Review: A Hush at Midnight by Marlene M. Bell

A small-town Texas mystery with a dizzying array of twists, A Hush at Midnight by Marlene M. Bell is a cleverly crafted thriller that will keep you guessing.

Returning home to East Texas to be near her parents and leaving her job as a celebrity chef behind, Laura Harris is struggling to find her new niche. After visiting her mentor and dear friend, Hattie Stenburg, a fearless WWII ferry pilot and community legend, Laura is shocked to return only hours later to find her friend brutally murdered. Determined to dig into the crime and uncover the truth, the tables turn dangerously when Laura is named the prime suspect – and the massive inheritance Hattie left her doesn’t help Laura’s case.

Still reeling from shock and grief, Laura begins to receive cryptic messages to leave town, along with a shocking revelation about her part-time pilot partner. Trying to keep her burgeoning bakery afloat, navigate familial tensions, clear her name, and stay alive, Laura’s well-organized life quickly becomes a tangled and tragic mess. From degrading dismissals by her dad’s unsettling new girlfriend and attacks on her business to conducting her own clue-collecting investigations and dodging blunt objects, Laura must debunk red herrings and push past her limits to see justice done.

A winding narrative that slowly draws in a colorful cast of small-town characters, suspicious snoops, lackadaisical cops, and one singular specimen of a lawyer, this dramatic thriller is packed with subtle details and easter eggs that gradually click into place, a testament to sterling draftsmanship and skillful storytelling. While the format is a classic whodunit with a healthy dose of folksy charm, there are numerous thematic layers that give the prose structure and depth, especially in terms of thorough character development.

Laura’s emotional journey is especially intense – the suspected deceit of a trusted partner, the grief of losing a friend atop the ongoing pain of losing a mother, the betrayal of a father’s lonely heart, and the gnawing fear that she has pointlessly derailed her career and life are all tenderly expressed facets of this complex protagonist. Laura’s relatability makes her an easy character to root for, while the remaining cast is neatly shrouded in suspicion, such that no one ever seems completely innocent until the final reveal.

On the technical front, the dialogue is the biggest weakness, which often feels unnatural and overly laden with information, rather than flowing like authentic speech. New friends are often spoken to with absolute trust and openness, while more personal connections, such as between Laura and her father, come off as more stilted than their relationship would suggest. There are also a few moments that require a bit too much suspension of disbelief, such as the authorities’ lax attitude towards preserving the crime scene, and their regular oversharing of case details with a suspect.

Despite these small issues, which don’t affect the overall story, this unpredictable mystery will keep readers furiously flipping pages, hunting eagerly beside an intrepid chef, a brainy hunk, and an adorably helpful Corgi.