For one secret hour each night, the town belongs to the dark creatures that haunt the shadows. Only a small group of people know about the secret hour - only they are free to move about the midnight time. These people call themselves Midnighters. Each one has a different power that is strongest at midnight: Seer, Mindcaster, Acrobat, Polymath. For years the Midnighters and the dark creatures have shared the secret hour, uneasily avoiding one another. All that changes when the new girl with an unmistakable midnight aura appears at Bixby High School. Jessica Day is not an outsider like the other Midnighters. She acts perfectly normal in every way. But it soon becomes clear that the dark creatures sense a hidden power in Jessica ...and they're determined to stop her before she can use it.

Review: On the stroke of midnight unexpected but believable things happen to our main characters (each of whom happened to be born on the stroke of midnight). Unfortunately these things are not good things, and each midnight becomes for each of them a situation of tension and suspense that become more and more worrying as the book progresses.

This is the first in a trilogy, and is a splendid book for a variety of reasons. Each of our main characters is believable but with bizarre personality attributes (disorders?), and each have diverse and unusual 'midnight' skills. The pace of the book is rapid, keeping your interest. The main characters are predominantly female There is scope within the plot for the development of the story line (many sequels are separate stories based on an original closed idea - this book clearly prepares the ground for what is to follow, and I look forward to the next two). At £6.99 it constitutes good value for money.This is the sixth book I have reviewed for this website, and has been the most enjoyable read so far. Recommended.

2006-12-06