In the Midnight Hour

Laura Principal #5

by Michelle Spring

Michelle Spring's acclaimed novels of psychological are invariable winners in the white-knuckle sweepstakes. Richly-drawn characters with unsavory motives. Secret sins of the past that snake their way into the unsuspecting present. Atmosphere a reader can step into and feel. Michelle Spring is a master at weaving grand themes into compelling plots. Now, in her astonishing new novel, she ices our veins with a North Sea chill.

Twelve years ago, four-year-old Timmy Cable vanished suddenly from a wild and lonely stretch of East Anglian beach. After a massive police search fails to find a body, the boy is presumed dead.

Now, on a quiet street in Cambridge, Timmy's mother, still wracked with grief, is drawn to a teenage street musician—and feels desperately certain that this tall, blond boy must be her son. Has the long nightmare of loss ended at last? If so, where has Timmy been all these years? And why, whenever the boy is questioned about his past, does he become strangely hostile?

It falls to private investigator Laura Principal to ferret out the truth. Is this young stranger with a badly bruised face truly Timmy Cable? Or is he merely a dangerous interloper, bent on taking the wealthy Cable family for a lucrative ride? And what can explain the trail of violence that begins with his arrival— and ends with murder?

As Laura Principal searches for answers, she confronts a loss that threatens to turn her own world upside down. For Laura, this is a haunting case that reaches its breathtaking climax . . . in the midnight hour.


From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Mystery

304 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 22, 2009

About the author

Michelle Spring was raised on Vancouver Island. She worked for many years as an academic in Cambridge where she lives with her husband and their two children. She has written several academic books and five Laura Principal thrillers.

Reviews

[Mary Dasent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good. Can't say a lot about it without giving away clues.
But we'll worth reading

[Nicky Warwick · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last Laura Principal story.
I don’t understand the title as nothing important happens at midnight??
Laura is brought in to help a family to discover if a boy they have found is their son who has been missing for 12 years.
She’s told she can’t push the boy with questions incase he feels he isn’t believed or wanted & bolts consequently she definitely can’t take DNA.
Not the best story with a lot of repetition. Maybe Ms Spring just ran out of ideas?

[Anne Fenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really intriguing read. Set in Cambridge and Norfolk, it’s based on a type of cold case regarding a missing child. Naturally it’s very intense at times. Main character private investigator Laura Principal allows us to see many points of involvement - family, police, children, locals and strangers. She is a way the author can draw out emotions, motives and strategies of action of all involved in the story. It’s well written and paced, with a very complicated but ultimately satisfying conclusion.

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't let the slow start to this fifth book in the private detective Laura Principal series deter you; you'll be racing to finish the last 100 pages or so to see if your guesses are correct about the disappearance of a four-year-old boy.

[Carolyn Hanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

First Michelle Spring mystery that I’ve read; I’d gladly read another. Good twists & turns ~ plus some food for thought about what it might be like to have a long long time missing child (or to be that grownup child)

[Rema · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nederlandse titel: Verloren zoon.

Nice book, the story is about a family who lost there son when he was the age of four years. After 12 year, the wife of the family thinks she recognized her lost son in a boy she see playing gitar in the city. Her husband hires an femal detective, because he is affraid that the boy is dangerous and harms his wife.

[Shirley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoy this author, partly, of course, because her stories are based in England. But her character descriptions and knowledge of human nature add a great deal as well. In this story she deals with the impact of a child lost at the age of four and the impact of that not only on his family but on others in the area.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book, the story was intriguing with good characters and it had you guessing until the end. I've enjoyed reading all the Laura Principle books it's a shame this is the last in the series.

[Azuree · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 5th book in the Laura Principal mysteries picked up a bit with more intrigue and a good story line. Slow in parts but a definite improvement over the last two books.

[Marsha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many years ago, I read four of Michelle Spring's mysteries featuring Laura Principal and I thought they were excellent - well written, well plotted and with good characters. And then, I couldn't find any other books by her. I happened on this fifth book at a used book sale and pounced on it.
Spring is a wonderful writer. Her descriptions of landscape are beautiful and her insights into her characters are sublime. I like that all of her titles are taken from old rock and roll songs, too.
This book deals with missing, and found, children but it also deals with the deep secrets that families keep - even the most respected of families.
A four-year-old boy disappeared from a Norfolk beach twelve years before the book opens. The distraught mother, ever on the lookout for her missing son, meets a young man on the street and is convinced that he is her missing child. PI Laura Principal is hired to investigate whether or not street busker Liam is really Timmy Cable, son of noted explorer and national hero, Jack Cable.
What Laura discovers unravels the trust of the family and uncovers long-held secret, both of the missing child and of a more recent murder.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: is this street musician the boy who disappeared years ago? PI Principal ferrets out the truth.