Private Midnight
by Kris Saknussemm. Overlook Hardcover (March 5, 2009).Birch Ritter, a heavy set, middle aged cop is in the midst of a second divorce. He is miserable and cynical about his life. The only thing of importance to him is his work as a detective. Now even that is slipping away. He lives amongst the bars and pool halls in a down trodden area, and has few friends.
Jack McInnes, police officer — cold, calculating — someone Birch detests and has stayed away from, walks into the office one day and drops a business card on Birch's desk, then leaves without a word.
Despite misgivings Birch dials the number on the card and a short time later meets the enigmatic Genevieve in her upscale home. She knows why he has come she tells him. He wants to see life through a different window. She can show him that. She ties a yellow scarf around his eyes and old, painful memories come flooding back. Subsequent visits bring physical and mental anguish. Some test his sanity but always he feels an urgent need to return. At times he can think only of Genevieve and the intense misery and the unique sexual pleasure she gives him.
At first he assumes that the phantasmagorical world with perverse erotic situations that she provides him must be drug induced. Then he decides no, not that, something else but what? And how does she know the most minute details of his life and his inner most thoughts. Not possible!
Birch narrates in the manner of a crime noir detective story. His down and out life and the suffering soul underneath captures the readers interest and even a readers heart. The downward spiral brought on by Genevieve fascinate and frightens. She has an infernal magnetism that could be the mechanism of Birch's destruction or transformation. Private Midnight is a complex, psychological thriller with a dark and unusual paranormal element. Don't miss this on
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