The Midnight Before Christmas
A Holiday Thriller
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4.2 • 6 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
On Christmas Eve, a lawyer helps a battered wife search for her kidnapped son
As ex-husbands go, they don't get much worse than Carl. He's violent, drunken, and possessive—and worst of all, he's an ex-cop. Bonnie has remarried, and done everything she can to keep their son away from his father, but when Carl comes to terrorize them—stinking drunk on Christmas Eve—she cannot call the cops for help. After years of living in fear, she visits a legal aid office to arrange a restraining order. But by the time the lawyer starts the paperwork, it's already too late: Carl has kidnapped their son.
Bonnie's lawyer, an ex-priest named Megan McGee, has too much Christian spirit to turn the woman's case over to the corrupt local police. Together they comb the city in search of the boy, racing to find him before his father's affections become violent, and turn this white Christmas into a bloody one.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In a new twist in holiday fare, Bernhardt, better known for his Oklahoma-set courtroom thrillers (Blind Justice; Deadly Justice), fashions a suspenseful tale of domestic violence with a plot-worn spin on the usual villains. On Christmas Eve, Megan McGee, formerly a priest and now a lawyer (since the death of her mother in the Oklahoma City bombing) is handed what seems an open-and-shut case of spousal abuse. A hysterical woman applies for an emergency restraining order against her menacing, drunken ex-husband. Except that Carl, the ex, is a cop, and Bonnie, the attractive wife, is not as victimized as she seems. In a desperate measure, Carl kidnaps their boy, Tommy, and the threats and recriminations roll one after the other. Though Megan, with her ungainly English pug, Jasper, in tow, is an appealing character, Carl and Bonnie, by turns described as hopelessly evil or duped by each other, come off as one-dimensional caricatures of feuding ex-spouses. In fact, it's difficult to believe that folks in a holiday mood will want to read this sour tale of evil manipulation and forced uplift.
