Gone By Midnight by Candice Fox

Publisher's Synopsis

Ex-cop Ted Conkaffey is slowly rebuilding his life in Crimson Lake, and getting to know his three-year-old daughter, Lillian. But when he and his PI partner Amanda take on the case of a boy who seems to have literally disappeared into thin air, his job once again threatens everything . . .

Crimson Lake is where bad people come to disappear – and where eight-year-old boys vanish into thin air . . .

On the fifth floor of the White Caps Hotel, four young friends are left alone while their parents dine downstairs. But when Sara Farrow checks on the children at midnight, her son is missing. The boys swear they stayed in their room, and CCTV confirms Richie has not left the building. Despite a thorough search, no trace of the child is found.

Distrustful of the police, Sara turns to Crimson Lake's unlikeliest private investigators: disgraced cop Ted Conkaffey and convicted killer Amanda Pharrell. This case is just the sort of twisted puzzle that gets Amanda's blood pumping.

For Ted, the case couldn’t have come at a worse time. Two years ago a false accusation robbed him of his career, his reputation and most importantly his family. But now Lillian, the daughter he barely knows, is coming to stay in his ramshackle cottage by the lake.

Ted must dredge up the area's worst characters to find a missing boy. And the kind of danger he uncovers could well put his own child in deadly peril . . .

My Review of Gone By Midnight by Candice Fox

The 3rd book in the Crimson Lake series featuring wrongfully accused child abuser Ted Concaffey, Gone By Midnight returns us to the Cairns region for another tempestuous missing person case. This series has developed into a truly engrossing one and the strong characters and clever plotting continues creating another solid PI case that showcases Australia’s Far North Queensland to good effect.

Eight year old Richie Farrow has disappeared from his hotel room while his parents were at dinner with friends downstairs. Ted has been hired by Richie’s mother to try to find her son. He’s glad for the work but it has coincided with the long-awaited arrival of his 3 year old daughter, Lilian, for her first visit in a couple of years. Ted’s ex-wife has finally agreed he deserves the chance to get to know his daughter now that the trauma of his wrongful arrest and incarceration has begun to recede.

Taking care of a 3 year old while also trying to focus on a missing person case (and all of the sudden call-outs that come with the job) is tricky to say the least. Calling on his medical examiner friend to provide babysitting services is just one of the creative ways he deals with the problem. Clearly, he loves his daughter to bits, always doing the right thing by her and providing her with the attention she needs is going to be a bit more difficult. (Amanda’s reaction to Lilian is classic!)

While the mystery side of this story revolves around the four families whose boys were left alone in their hotel room, once again, it’s really the working relationship between Ted and his PI partner Amanda Pharrell where the true fascination lies. 

To say Amanda is less than orthodox is grossly understating her personality and she tends to steal every scene she’s in. Her past remains confronting, having been convicted of murder, but it’s the wild ride she takes us on today with an almost manic energy that ensures that she demands attention.

This is a story that’s cleverly plotted. I felt as though I was being provided with just enough information to keep me intrigued while still remaining unsure of: how the boy was abducted; who the abductor is, or even; whether the boy was abducted at all!

And there are undercurrents of tension provided by some simmering long-standing bitterness that have been held between some of the returning characters. It’s to these subplots that it really would help to have read the earlier couple of books in the series to fully appreciate the importance of these grudges. It’s an aspect of the story that grows in importance from a mere wisp of a threat until it threatens to take over the entire show. The result is a far more complex plot that becomes vastly more multi-layered than I first would have imagined.

The complex layering provides the pay off when it appears the investigation has begun to stagnate. It’s at this moment that we’re hit with not one but two twists that blow the case wide open from one side and send it in another direction from the other. It was quite well done and made for a vastly unexpected but wholly enjoyable ending.

It’s possible to mix heartfelt tragedy with bright, witty humour and Candice Fox has managed it adeptly in Gone By Midnight. Indeed, it’s one of the aspects of the entire Crimson Lake series that has made it such a compelling series to read.