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The Nature of Midnight
1915: A German torpedo sinks the British passenger liner, RMS Lusitania . With almost 1,200 passengers drowned, the attack is one of Germany's most vicious acts against civilians. . . .
2000: A postal worker and a customer are found murdered in a rural Montana post office. U.S. Postal Inspectors Gillian Loomis and Max Dombrowski are ordered to investigate the brutal crime. Max isn't thrilled. He'd rather be in a big city than in the boondocks. And this Loomis person . . . well, they say she killed someone by accident. Great. And she doesn't seemed thrilled with him, either. But neither has much choice. It's this or worse. When they start looking for evidence, they work together all right, uncovering the existence of three letters written in 1918 by a man named Sharpless Walker. Somehow, those letters are connected to the murders.
As Gillian and Max follow the trail of the three letters, searching for a motive for the murders, one by one the enigmatic missives disappear, leaving violence and destruction in their wake. Something about these letters is bringing death to all who touch them. When Gillian and Max locate the last letter, encrypted in WWI code, they realize they have made themselves the next targets of whoever is destroying the letters and those who hold them.
Somehow, the letters are connected to the Lusitania , and so is Sharpless Walker. Whatever dark secret was buried with Walker won't stay buried. Gillian and Max just hope that they can figure out the lethal connection of three letters, a dead man, and the tragedy of the Lusitania before the two of them become the final victims.
In this fast-paced thriller, two unlikely heroes must unravel a sinister conspiracy behind one the most shocking acts of the early twentieth century.
2000: A postal worker and a customer are found murdered in a rural Montana post office. U.S. Postal Inspectors Gillian Loomis and Max Dombrowski are ordered to investigate the brutal crime. Max isn't thrilled. He'd rather be in a big city than in the boondocks. And this Loomis person . . . well, they say she killed someone by accident. Great. And she doesn't seemed thrilled with him, either. But neither has much choice. It's this or worse. When they start looking for evidence, they work together all right, uncovering the existence of three letters written in 1918 by a man named Sharpless Walker. Somehow, those letters are connected to the murders.
As Gillian and Max follow the trail of the three letters, searching for a motive for the murders, one by one the enigmatic missives disappear, leaving violence and destruction in their wake. Something about these letters is bringing death to all who touch them. When Gillian and Max locate the last letter, encrypted in WWI code, they realize they have made themselves the next targets of whoever is destroying the letters and those who hold them.
Somehow, the letters are connected to the Lusitania , and so is Sharpless Walker. Whatever dark secret was buried with Walker won't stay buried. Gillian and Max just hope that they can figure out the lethal connection of three letters, a dead man, and the tragedy of the Lusitania before the two of them become the final victims.
In this fast-paced thriller, two unlikely heroes must unravel a sinister conspiracy behind one the most shocking acts of the early twentieth century.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2003
1 person is currently reading
10 people want to read
About the author
Robert Rice
70 books3 followersIn addition to poems and stories, Bob Rice has written four novels, including the highly acclaimed Arthurian novel 'The Last Pendragon', as well as 'The Nature of Midnight' (ranked by Booklist Online alongside Dashiell Hammett's 'Red Harvest' and James Lee Burke's 'Black Cherry Blues' as one of the great Montana crime novels).
He lives in the mountains of Montana.
He lives in the mountains of Montana.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 17, 2015
Robert Rice's The Nature of Midnight, features Postal Inspectors Gillian Loomis and Max Dombrowski and could be the start to a very successful series. When a postal worker and a customer are found dead in a rural Montana post office, the case is given to Loomis, an inspector who travels around the state. Dombrowski, a former pro football player, is flown in from Seattle and is the primary on the case, but he lets Gillian take charge of the investigation. Gillian is a former Seattle policewoman who quit after accidentally killing a young boy while on duty, and, since then, she has refused to carry a weapon, which is a breach of duty for a postal inspector.
The deaths appear to have some connection to a cache of old letters, found when an old safe and other equipment was moved from the old post office to a new one. The letters were written by a man named Sharpless Walker, who was lynched way back in 1918, and appear to have something to do with the sinking of the Lusitania. As Max and Gillian investigate, they begin to uncover a conspiracy that at first appears to reach to the highest levels of both the American and British governments.
This was a great, old-fashioned page turner. Rice does a great job of creating his conspiracy and then doling out the clues bit by bit, ratcheting up the tension and suspense. Max and Gillian are interesting characters and we come to care about them as they are besieged on all sides, by assassins and by higher-ups in both the Postal Inspection Service and the FBI, who may or may not be trustworthy. Rice also does a good job of drawing the scenery of rural Montana, as the two drive from place to place, pursuing the investigation. This was a riveting book and I for one would like to see another book involving these characters. Highly recommended.
The deaths appear to have some connection to a cache of old letters, found when an old safe and other equipment was moved from the old post office to a new one. The letters were written by a man named Sharpless Walker, who was lynched way back in 1918, and appear to have something to do with the sinking of the Lusitania. As Max and Gillian investigate, they begin to uncover a conspiracy that at first appears to reach to the highest levels of both the American and British governments.
This was a great, old-fashioned page turner. Rice does a great job of creating his conspiracy and then doling out the clues bit by bit, ratcheting up the tension and suspense. Max and Gillian are interesting characters and we come to care about them as they are besieged on all sides, by assassins and by higher-ups in both the Postal Inspection Service and the FBI, who may or may not be trustworthy. Rice also does a good job of drawing the scenery of rural Montana, as the two drive from place to place, pursuing the investigation. This was a riveting book and I for one would like to see another book involving these characters. Highly recommended.
March 25, 2019
The story is just to far-fetched for me. The ties between the Lusitania and the rest of the storyline are tenuous at best. I enjoyed the two main characters, Max and Gillian, but beyond that, I struggled. The bits of Lusitania history was intriguing but there was not enough of it to hold this readers attention.
September 21, 2008
There aren't too many books with Postal Inspector heroes/heroines - this may be the one. I saw this book mentioned in a newspaper article by a person whose job was reading the "sludge" manuscripts (being considered for publication) for a publishing house. His point was he was quitting the job because it got to be depressing having piles of books UPSed into his house weekly to review, and in the main part not very good books. But he noted a few that he termed genuine pleasures/surprises and one was this book. It's a mystery that involves letters that seem to bring death, and gets into details re the sinking of the Lusitania.
July 6, 2012
was entertaining generally, a decent mystery. Characters badly written, though, inconsistancies in characters-- example- female protagonist buys new 'pants suit' at Nordies, doesn't notice until next morning when she goes to do her face that she has lost a lot of weight. Usually not when I notice I have lost weight.
May 30, 2013
Very satisfying. Good plot. Good pace. The characters have some depth, but more would have been nice. I am surprised that this book hasn't led to a series. It certainly ended with the feeling that we would see Loomis and Dombrowski again.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews