The Hollows
Series: Midnight Gunn, Book 1
By: C.L. Monaghan / Narrated By: Helen Taylor
Length: 5 hrs and 59 mins
A creepy sorta Gothic, horror, mystery, with a bit o’ the occult!
From the opening of the story, we’re treated to a bloodbath of a birth. The worried husband paces outside a room where the wife shrieks in agony. Not at all too soon the child is born, but it’s practically an abattoir in there that almost brings the new papa to his knees. A son, born here during an eclipse and the trailing overhead of Halley’s comet.
“What shall we name him?” papa asks. All is dark, all is ominous, and whereas the young couple had earlier been discussing a multitude of names, tired mama can only feebly whisper, “Midnight,” before succumbing to fatigue and blood loss. She dies as the grieving father cradles his son. Midnight Gunn it shall be.
Then off to the now grown Midnight who enters a crime scene, dismal shadows following his footsteps. Detective Inspector Arthur Gredge knows this somewhat grim man, his “oddities", and he keeps Midnight’s secrets to himself, the two speaking sotto voce now as they stand over the corpse of a very dead young woman. There’ve been a spate of neeeear-murders, those unfortunates left as husks of human beings, staring out into the unseen. But here? THIS young woman is most certainly deceased.
Oh, and have I mentioned that Midnight Gunn can reanimate the dead? Yessss, and now he does this away from prying eyes, seeing what the young woman saw during her last minutes: Piercing red eyes, and fingers now wrapping around her own neck, squeezing, throttling, as she struggled in terror.
Finding the other victims soon to be shipped to asylums has the morally-conscious Midnight thinking of the good he can do. He pounces on the nurses/doctors, saying HE will assume control for them, will see that they’re treated by doctors updated with knowledge of the latest medical advances. A large home, the rather wealthy Midnight thinks with verve, and it’s off to pounce on Giles, his butler and, yea, sorta friend: Find a house, large enough to treat many of the poor who can be cared for only in horror-show asylums, and find a nurse to care for the victims of this new maniac, and DEFinitely ask housekeeper (and kinda friend) Mrs. Philips if she won’t care for the child, Polly, she whose condition so startled, so infuriated Midnight and caused him to pursue this new line of thought.
It’s this newfound sense of purpose, this utter devotion, this oh so odd sense of family that now spurs Midnight on to find the crazed perpetrator of the crimes. And it’s Giles, and Mrs. Philips, and Detective Inspector Gredge along for the ride.
Unfortunately, Gredge and Midnight are separated by unforeseen villainy, and the two work on their own to save themselves and others. A clue, a Keats poem (Narrator Helen Taylor thought she’d go to the source to answer a question I had re: the Keats poem as it’s so very apropos and beguiling: Read at uni, the poem had always stayed with author C.L. Monaghan, and she thought it might fit perfectly when she needed “a clue”!), starts helping Midnight unwind the motives and machinations of whom we’re coming to know is The Nightingale, the malevolent, the supernatural red-eyed figure who can spring way up into the air, away from the wretched misdeeds he performs.
Time is running out as Midnight and Gredge try to stop the nefarious creature, as they attempt to save Polly’s life!
At first I’d thought it odd that a female narrator had been chosen when a male is the main character. But Monaghan was delighted with narrator Helen Taylor’s voice used for Polly (And I can attest that I liked Polly very much; children wind up sounding far too precocious when they’re narrated poorly, and that irks me), and she liked Helen’s tones, thought it quite engaging. It definitely is as NEVER have I found the Heroes in the Regencies I’m so fond of to be anything but swoon-worthy. Here, Midnight has a slightly rough edge to his voice, is definitely aware of the lack of social graces caused by his always wanting to keep his oddities to himself. Then we get into the slowly developing friendship between Midnight and the curious and earnest Gredge, the kindness of up-for-anything Giles, and all the male characters are awesome. Add in the adorable Polly and the stern yet kind Mrs. Philips, and all is golden.
NATurally, this was way good enough for me to dash out and get the second in the series, and it’s rated highly. It takes place in Scotland (Oh goodness! The amount of brogues to be done!), and Midnight’s newfound sense of family and purpose is threatened.
Dah dah Dummmm…. (Cue dire music!)
Stay tuned for his further adventures!
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