What another fantastic book to read by Candice Fox. Given how the last book finished, I really didn't think we'd get another instalment of Ted and Amanda. What another fantastic read this was, great characters, a great storyline with twists you wouldn't see coming. I can't but highly recommend this book!

Wow ! Something of a roller coaster- I really took to Ted and Amanda as characters and I hope that they return- Amanda’s Sherlock Holmeslike deducting skills are impressive and kinda funny if it wasn’t so serious

A novel twist with an unusual setting all contributed to a great read. A new author for me and one I will be looking out for in future

This is a continuation of an earlier story and fits well with it. The idea of a missing child is not an original story line but it is well written and keeps the reader guessing about how it all happened. The two private detectives work well with the story even if their experiences sometimes overshadow the main plot. It is a good read and worth persisting with.

I really enjoyed this book, it drew me in immediately and I immediately felt sorry for Ted the lead character. I absolutely loved Amanda she's a hoot. The story itself was really interesting and had me guessing then changing my mind then thinking I had it again then changing my mind which is what I love in a good book. It's not very often I'll read a book where I pick the 'wrong baddie' but this time I was so far off the mark! This is a must read for fans of this genre!

A wonderful book with the different story lines skillfully unravelled as the plot progresses. Always keeps you wondering as a theory you assume to be correct is replaced with another quite feasible alternative. The investigative characters are ridiculously likeable - especially the socially inept investigator - for whom you can only raise a smile. The book is clearly part of a series but reads well as a standalone. This is how I came to it ..... but I have ordered the others in the series so I can spend longer with these characters !

When life gets a little stressful, this is exactly the type of book I am looking for. Fast paced, exciting and uncomplicated. I hadn't read the first two books in the series (I need to remedy this), but that in no way hindered my enjoyment of this book and I quickly picked up the gist of the two PI'S back story.
There's the mystery of what happened to the missing boy which instantly drew me in, the great relationship between Ted and Amanda and a slew of unreliable witnesses which all comes together in a book that the author clearly loved writing. Yes, there will be complaints that the book is unrealistic and the characters recognisable, but the sheer enthusiasm of the book won me over completely and I can't wait to read the next in the series.

My thanks go to the publishers and Net Galley for the advanced copy in retire for an honest review.

Well, this was certainly different from what i usually read. Ted Concaffey and Amanda Farrell aren't your run of the mill private investigators. Ted was unjustly accused of abducting and raping a child and Amanda did kill someone so they're a bit 'out there'. Ted gets the call from the police when 8 year old Richie goes missing from the hotel where he is staying with his mother, three other boys and their parents. Richie's mother is worried that she might be suspected because her baby daughter died from cot death years before and feels that Ted might understand and be able to help more than the police. Set in Cairns, Australia the book gives you a real feel for the place with the ever present menace of crocodiles.

This is the third in the Crimson Lake series. I hadn't read any of the others but will look out for them now. Gone by Midnight can be read as a stand alone novel. However ,as the author drops in little bits to help you know what has gone on before. There is a lot of tension throughout mainly coming from Amanda who is as unpredictable a character as I've come across. I suspect she may be meant to be on the autistic spectrum although something doesn't quite ring true about her behaviour and I wasn't clear whether she might have some other sort of problem. Her tactlessness can be quite funny at times though.

I enjoyed this book but I'm not sure if I would read another as I wasn't really drawn to the central characters but I would definitely recommend it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Four little boys left to their own devices in a hotel room while there parents eat dinner (in peace) in the restaurant downstairs. However, when one of the mother’s checks on the boys later she realises her son has gone! What ensues next is the police and two (hated) private investigators hired by the parents to find out what happened to the boy.

I found this book a bit of a slow burner but once I got further into it and was acquainted with who was who, it picked up the pace and I was as desperate to know what happened to little Richie as the characters in the book.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an read copy of the book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

