Gone by Midnight (Crimson Lake Series #3)

by Candice Fox

Overview

#1 New York Times and Globe and Mail bestselling Sydney-based author Candice Fox delivers a compulsive new crime thriller with Gone by Midnight.

Crimson Lake is where people with dark pasts come to disappear—and where others vanish into thin air…

When Sara Farrow’s son goes missing from a locked hotel room, she frantically turns for help to Crimson Lake’s unlikeliest private investigators—disgraced cop Ted Conkaffey and convicted killer Amanda Pharrell.

Just the sort of twisted puzzle that gets Amanda’s blood pumping, the disappearance couldn’t have come at a worse time for Ted. He has just this one week with Lillian, the daughter he barely knows…but the clock is ticking for the lost boy.

Amanda and Ted’s search dredges up the area’s worst characters, and the danger they uncover could well put Ted’s own child in deadly peril.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250317599
Publisher:	Tor Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/09/2021
Series:	Crimson Lake Series , #3
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	257,529
Product dimensions:	4.10(w) x 7.40(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

CANDICE FOX is the award-winning author of Crimson Lake and Redemption Point. She is also co-writer with James Patterson of the #1 New York Times bestsellers Never Never, Fifty Fifty, and Liar Liar. She lives in Sydney.

Editorial Reviews

Fox ramps up the suspense…Compelling plot aside, it’s the humanity of both Conkaffey and the appealingly eccentric Pharrell that lifts this well above the standard suspense thriller.” —Booklist

“Intense... quirky, no-nonsense characters complement the suspenseful plotting, which includes a multitude of twists. Readers will look forward to seeing more of Ted and Amanda.” —Publishers Weekly

“If you haven't read Candice Fox yet, you're missing out! I can't wait to read what this talented writer does next!” —Chevy Stevens

“A bright new star of crime fiction.” —James Patterson

“Definitely a writer to watch.” —Harlan Coben

“Sign me up as a big-time Fox fan!” —Lee Child

From the Publisher

01/06/2020

When eight-year-old Richie Farrow goes missing from his hotel room while on vacation in Crimson Lake, Queensland, in Australian author Fox’s intense third Crimson Lake novel (after 2019’s Redemption Point), his mother, Sara, asks Ted Conkaffey, a former Sydney homicide detective, to help find Richie. The local police reluctantly work with Ted, who was once a suspect in a child’s attempted murder, and his quick-witted partner, Amanda Pharrell, a convicted killer who served eight years in prison. As Amanda and Ted question witnesses and suspects, they discover that many of them are less than truthful, leading the pair to consider a myriad of scenarios to explain Richie’s disappearance. Complicating their investigation is Ted’s decision to look after his two-year-old daughter for his ex-wife and a budding relationship with his veterinarian. Quirky, no-nonsense characters complement the suspenseful plotting, which includes a multitude of twists. Readers will look forward to seeing more of Ted and Amanda. Agent: Lisa Gallagher, DeFiore & Co. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

02/21/2020

Disgraced cop Ted Conkaffey and convicted killer Amanda Pharrell are private investigators in this third "Crimson Lake" novel (after Redemption Point). The Australian setting is blazing hot and full of crocodile-infested rivers and lakes. Conkaffey is finally permitted (after his fall) to spend a week with two-year-old daughter Lillian. The timing is awful, though: eight-year-old Richie Farrow has gone missing from a locked hotel room where he played with three buddies while their parents dined downstairs and checked the room every hour. Conkaffey and Pharrell (who has no sense of boundaries yet is very clever) clash with local police when they are also hired to investigate. The beginning of the story is fascinating and fast paced but eventually melodrama takes over. The PI characters are unrealistic. Readers will wonder, as Conkaffey does, what Pharrell is up to, when, like a magician, she reveals something important that everyone else missed. Pluses include Conkaffey's loving relationship with daughter Lillian and the detectives' questioning of the young boys about Richie's disappearance. VERDICT Readers willing to overlook a few flaws will enjoy this graphic mystery.—Susan G. Baird, formerly with Oak Lawn P.L., IL

Library Journal