Either Side of Midnight
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4.0 • 71 Ratings
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
'Either Side of Midnight is a gripping, gritty thriller with an ingeniously shocking premise and twists and turns you’ll never see coming!' Liane Moriarty, bestselling author of Big Little Lies
'An exceptional new talent' Jane Harper, bestselling author of The Dry
'A complex and hugely original page-turner. Stevenson has officially made my auto-buy-author list.' Christian White, bestselling author of The Nowhere Child
How can it be murder when the victim pulled the trigger?
At 9.01 pm, TV presenter Sam Midford delivers the monologue for his popular current affairs show Midnight Tonight. He seems nervous and the crew are convinced he’s about to propose to his girlfriend live on air.
Instead, he pulls out a gun and shoots himself in the head.
Sam’s grief-stricken twin Harry is convinced his brother was murdered. But how can that be, when one million viewers witnessed Sam pull the trigger?
Only Jack Quick, a disgraced television producer in the last days of a prison sentence, is desperate enough to take Harry’s money to investigate.
But as Jack starts digging, he finds a mystery more complex than he first assumed. And if he’s not careful, he'll find out first-hand that there’s more than one way to kill someone . . .
'The male relationships in Either Side of Midnight are layered in a way that transcends the crime genre. Funny, disturbing and unpredictable.' Jack Heath, bestselling author of Hangman
'Either Side of Midnight, which trips between light and dark, city and country, and twists the reader into knots, is for fans of solid Australian crime authors like Chris Hammer, Christian White and Candice Fox.' Books and Publishing
'A gripping thriller.' Who Weekly
'Stevenson writes solid Australian crime thrillers with a command of psychology and suspense and a dark comic edge. That the series extends its tendrils into satire – it neatly skewers the culture of our television industry – only adds to its appeal.' The Age
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Benjamin Stevenson continues his Jack Quick series with the outstanding new thriller Either Side of Midnight. When a popular TV personality takes his own life during a live broadcast, documentary maker Jack is brought on board to help solve what some suspect may be a homicide. Stevenson has taken a theme straight from the headlines and masterfully turned it into a compelling read with a distinctly Australian twist. The tension builds as Jack digs deeper into the mystery, culminating in a shocking ending that will have you on the edge of your seat. This is a book you’ll want to devour in a single sitting—particularly if you're a fan of authors such as Jane Harper and Christian White.
Customer Reviews
I was hoping for more
3.5 stars
Author
Australian. Stand up comic who also works in publishing. His 2018 debut novel Greenlight (US title Trust Me When I Lie), which was Audible's Thriller of the year in 2018 and shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Award in 2019, introduced true crime TV producer Jack Quick, who ended up solving the crime but was jailed for withholding evidence from police. This is what Jack did next. (You don't need to have read Greenlight first).
In brief
Popular late night TV show personality Sam Midford (Mr Midnight: hence the title) blows his brains out on live TV, which comes as something of a surprise to his crew who thought he was about to propose to his GF and mother of his young child. Jack is serving out his sentence, battling bulimia, and doing a regular prison podcast, as you would, when dead personality's twin bro Harry approaches him to investigate Sam's murder. Jack is sceptical given that there were a million witnesses when the dude ate his pistol, but it turns out to be more complex involving cyberbullying, filling his hard drive with kiddie porn, blackmail, yada, yada. Jack starts digging, finds more than he was expecting, and almost ends up dead himself. (There is a ferris wheel involved. I'll say no more.)
Writing
Having your damaged investigator battle an eating disorder rather than alcohol/tobacco/sundry other substance abuse is a novel twist. This starts out well but the pacing is variable, there's more repetition than I thought necessary, and I never felt particularly engaged with the characters. Admittedly, they were all younger than me, but we oldies still remember being young. Or mis-remember maybe, but surely it's the vibe that counts.
Bottom line
Enjoyable enough, although I was hoping for more based on what I'd read about in advance.