Night Corridor [Kindle Edition]

Joan Hall Hovey (Author)

Book Description

After nine years in Bayshore mental institution, once called the lunatic asylum, Caroline Hill is finally being released.

There will be no one to meet her. Her parents who brought her here…are dead.

They have found her a room in a rooming house, a job washing dishes in a restaurant. She will do fine, they said. But no one told that women in St. Simeon are already dying at the hands of a vicious predator. One, an actress who lived previously in her building.

And others.
And now, as Caroline struggles to survive on the outside, she realizes someone is stalking her.

But who will believe her? She's a crazy woman after all.

Then, one cold winter's night on her way home from her job, a man follows and is about to assault her when a stranger intercedes.

A stranger who hides his face and whispers her name.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

As well as penning Award-winning suspense novels including Chill Waters, Nowhere To Hide and Listen to the Shadows, Joan Hall Hovey's articles and short stories have appeared in such diverse publications as The Reader, Atlantic Advocate, The Toronto Star, Mystery Scene, True Confessions, Home Life magazine, Seek and various other magazines and newspapers. Her short story, “Dark Reunion” was selected for the Anthology, Investigating Women, published by Simon & Pierre. Joan also tutors with Winghill Writing School and is a Voice Over pro, narrating books and scripts. She lives in New Brunswick, Canada with her husband Mel and dog, Scamp.

Product Details

• File Size: 436 KB
• Print Length: 251 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1926965566
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Books We Love (February 14, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004NSV6TY
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #121,865 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 74 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Could not stop reading Night Corridor April 20, 2011

By Hotclue

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Caroline Hill has all the bad luck any suspense heroine could possibly have and then some. Recovering from a complete nervous breakdown nine years ago, she is finally well enough to be leaving the hospital and begin a new life very close to the one she had. Her parents, objecting to her planned marriage to the boy she loved, had taken her newborn baby girl away from her and given it up for adoption. Now her parents are dead, her lover is gone, her daughter is gone, and she's on her own in a world for which she's not at all prepared.

Caroline is sent straight from the hospital to the town where she used to live. On her first day back, before she reports to her first-ever job as dishwasher in a small restaurant, and before she even sees her lonely room in a boarding house, she finds out there is a killer somewhere in town, murdering young women who look like her.

It's hard to put a label on exactly what Hovey does with her stories that grab you on page one and do not let go until the last page. Hovey seems to be part Mary Stewart, part Mary Higgins Clark and in no small part, Stephen King. Her unique brand of storytelling is powerful because she tells a story that takes you deep into the psyches of almost all of her characters. She writes in third person omniscient point of view, so you get to know everyone in the story--and wind up afraid of most of them because they almost all seem to be touched with evil in some way. Even Caroline battles her own demons--her fragility and inexperience because of the long recovery from her breakdown.

You walk down the darkened streets with Caroline, afraid for her. You wake up in the middle of the night when she does, hearing the same faint noises she hears, afraid for her. You put dishes into the restaurant dishwasher along with her, trying to dodge the attentions of a boorish and repellent man determined to cause trouble for her. She cannot seem to escape danger no matter how careful she is.

And you cannot stop reading.

This danger shimmers throughout her story and your average reader will be on the edge of their seat, anxious to see whether Caroline can once and for all escape the darkness that follows her, and triumph over evil.

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Night Corridor March 31, 2011

By Biker Babs

Format:Kindle Edition

Night Corridor was a slow-building suspense story that reminded me of an Alfred Hitchcock tale. Ms. Hovey reveals her characters a bit at a time, showing their strengths and weaknesses and what makes them tick. She does a good job with pace and putting suspicion on multiple players and did a wonderful job describing the mental hospital at the beginning and the main character's mixed feelings of excitement and dread at leaving it. I enjoyed Night Corridor very much and would recommend it to lovers of mystery/suspense.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Great plotline, but many errors May 7, 2012

By AST

Format:Kindle Edition

As a story, this was actually quite enjoyable. Suspenseful yet nothing too deep - a good quick, easy read that will keep you flipping the pages. However, I could not believe how many very simple and obvious mistakes were in this book: grammar, spelling, punctuation marks, etc. Things that a middle school student would be held accountable for. This was really disappointing to me, especially because the storyline really was good. Someone did a very hasty job editing, and if it weren't for all those errors I'd have given it 5 stars.

More About the Author

In addition to her critically aclaimed novels, Joan Hall Hovey's articles and short stories have appeared in such diverse publications as The Toronto Star, Atlantic Advocate, Seek, Home Life Magazine, Mystery Scene, The New Brunswick Reader, Fredericton Gleaner, New Freeman and Kings County Record. Her short story Dark Reunion was selected for the anthology investigating Women, Published by Simon & Pierre.

Ms. Hovey has held workshops and given talks at various schools and libraries in her area, including New Brunswick Community College, and taught a course in creative writing at the University of New Brunswick. For a number of years, she has been a tutor with Winghill School, a distance education school in Ottawa for aspiring writers.

She is a member of the Writer's Federation of New Brunswick, past regional Vice-President of Crime Writers of Canada, Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime.

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Note from author re photos:

The gazebo my husband built for me is where I like to go to write in nice weather.
~

The photo of myself with Stephen King was taken in London, England at a writer's workshop, in 1984. Mr. King is as wonderful a speaker (well, almost) as he is a writer.
That cute little guy holding the sign is my grandson, Liam.
The little girl is me at 9.