{"id":84952,"date":"2018-12-03T17:04:04","date_gmt":"2018-12-03T06:04:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/?p=84952"},"modified":"2018-12-14T09:21:58","modified_gmt":"2018-12-13T22:21:58","slug":"review-gone-by-midnight-candice-fox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2018\/12\/03\/review-gone-by-midnight-candice-fox\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: Gone by Midnight by Candice Fox"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"gone<\/a>Gone by Midnight <\/strong>
\nby Candice Fox<\/strong><\/p>\n

If, after reading Crimson Lake<\/em><\/a> and Redemption Point<\/em><\/a>, you thought there couldn\u2019t possibly be anything more heartwarming than tough, ruggedly stoic ex-cop Ted Conkaffey looking after his brood of pet geese … then think again! In Gone by Midnight<\/em><\/a>, Candice Fox brings us tough, ruggedly stoic ex-cop Ted Conkaffey looking after his pet geese AND his tiny toddler daughter, Lillian. Let me just take a moment to warn readers everywhere \u2026 your heart will melt!<\/em><\/p>\n

The reason I love Candice Fox so much is her amazing ability to craft perfectly paced, super addictive action\/thriller\/mystery plots and then fill them with highly original, ridiculously likeable characters. Plus, those characters always deliver A++ banter laced with sublime dark humour and a generous serving of offbeat charm that never fails to enchant me.<\/p>\n

Gone by Midnight<\/em> offers readers a combination of genuinely hair-raising suspense and deeply upsetting horror with moments of quirky humour and gleeful eccentricity. This is what I like to call ‘The Candice Fox Specialty Combo’! When reading a Candice Fox book you can count on clenching your jaw in rage and despair one second, and then suddenly find yourself chuckling a few seconds later. Turn a couple more pages and you’re likely to find yourself punched in the heart by an unexpectedly tender moment. Aaaaaaand then you’ll be back to being terrified again.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an emotional roller coaster every time. Naturally I love it!<\/p>\n

For example, in Gone by Midnight<\/em> we are treated to a witness statement from an eight-year-old boy that almost had me in tears of laughter. Despite the tragic situation (the central mystery of this book revolves around a missing child) Candice Fox was able to catch me off guard with a surprise attack of humour.<\/p>\n

The atmosphere of Gone by Midnight<\/em> matches that of the previous two books in the series. Crimson Lake is an isolated and lonely place – sweltering hot and fraught with danger at every turn. It\u2019s the kind of place where misfits, outcasts and criminals go to slip off the grid, where deadly crocs thrash in the mangroves and equally deadly (though occasionally lovable) bikie gangs lurk menacingly on fringes of town.<\/p>\n

The story in Gone by Midnight<\/em><\/a> hinges on the disappearance of a young boy from a hotel room. It\u2019s a bit like an old fashioned \u201cmurder mystery in a locked room\u201d conundrum. The boy\u2019s disappearance makes no logical sense and finding him seems impossible \u2026 but luckily Ted Conkaffey and Amanda Pharrell excel at defying odds and achieving the impossible.<\/p>\n

There is plenty going on in this book and all of it is awesome. As well as the intense central mystery – which kept surprising me right up until the final reveal – there is a subplot involving Amanda, her new bike, a rogue cop and some cats. (Such a crazy-amazing subplot! I relished every second.) There are countless touching moments involving Ted\u2019s daughter (so adorable it hurts!) and a brand new character called Superfish (I \u2665 Superfish). Also \u2026 crocs! It wouldn\u2019t be a Crimson Lake book without a few croc sightings, right?<\/p>\n

Pretty much perfect in every way imaginable, Gone by Midnight<\/em> is a great new addition to a kickass series that I hope will never end. I\u2019m already already super keen to return to Crimson Lake. Luckily in the meantime we have a new Harriet Blue book to look forward to. Hush Hush<\/em><\/a> by James Patterson and Candice Fox is coming out in May 2019 and I can\u2019t wait!<\/p>\n

Gone by Midnight by Candice Fox will be published in January 2019 and is available to order from Booktopia<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Follow us @TheBooktopian<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Bestsellers of the Week<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. The Land Before Avocado<\/em> by Richard Glover\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

2. Any Ordinary Day<\/em> by Leigh Sales<\/a><\/p>\n

3. \u00a0<\/a>The Ice Monster<\/em> by David Walliams\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

4. Dear Santa<\/em> by Samuel Johnson and Shaun Tan<\/a><\/p>\n

5. Becoming<\/em> by Michelle Obama\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

6.\u00a0Simple<\/em> by Yotam Ottolenghi\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

7. Modern Baking<\/em> by Donna Hay\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

8.\u00a0The Barefoot Investor 2018 Update<\/em> by Scott Pape<\/a><\/p>\n

9. Babies and Toddlers<\/em> by Kaz Cooke<\/a><\/p>\n

10.\u00a0Nine Perfect Strangers<\/em> by Liane Moriarty<\/a><\/p>\n

\"bestsellers\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gone by Midnight by Candice Fox If, after reading Crimson Lake and Redemption Point, you thought there couldn\u2019t possibly be anything more heartwarming than tough, ruggedly stoic ex-cop Ted Conkaffey looking after his brood of pet geese … then think again! In Gone by Midnight, Candice Fox brings us tough, ruggedly stoic ex-cop Ted Conkaffey looking after his pet geese AND his tiny toddler daughter, Lillian. Let me just take a moment to warn readers everywhere \u2026 your heart will melt! The reason I love Candice Fox so much is her amazing ability to craft perfectly paced, super addictive action\/thriller\/mystery plots and then fill them with highly original, ridiculously likeable characters. Plus, those characters always deliver A++ banter laced with sublime dark humour and a generous serving of offbeat charm that never fails to enchant me. Gone by Midnight offers readers a combination of genuinely hair-raising suspense and deeply upsetting horror with moments of quirky humour and gleeful eccentricity. This is what I like to call ‘The Candice Fox Specialty Combo’! When reading a Candice Fox book you can count on clenching your jaw in rage and despair one second, and then suddenly find yourself chuckling a few seconds later….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":84958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[4,23,6678,6764],"tags":[715,7795,1445,1447,8278,9437,2527,3860,8415,4703,6148],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Social-candice-fox.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84952"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84952"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85248,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84952\/revisions\/85248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}