For me there are 2 kinds of great mystery novel. There’s the Sherlock Holmes type, where the enigmatic detective gathers clues, retreats to his fortress of solitude and figures it all out, then confronts and defeats the villain. Then there’s the Ed McBain style police procedural, where believable cops methodically hunt down clues and eliminate suspects until only the killer is left.
‘Gone by Midnight’ is neither of these things. It occupies instead a kind of muddy, middle ground that’s neither one thing nor the other. The detectives bumble around doing things vaguely related to the case and then have sudden, poorly explained leaps of understanding that allow them to advance the investigation. Reading it straight after one of Agatha Christie’s masterful Poirot mysteries only served to highlight how poorly the mystery and investigative elements of the story are handled.
Like a lot of modern books, it starts with an obvious but effective hook. 4 young boys are left to entertain themselves in a hotel room while their 4 sets of parents have dinner together. When the parents go to the room at the end of the night, one of the boys is missing. It’s a scenario likely to set the hearts racing of any potential readers who are parents, and while the similarity to the Madeleine McCann case is obvious it isn’t overplayed in the book.
Detective partners Ted Conkaffey and Amanda Pharrell get called in by the mother of the missing boy to help with the investigation. Conkaffey is an ex-cop who has fled to the countryside after being falsely accused of a child murder. Pharrell is a convicted murderer who has served her time. They make an interesting pair, but not as interesting as author Candice Fox thinks they are. She falls into the trap of thinking her characters are fascinating and hilarious when really they aren’t. As a result she spends a lot of time writing about them as people rather than about what they’re actually doing. For me at least, it got tiresome quite quickly.
This is the third book featuring the duo, and I’ve not read either of the others. There are clearly some ongoing storylines about them and some other characters which probably had less impact than they would have if I already had two books worth of investment in the cast. That said, Fox does a good job of recapping, so I never felt like I didn’t know what was going on. Sub-plots about the detectives actually take up as much of the book as the main storyline. This isn’t a huge problem, as they were quite entertaining, but I can’t help wondering if the author’s motivation in doing this was partly to cover up the weaknesses in the main plot. There’s always something going on in ‘Gone by Midnight’ but a lot of it felt like misdirection. Every great crime novel needs a great plot at its heart and this one just doesn’t make it anywhere near the top tier. The investigation is sometimes ploddy, sometimes unbelievably intuitive and too often it left me scratching my head in disbelief.
Candice Fox has co-authored some books with super mega ultra author James Paterson and her style reminded me very much of his. It’s almost painfully descriptive, with no detail left out and no room for ambiguity or subtlety at all. Some people obviously like this (hence Paterson’s super mega ultra status) but I find it patronising and slightly dull.
All that sounds really negative and the truth is that, despite its many flaws, I did enjoy the book. It’s extremely readable, the last 20% or so is really gripping and has a couple of great twists, and it’s laugh out loud funny at times. It ended up feeling a lot like an episode of a TV detective show and that might not be a bad analogy for it. The plot, characters and storytelling aren’t strong enough for it to make it to the big screen, but if you happened across it when you were channel hopping and watched it while playing Candy Crush and checking Instagram you wouldn’t be too disappointed.

Another great story by Candice Fox and the Crimson Lake series. Lots of action and intuitive decisions with Amanda in the spotlight as usual, I like Amanda. Lots of twist and turns and some really good characters. Great conclusion and hopefully more to come.

Interesting novel set in Cairns, Australia. This is the third set in Cairns and a stand alone story, The story has echoes of Madeleine McCann as it involves 4 young boys locked into a hotel room one night whilst the parents dined and carried out hourly checks. It is on the return of one parent to the locked room, that she discovered her son missing. Interwoven into this mystery are the stories of the characters, Ted Koncaffey, a former police office whowas once charged with child kidnapping. His sidekick, Amanda who nobody likes as she is very extrovert. Joanna, a police officer who hates Amanda with a deadly vengeance and Superfish, Joanna's police partner who is caught up with Joanna's vengeance. Good characters and believable.
The plot is good and gripping. I enoyed it and look forward to reading Candice's other novels.
#GoneByMidnight #NetGalley

