Midnight is a strange little town, stuck out in the vastness of Texas. When Manfred moves into his new apartment he gradually starts to understand just how strange. Kept alive by the occasional car stopping for gas, many residents run stores. Fiji owns and runs the new age store, with her cat, Mr Snuggly. Bobo runs Midnight Pawn and is landlord to Olivia and the pale Lemuel. The biggest news, which is not really talked about, is the disappearance of Audrey, Bobo’s girlfriend. When her body is found, during a town picnic, the truth of her death will expose the secret held by the town’s population...

Midnight Crossroads is a new novel by Charlaine Harris, who is more famous for her The Southern Vampire Mysteries series which was adapted by HBO as Trueblood.

Instead of writing something as fantastical as her previous books Harris has branched out to something new. There are fantasy elements involved in the book, vampires, witches and just plain odd folks involved in the book, but at its heart the story is a very good murder mystery.

Like Stephen King, Harris spends her time introducing you to the townsfolk, enough for the reader to realise that everything is not as it seems. Some elements are introduced as a matter of fact, including Lemuel, who leeches off Manfred the first time they meet. The fact that he is apparently a vampire does not disturb Manfred one single bit, so we know we are in a world which the fantastical can not only happed, but in some areas is commonplace. Many of the townsfolk, like Manfred, have come to this place for their own reasons, some to seeking, others hiding.

Overall the novel moves at a sedate pace, but you never lose interest in either the central mystery or the unravelling of the town's secrets. Even at the close of the novel not all of the town’s mysteries have been revealed, which is just as well as this is the first book in a proposed series. It’s a small place brimming with secrets, when you think you have dug past one layer it only reveals another.

The central mystery regarding Bobo’s girlfriend was a complete surprise, once revealed, even though Harris pretty much put everyone in the frame for the dastardly deed.

I have to admit to not reading any of her previous novels, apparently many of the characters who end up in Midnight have also come from her previous stories, so that should be a blast for her fans, but on the strength of Midnight, I may well seek out her other works.

It’s a good start to the series and it will be interesting to see where she takes the town of Midnight in the next instalment.

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Charles Packer