Customer Reviews

The Midnight Effect

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Miles is an ex-cop who is tortured; he longs for death, but can't bring himself to eat his gun. Three years ago, his wife and child were killed in an auto accident. Miles ceased living from that point until a little girl named Annie and her aunt Lilly land in his lap. Lilly and Annie are on the run for their lives. Miles saves them from almost immediate death as silenced bullets whiz by and his cop-sense comes roaring back. There are paranormal aspects/psi-phenomenon that give depth to the story--Annie is "gifted" in amazing, unbelievable ways. The villain is the most diabolical that I've read about in a long while. My only non-glowing comment is that I wanted a little more information about Lilly's life, backgroundand personality. The author gives us little snippets of information here and there, but most of what we see of her personality comes from Miles' subjective perspective. Nonetheless, this is a compelling read. I can't wait to see whether this is a start of a series. I will be watching for more from this author.

Pam Fryer's Midnight Effect was a fast, hot read and I loved all the action. The story was well developed, combining a great satisfying romance with elements of science fiction/fantasy and paranormal. The ex-cop hero was a perfect compliment to the heroine who was spunky and used to getting her own way. I highly recommend it.

Sharon Hamilton

STORY BRIEF:

Miles' wife and daughter died in a car crash three years earlier. Miles quit the police force and runs a gas station. He still grieves and frequently considers suicide. Lily's car runs into the gas station causing a fire. She and her niece Annie are on the run from a man shooting at them. Miles puts them in his car and takes them to a friend's home. Lily tells Miles her story. Lily's sister Cassie worked for Colton and had a child Annie who is now six years old. Annie has psychic abilities. Colton has been using Annie as a test subject at his research facility since her birth. Both Cassie and Annie were kept there against their wishes until they recently escaped. A suspicious car accident happened which killed Cassie, but she was able to make a video tape in the hospital before she died. In the tape she asks Lily to take guardianship of Annie and to keep Annie away from Colton. Miles reluctantly comes back to life enough to help Lily and Annie.

REVIEWER'S OPINION (WITH VAGUE POSSIBLE SPOILERS):

This felt like an early draft that needed more work. It had an interesting overall plot, but it lacked development. At times it almost felt like I was reading an outline. A number of things were not explained, told, or shown. For example, if the bad guy could find them using her cell phone, why didn't he find them at an earlier time? He also would have known about the friend they were staying with and could have used that information later. There were a couple of hotel scenes that needed more details, for example how did the bad guy find the victims at the hotels and what was he thinking and doing? I wanted more details about Cassie's car accident. I wanted more information about the psychic abilities of Annie and others. I wanted to know what Colton was going to show his outside investors regarding the children and his facility. I wanted more details about how Colton knew of Lily's conversation with a former employee. Miles' decision to go someplace alone near the end was stupid. The FBI's interest and actions needed more explanation and details.

I wanted more character development especially about Lily and Colton. The Lily and Miles relationship needed more development time. Miles is reluctant to love anyone due to his grief, but all of a sudden things wrap up too quickly into a tidy happy ending.

There was a psychic occurrence toward the end which I liked. It surprised me.

DATA:

Story length: 237 pages. Swearing language: strong, including religious swear words. Sexual language: mild. Number of sex scenes: 1, about 3 pages long. Setting: current day state of Washington. Copyright: 2010. Genre: paranormal romantic suspense.

This was my first Pamela Fryer book I read. I was interested from the beginning to the end. I enjoyed this book very much. I am very glad with this purchase.