Narrated by Donna Postel
In Midnight Baby, we jump back into Maggie’s life just about six months after the close of Telling Lies, the first in the Maggie MacGowen Mystery series. The book opens with Maggie, a well-known documentary filmmaker, and her cameraman attempting to interview a young prostitute going by the name of Pisces. Pisces is shadowed by an even younger boy called Sly, and after noticing that the two are being watched by someone in a red Corvette, Maggie gets the pair to reluctantly accept a meal and a bed at a local shelter run by nuns. Less than 48 hours later, Pisces is dead and Sly is the only witness to the murder.
Maggie feels a connection to the “lost girl” and she possibly has valuable evidence in the film she shot of Pisces. This reconnects Maggie with Detective Mike Flint. She started a relationship with Mike while investigating Maggie’s sister’s shooting (Telling Lies). We learn that they haven’t seen each other in six months, and, as they piece together the convoluted puzzle of this murder, Mike and Maggie also try to piece together the puzzle that is their relationship. The relationship story arc is still second to the mystery, but takes a larger role in this novel than the first. Hornsby weaves the romance and the mystery through the book with a deft hand, never obscuring one with the other. Instead, she uses the emotional forces originating from the tragic murder to interact with and subtly influence the emotions emanating from the revived relationship—and vice versa. The author seems to know emotions can’t be neatly separated into boxes or categories.
Donna Postel returns to narrate this second book of the series. Her narration is very like the first time—not overly dramatic or emotional in her delivery, but very professional and easy to listen to. It’s taken me a few minutes to become accustomed to her voice both times I’ve listened to her narrations. On first exposure, I feel like it’s a little flat – lacking animation. But that feeling passes quickly as I get pulled into the story. Postel’s differentiation of characters is often subtle, and when there are stretches of conversations with no dialog markers, the listener may get confused about who is talking. Since that only happens a few times in the book, it isn’t much of a problem.
As with Telling Lies, there are no cell phones in this story, and computers don’t play a role in solving the crime. This isn’t a problem for me. In fact, I enjoy police procedurals set before the current technological revolution because the brainwork of the investigators takes center stage. Think of this as a “period piece” set in the not-so-distant past, and you’ll be fine.
The mystery here is well worth the time. As Mike and Maggie unravel the mystery, each discovery leads to another question and the answers are often unexpected. The book is populated with intensely real people, shown with strengths, weaknesses, and fears we can all understand. I’m sold on the Maggie MacGowen Mysteries and can’t wait to listen to number three.
Carrie
Narration: B
Book Content: A
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence: Fighting+ This death involves a child and the book gives a few more details than the previous book in the series.
Genre: Contemporary Suspense/Mystery
Publisher: HighBridge Audio
Midnight Baby was provided to AudioGals for review by HighBridge Audio.
Carrie, thank you for reviewing Midnight Baby! I agree, Wendy Hornsby is a masterful storyteller, and her characters are so well-crafted that it’s a joy to record this series. Two more Maggie MacGowen titles have been released this summer from HighBridge Audio – Bad Intent and 77th Street Requiem. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did!
I’d forgotten about this series, I’m pretty sure I stated reading it years ago, I’ll check it out.
Pleased it’s available in audio now, and Donna Postel is one of my favourites.