'Gone By Midnight' is the third in the 'Crimson Lake' series by Candice Fox , and it is 100% a 5 star read that needs to be added to your January 2019 shelf.
The story is ostensibly about 4 couples, each with a single male child, who have met up so that their children can play together as they have no siblings to offload their excess energy onto.
As they get to know each better, a trip is proposed and a hotel stay decided upon. At the evening meal, all adults are in the hotel dining room with a pre-arranged schedule to check on the 4 locked in children on the hour until the evening is finished.
The last time they are checked on, a piercing scream, rings out and wakes the entire complex-Richie Farrow, 8 years old, is missing.
How could a child escape a room that was locked from the outside and how did none of the other children notice that he had gone?
Sara Farrow is a single mother with secrets.
Henry Farrow, her ex-husband with issues about their custody arrangement.
Dylan Horgan, the maintenance man who 'needs this job' has even more.
There is a 'known to the police' paedophile close enough to the hotel without an alibi.
And Ted Conkaffey and private investigator Amanda Pharrell are caught right in the thick of it.
They need to find the boy before it turns into a hunt for a body and race against time as the journalists are circling like the crocs that live in the vicinity of Crimson Lake and someone is about to get hurt...
By turns shocking, tragic, beautiful and ugly, all of the characters that Candice Fox creates are multifaceted and believable.
I am so grateful to Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this in return for an honest review.

This was quite a good book. The plot line was great and the characters were good but there were a few things that I just didn’t get. Things like Superfish Claiming he has been telling Joanna for months that she should let her vendetta go, but if that’s the case wouldn’t he just report it to someone? A good read but a little too long for me.

After initial problem with ARC provided delighted to say that I was sent a revised copy in order to provide an inpartial review. Special thanks to Elle Gibbons @ Penguin Random House.
Pleased to say that it was worth the wait. Having read the previous two books in this series I was looking forward to the third installment featuring Ted & Amanda.
In keeping with the series so far, there are two main thrusts to the story, Ted's past and his continued battle against falsely having been accussed of a crime he didn't commit and the ongoing investigation into a current event.
Have nothing but praise for this publication and no hesitation in recommending.
Here's to the fourth installment.

I loved this damn book it’s just a perfect pleasure to read !!!
It is the third book in the Crimson Lake series and it is an absolutely magnificent novel and so much more than just a mystery thriller plus the series just get’s better and better. The two main characters are so brilliantly written as we gain more insight into their lives and in my opinion this is what makes the book stand out from other mystery thriller’s. I just adore Amanda (“don’t touch me”) and many times I have laughed aloud as she yet again says and does exactly what she thinks with Ted usually groaning in the background-
with his head in his hands !! The plot of the book is excellent as usual and I cannot wait for the next instalment, I lived and breathed the book and I miss Ted and Amanda already so please don’t leave it to long Candice Fox I need the next one.
My thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

First book I’ve read by this author but I’m now desperate to get my hands on all the rest and particularly to catch up with the others in this series. In Ted and Amanda, Candice Fox has created two intriguingly unique characters who work incredibly well together. I found the book well-plotted and written, and it kept me guessing till the end. Great read!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I could almost feel the humidity and hear the insects from the way this book is written! A brilliant mystery with quirky characters. Highly recommended #NetGalley#GoneByMidnight

I thoroughly enjoyed this book – so much so that I read it in a single day. The two main characters, Ted and Amanda, are fascinating people: both flawed yet likeable. Although the core of the book is a whodunnit (and one that keeps you guessing, at that) I think it's the characters that really make the book stand out compared to other crime novels I've read. I won't say too much about the twists and turns for fear of spoilers, but I will say that at one point near the end I genuinely cheered out loud. Very much recommended.

Note: I haven't read the first in the series but I have read the second, Redemption Point; however, this can be read as a standalone novel and indeed I think it works better as a standalone than Redemption Point.

Gone by Midnight is the third in the Crimson Lake series ,I have read the other two books and loved them but this book is absolutely fabulous .Ted and Amanda are a brilliant team of Private Investigators each dealing with the past and working with the Police to solve the mystery of a young boy who seemingly has disappeared from a room in an hotel .The story is set in Cairns in Australia which is crocodile country making the story even more scary and atmospheric .The plot is so clever I didn't guess the ending ,the reader is drawn in hoping against hope that the child will be found alive .Very cleverly written and a great ending .I can't wait for the next book in the series .Many thanks to the Publisher ,the Author and NetGalley for my review copy in return for an honest review .

Like many other reviewers, I struggled with the initially mixed up and higgledy-piggeldy format of this book, however I was so captivated by the story that I persevered because I couldn't wait to find out the ending. I'm thrilled that it's been re-formatted and will very likely give it another read to get the full flow.

I hadn't read any of Candice Fox's work before, but will be exploring the previous novels in the series, and beyond.

It did keep me guessing, and I was taken with the quirky characters and vivid descriptions both of physical details, emotional and personality traits and back stories.

In all, a great read.