Midnight on Mourn Street [Paperback]

Christopher Conlon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 30, 2008

Reed Waters is the sort of middle-aged man few people notice. He's quiet, polite, solitary. He doesn't call attention to himself. Ever. Reed Waters has a secret.... Mauri Dyson is a teenaged runaway, impetuous and explosive. She lies, she steals, she prostitutes herself. Whatever it takes to survive. Mauri Dyson, too, has a secret.... When Mauri bursts into Reed's life one rain-soaked night she sets in motion a series of events that will spiral out of control, taking the two of them through tears and terror to the brink of madness--and a confrontation that will change them both forever.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This mildly suspenseful first novel about a middle-aged man's shocking discovery of his tragic tie to a street kid he befriends aims for earnestness but stumbles into melodrama. Bighearted Reed Waters, who's content to work in a Washington, D.C., soup kitchen, likes to help out those less fortunate than himself, so when 16-year-old runaway Mauri Dyson turns up on his doorstep, it's only natural that Reed takes her under his wing. But Mauri's intrusion into his life isn't as random as Reed supposes. Mauri has a scheme worked out for Reed that's far from kind and planned in retribution for a traumatic incident that adversely affected both their lives. Conlon (Thundershowers at Dusk) carefully stokes reader anticipation for the discovery of Mauri's secret bond with Reed, but it leads to a finale built on unlikely coincidences and improbable behavior. (June)
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From Booklist

Reclusive bachelor Reed Waters has little inkling of the disturbing complications awaiting him when he invites a homeless teenage girl out of the rain into his Washington, D.C., townhouse. While the girl, Mauri Dyson, is a stranger to him, he is no stranger to her, as she harbors a sinister secret from Reed’s haunted past. Yet Reed’s recent long stay in an asylum has left him eager for companionship, prompting him to keep a close eye on Mauri and introduce her to a student friend from D.C.’s housing projects. At first their growing friendship is a balm to his soul. Then the revelations begin about Reed’s psychiatric breakdown and Mauri’s role as one of his forgotten victims, bringing them both to the edge of madness and life-changing transformation. Conlon keeps the suspense taut while slowly peeling back the layers of his protagonists’ troubled psyches. His masterfully moving tale has already garnered praise from authors of every genre and easily distinguishes itself as a top-drawer first novel. --Carl Hays

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Product Details

• Paperback: 220 pages
• Publisher: Earthling Pubns; Paperback edition (October 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979505437
• ISBN-13: 978-0979505430
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,185,723 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A desolate, hypnotic thriller., February 22, 2009

By 

Miles D. Moore (Alexandria, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Midnight on Mourn Street (Paperback)

If Shirley Jackson were alive today and writing urban thrillers, she would be writing books like "Midnight on Mourn Street." There is no higher praise. Christopher Conlon, who proved himself a master of narrative poetry in his three previous books, brings the same formidable powers of language and observation to his first published novel.

Though "Midlnight on Mourn Street" is short, barely over 200 pages, Conlon takes his time building his plot, ratcheting up the suspense almost unbearably. We know that Reed Waters, a middle-aged man living a near-monastic life in DC's Logan Circle neighborhood, has a dreadful secret in his past. We know that Mauri Dyson, an alcoholic teenage runaway, knows his secret, seeks revenge, and has secrets of her own. How their lives collide--and the role that Will Bliss, a young black man and a misfit of a far more benign sort, plays in their lives--forms the plot of "Midnight on Mourn Street." It is a sharp, shocking tale of psychological horror that builds to an ending that is hopeful, unsettling and ineffably sad all at once. It is a breathtaking, masterful performance, and it would make a fantastic movie. (I'm already casting it in my head.)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful debut novel, February 4, 2008

By 

Craig Clarke "Living After Midnight: Hard and... (New England) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Midnight on Mourn Street (Paperback)

A homeless teenage girl settles down for the night in a stranger's front yard. But he's not a stranger. She knows who he is. More importantly, she knows what he did. When he sees her in the rain, he invites her in.

She says her name is Mauri Stevens, but that's only the first lie she will tell to get what she wants. The man, Reed Waters, was responsible for a pivotal event in Mauri's life, and she has traveled a long way, looking for ... something.

Reed has no idea what he is in for.

Midnight on Mourn Street is the debut novel of editor / poet / writer Christopher Conlon, and it is a stunner. Not only because Conlon gives us just enough information in the beginning to create suspense that lasts even through the "slow" parts of the story -- while we wait for the other shoe to drop. But also because he creates characters who are so real that I was completely immersed in their lives.

When the climax erupted, two-thirds of the way in, I wondered what could possibly be left to tell. But, oh, there's plenty of Midnight on Mourn Street to go. Even though I read it in 2007, this short novel from Earthling Publications is destined to be one of the best books of 2008.

Midnight on Mourn Street succeeds partly because Conlon keeps the cast small, allowing the reader to get deeply involved with two very damaged individuals (though a third does show up to add tension and contrast, and a fourth's presence is felt throughout).

Conlon wonderfully expresses these characters' innermost thoughts and motivations. I was continually impressed by how he truly understood the deeper levels of how one person's actions can change the direction of another's life, while the first remains completely oblivious of this (and is, in fact, still totally immersed in the thoughts that led to the life-changing behavior in the first place).

Whether the way I described it makes sense or not, the way Conlon writes makes it all perfectly clear, though you'll just see Midnight on Mourn Street as an emotionally charged story told by a natural storyteller.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bourne To Mourn, February 7, 2009

By 

Andrew Annese (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Midnight on Mourn Street (Paperback)

There are books we come across in our lives that touch us on various levels. Some astound us with colorful, metaphorical prose, and deep, dark imagery. Other books tend to hold us prisoner, in a constant page turning trance, resonating in our minds long after they are placed down.

Midnight On Mourn Street accomplishes both.

This is not only a brilliantly entertaining novel, but a deeply introspective search leading us to probe the boundries of our hearts, and as well as the streets where we live. Weaving Capote imagery, with George Clayton Johnson imagination, Mr. Christopher Conlon has truly composed an unforgettable tale, one that will stay with the reader for a long time.