The Midnight Call by Jodé Millman ~ a Review

by MK French

Corporate attorney Jessie Martin received a call from her mentor Terrence Butterfield at midnight. The high school teacher states he killed someone, and she rushes to help him immediately. However, this implicates her in the murder, and he doesn't exonerate her of any charges when he has the opportunity to. Now Jessie has to figure out the truth of the murder to exonerate herself, and it literally becomes a fight for her life.

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June 2019;  Immortal Works; 978-1732467491
ebook, print (460 pages); police procedural

Even without the tense summary, it's soon clear that the view of Terrence that Jessie holds isn't quite accurate. The defense attorney feels a sense of wrongness, her fiance keeps saying it's strange how much time they've spent together and that Jessie insists on helping him, and the victim was the son of a prominent family in the city. This means that her company takes rather drastic measures to keep their business, and Jessie is subpoenaed to testify as a witness. I'm sure there are plenty of district attorneys that are as cutthroat as the one portrayed here, but of course, I feel bad for Jessie as soon as the subpoena arrives knowing that no one else will care that she got dragged into this mess.

There are flashes of Jessie's past as we through the novel, as everyone involved knows everyone else. She had been involved with various people only interested in their own lives, which seemed to touch on hers for a time. Even her fiance is one that would rather take care of his own interests without discussing anything with her. From the start of the call, I didn't like him, and his behavior over the rest of the novel doesn't make him likable. He isn't necessarily the bad guy I thought he was, but he's very much the self-interested jerk I thought he was. I'm not exactly a fan of the other men in the story, except maybe Jessie's father. They strike me as opportunistic, which feels almost stereotypical of lawyers.

The summary makes it seem as though Jessie is literally fighting someone, but she has medical complications to her pregnancy that worsens over time because of the stress with the court case, the emotional toll of her relationship with Kyle, and then seeing for herself that Terrence wasn't the man that she thought he was. If problems in pregnancy bother you, keep it in mind that it is a concern as the novel progresses.

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Born and raised in New York City, M.K. French started writing stories when very young, dreaming of different worlds and places to visit. She always had an interest in folklore, fairy tales, and the macabre, which has definitely influenced her work. She currently lives in the Midwest with her husband and three young children.

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