Murder At Midnight by Faith Martin
Publisher: Joffe Books
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by FernFelix Olliphant was found stabbed to death at a New Year’s Eve costume party for the turn of the millennium.
Seemingly liked by everyone, motives for his murder are hard to find. There was one suspect, but no evidence.
Hillary struggles to solve this baffling case. And she has to contend with a new colleague, Jake Barnes. Young and rich, he says he wants to give something back to the community, but Hillary has her doubts.
Will Hillary finally be defeated by this cold case and will she lose her boss and love interest to a new job?
Hillary Greene has returned to Thames Valley Police HQ, acting as a cold-case consultant for the Crime Review Team, looking into murders which the police have never been able to solve.
She wasn’t sure she wanted to go back. But solving crimes is irresistible for Hillary Greene. And it doesn’t hurt that her new boss is devastatingly handsome.
Hillary Green returns to work in the cold case unit after a well earned two week break. Her two new trainees are both eager to begin work with her – though each have their own secrets. Hillary is given a particularly difficult case – one with ample suspects but no real motive. Can Hillary work her magic yet again?
I have been thoroughly enjoying this series. I am particularly impressed the author manages to keep the situations feeling fresh. With semi regular new characters introduced as the plotlines surrounding other secondary characters close out and they move on I think this really finds the balance between the comfort of the known and familiar but with enough movement and new people brought in to keep everything feeling fresh and different. I also really enjoy the fact that while the cases are generally kept to each individual book, there is frequently a sub-plot or two percolating in the background to give a bit of cohesion and a sense of an overall storyline unfolding.
Realistic and enjoyable, I can thoroughly rate this series and find each new installment to be an enjoyable read. I thought there was clearly a longer running plot with one of the new trainees – he’s clearly got a few secrets lurking and a personal agenda he’s working on. It will be interesting to see where that leads. I also have been enjoying the slowly building sub-plot of Hillary’s love life with her about-to-be-promoted boss. Readers should be aware that the final paragraph of the book spins a few things on it’s head and clearly is leading to a big change in the next book.
An excellent mystery with a cast of strong secondary characters and a very well plotted series of mysteries and multi-book plot arcs this is a great series and one I can highly recommend. Thoroughly enjoyable.
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