The Midnight Road

By: Tom Piccirilli

Narrated by: Donald Corren

From the moment he saw the girl in the snowstorm, Flynn had less than an hour to live. But he’ll remember his last 50 minutes long after he’s dead. As an investigator for Suffolk County Child Protective Services, Flynn has seen more than his share of misery, but nothing could prepare him for the nightmare inside the Shepards’ million-dollar Long Island home. In less than an hour, that nightmare will send him plunging into a frozen harbor - and awaken him to a reality even more terrifying.

They’ve nicknamed Flynn “The Miracle Man” because few have ever been resuscitated after being dead so long. But a determined homicide detective and a beautiful, inquisitive reporter have questions about what really happened at the Shepard house - and why the people around Flynn are suddenly being murdered. Flynn has questions of his own, especially when one of the victims dies while handing him a note: “This is all your fault.” Flynn has returned from the Midnight Road - and someone wants to send him back.

Tom Piccirilli is the author of more than 20 novels, including Shadow Season, The Cold Spot, The Coldest Mile, and A Choir of Ill Children. He’s won two International Thriller Writers Awards and four Bram Stoker Awards, as well as having been nominated for the Edgar, the World Fantasy Award, the Macavity, and Le Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire.

©2007 Tom Piccirilli (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“[Piccirilli] gives you the distinctive shiver all good horror writing—all good writing—provides: the certainty that the writer’s own ghosts are in it.” ( New York Times Book Review)

“Tom Piccirilli’s fiction is visceral and unflinching, yet deeply insightful. If you miss Piccirilli you’re missing one hell of a treat.” (F. Paul Wilson, author of The Keep)

“Tom Piccirilli writes like a crazed banshee. I love his work.” Ken Bruen, author of ( The Guards and Ammunition)

Dark shapes in the snow...

...don't quite resolve themselves. The events in this book are like the events in a dream: related but hazy. You spend a lot of time floating around the protagonist's thoughts and feelings, yet by the end of the book, you still don't feel like you know who he is or understand his motives. There's a lot of talk about parents and child abuse, but this only muddles the character because it seems he had a pretty good childhood until one very significant event. That this event, now 20 years past, plays a big role in the character's life due, presumably, to the events that take place in the opening scene is unconvincing.

The reveal of the killer makes you say "Huh?" instead of "Ah ha!" because it seems to come out of left field. Piccirilli doesn't set up enough clues throughout the story for the revelation to feel natural; that moment of "I should have known it all along!" is missing for the reader.

Corren does a good job with the voices of each character, and the descriptive writing brings the location to life if not the characters.