A review of Midnight Crossroad by Charlaine Harris as requested by Enthusiast [View all]
Last edited Sun Feb 22, 2015, 01:40 PM - Edit history (2)
This is the 1st book in an trilogy by Ms. Harris. While it is not her 1st book it is the 1st of her I've read. I downloaded this as a ebook from my library and after meeting some of the characters was about to return it to the e-shelf. The names of the characters were surreal at best. They certainly did not fit Texas. But I continued on and discovered it to be a better than average read.
It is set in a fictional town west of Ft. Worth maybe in the area of Glen Rose, Texas(Where dinosaurs walked with men but that's another story). The town of Midnight is a cross roads of Witch Light Road and Davy Road. It is sort of a ghost town where a group of disparate people have taken up residence. All have a secret history and all are a bit on the strange side, thus the odd names. We meet Fiji the witch, Bobo the pawn shop owner, Antique dealer and manicurist partners Chuy and Joe, Manfred the internet psychic and Lemuel who I think you will need to get to know on your own - well that gives sketch of them.
This unlikely group of people become friends and the past of some of them catches up with them. Because of their bonding they protect each other from outside forces.
As to Ms. Harris' writing style, I think she could've used a trusted editor to edit out some sentences made clumsy by an excess of words. I found myself distracted from the story by rewriting some phrases and sentences in my mind. But that is just me.
I would recommend that anyone beginning this novel to read at least 3 chapters before you make any discussions to put it away. It has a good plot and is definitely as surreal as the characters' names and occupations.