Call After Midnight

by Mignon G. Eberhart

The acclaimed, Edgar Award–winning author “tells one of her better mystery-romances in Call After Midnight” (The New York Times).   The phone rings just after twelve. Jenny Vleedam knows it cannot be anyone but Peter, and she tries to let it ring. He left her for another woman—a vicious trollop called Fiora—and Jenny has too much self-respect to let him kick her around anymore. But she answers anyway, and hears the words she has been longing Fiora has been shot. But as often as she has fantasized about something happening to the woman who stole her husband, now Jenny feels only fear—fear that the police might not believe Peter’s story that Fiora was the one holding the gun. Not knowing if the woman is dead or alive, Jenny rushes to Peter’s side. Guilty or innocent, they will never be apart again. 

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

257 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 12, 1964

About the author

Mignon Good (1899-1996) was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. She studied at Nebraska Wesleyan University from 1917 to 1920. In 1923 she married Alanson C. Eberhart, a civil engineer. After working as a freelance journalist, she decided to become a full-time writer. In 1929 her first crime novel was published featuring 'Sarah Keate', a nurse and 'Lance O'Leary', a police detective. This couple appeared in another four novels. In the Forties, she and her husband divorced. She married John Hazen Perry in 1946 but two years later she divorced him and remarried her first husband. Over the next forty years she wrote a novel nearly every year. In 1971 she won the Grand Master award from the Mystery Writers of America. She also wrote many short stories featuring banker/amateur sleuth James Wickwire (who could be considered a precursor to Emma Lathen's John Putnam Thatcher) and mystery writer/amateur sleuth Susan Dare.

Reviews

[Carla Remy · Rating 4 out of 5]

From 1964.
I enjoyed this. An okay, non graphic, mystery.
Mignon G. Eberhart lived from 1899 to 1996, and published from 1929 to 1988. Pretty good.

[Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very average mystery, or rather : suspense novel, with a passive heroine that you just want to shake some sense into.

Jenny receives a phone call from Peter Vleedam, the ex-husband who left her for another woman : his new wife, Fiora, has been shot by a home intruder; and he needs her to come to his house immediately. Jenny, who is still carrying a serious torch for her e-husband, immediately drops everything and hurries up to Peter's house outside NYC with Cal, Peter's colleague and best friend. Also present in the house are Art, General Counsel, friend and neighbor of Peter's, and Blanche, Peter's executive assistant. Fiora is only slightly hurt, but convinced someone wants to kill her, and not at all pleased with the suggestions that she might have shot herself with a gun that cannot be located.
What follows are a couple of days of mad dashing back and forth between Manhattan, where Jenny, Cal and Blanche live, and Peter's house outside NYC. Fiora does get killed, and mysterious bottles of sleeping pills are showing up wherever Jenny goes, which seems to indicate that someone is setting the stage for an "accidental overdose" or even "suicide". But why would anyone want to kill the first Mrs. Vleedam?

This is one of those books where the tension depends almost entirely on the heroine being a silly, passive girl who tends to freeze up whenever something happens, and to live in a dream-like state in between episodes of terror. I had very little sympathy with her- her willingness to be at Peter's beck-and-call, her forgetting that she has a job she is supposed to show up for....

On top of that, the villain could be spotted a mile off, so the mystery aspect of the book was minimal.

[Ginevra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jenny always answered the phone to her husband, her ex-husband, hopeful that that would finally be the call she had been waiting for. The one where he said he’d been wrong. That he loved her. That he wanted her back… But, when instead he asked her for help after an accident, she decided to make her own opportunity and win him back, only to find herself embroiled in suspicions, mystery and murder…
With all the classic elements of an Eberhart story, suspense, mystery, romance and the possibility that everyone, including the heroine could be implicated or actually have committed murder. A proper murder mystery, creating a puzzle for the reader to put together, tightly wound, with vivid characters and an excellent pace.

[Terry Halligan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first book that I've read of this author and I was most impressed with it. It was very atmospheric and the characters were well described and I enjoyed it very much. As I believe it was written in the mid 1960's and all descriptions were of American localities and unknown to me as I live in London, England. I have visited the US many times but as the first time was 1981 over 20 years later . I hope to read more books by this author in the future. I strongly recommend it.

[Marya · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this many years ago. My grandmother was a fan of Eberhart and had many of her books.

[Gypsi · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this mystery-suspense novel, Jenny, thinking she is still in love with her ex-husband, is quick to go to his aid when his new wife is shot. When the wife is shot again -- fatally this time -- Jenny is among the short list of suspects. This is an atmospheric, enjoyable read that, though short, had some good moments.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

As cozies go, this one was good. Mignon Eberhart's writing has an Agatha Christie feel to it, and I do love those old English period mysteries. This one certainly surpasses today's cute cozies by a mile. If you remember (or like to pretend you do) life before cell phones, when being in love didn't necessarily mean you were sleeping together, and ladies were ladies and gentlemen were gentlemen (with all the constraints those cultural values entailed), this book is for you.

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for those old mysteries from the 1930s and 40s. The details about how people lived are so entertaining it doesn't even matter if sometimes the plot isn't great.

[Melinda Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holds up well against the years that have passed since it was first published. The elements of your great "whodunit" are there and it's a short and snappy book. Great light entertaining read.