Midnight Eyes

By: Sidney Williams

Narrated by: A. C. Fellner

Men are being lured to agonizing deaths in the small Louisiana city of Aimsley. Brutalized bodies are displayed on the riverbank and in little-travelled bayou country, and a mysterious dark-eyed beauty may be connected. It's a case with tremendous human suffering and a challenging political labyrinth for Sheriff Ty Hood. It means calling on the last person he wants to for help - his son.

Former FBI agent Wayland Hood is a brilliant criminologist and writer. He's immersed in a project to unravel the mysteries inside the minds of four of America's most heinous serial killers. Only unresolved issues with his father can draw him into the dark quest for buried secrets that fuel modern bloodshed. As father and son clash with each other and with television reporter Jemy Reardon, who has her own goals and theories, the body count increases. Only a terrifying excursion into the darkest heart of midnight can bring the nightmare to an end.

©2011 Sidney Williams (P)2012 David N. Wilson

Narrator lets the book down

My consuming lust was to experience their bodies. I viewed them as objects, as strangers. It is hard for me to believe a human being could have done what I've done. - Jeffrey Dahmer

We serial killers are your sons, we are your husbands, we are everywhere. And there will be more of your children dead tomorrow - Ted Bundy (Lady Killer)

Midnight Eyes
Author: Sidney Williams
Genre: Thriller
Rating: 3 Stars

We live in isolation. The 1950’s really started the whole “Nuclear Family” phenomenon. Mother, father, children, living in isolation, grandparents and the rest of the extended family in their own little isolated pods as well. But, what happens when the Nuclear family itself goes nuclear? And what happens to the children… Nobody ever told the story of the kids, after . . Because sometimes, those families contain monsters.

The setting of Midnight Eyes is one that I truly enjoy. The swamps of southern Louisiana are the perfect setting for a serial murder mystery, with its slow, deliberate pace, brutal wet heat and the scents of swamp water and death, magnolia and rot. As you enter the swamps, it is through the past, as a serial killer strikes and then disappearing, leaving a town and its sheriff shell-shocked and the sheriff embittered for the remainder of his life.

Now, many years later the murders are happening again. Murders of such horror and brutal viciousness that the mutilation of the victims while still alive horrifies even a hardened FBI Criminal Profiler who specializes in serial killers.

I found the pace of the story somewhat uneven, but still compelling as everyone from reporters to private detectives reach for what one can only call a twisted sort of glory as they track the monster in their midst.

Readers of “true crime” might actually enjoy the story as the author utilizes his own experience as a journalist to make the setting and characters as realistic as possible.

I would give the actual tale a solid four on a scale of one to five. The narrator, however, was embarrassingly substandard. He droned (my housemate came in while I was listening and asked me if I was listening to a lecture by the world’s most dry, boring high school history teacher. Remember those? The ones who made the most fascinating periods of history put you to sleep? So much so, she said, that it would turn her completely off audio books as a whole if she were forced to the whole 16 h 53 min. Yep. That long. Ugh.) And when a narrator cannot even bring himself to learn proper pronunciation of family names or cities, the author should know s/he has a problem. Overall, I would not recommend the audio edition; I would go straight to the print edition. That would be worth reading.

I received this book from Audiobooks Monthly in return for a realistic review. All thoughts are my own. My review is printed in Audiobook Monthly, however, this is the full review, including my Narration review.