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If you’ve ever found yourself staying at an old motel in the middle of nowhere, you know that it can feel a little…unsettling. But in The Midnight Knock by author John Fram, the guests at an old motel in the desert find that there’s more to the place than just its eerie vibe.
The story finds a group of strangers seeking refuge from the cold West Texas night at a roadside motel that doesn’t seem to have changed in decades. Most of them are running from something. All of them are keeping secrets. And they all seem to be loosely connected in unexpected ways. When one of the guests is found murdered, the motel’s owners demand that the other guests must find the killer—or risk falling victim to the monsters that lurk in the darkness outside the motel. But as they race against the clock, they uncover more questions than answers.
From the beginning, it’s clear that nothing about the Brake Inn Motel is quite as it seems. None of the guests really want to be staying, but they all coincidentally ended up running low on fuel in the middle of the desert. The motel’s ancient pumps are empty, though, so they’ll all have to wait until the fuel truck arrives in the morning. What they don’t realize, however, is that there is no fuel truck. There’s also no protection from what’s coming at midnight. And the more they uncover, the stranger and the more complicated the situation seems to be.
The Midnight Knock is not as easy read. It’s dark and complex—part mystery, part supernatural thriller—a tale of greed and corruption and ancient rituals. The characters’ stories, their connections, and the motel’s dark secrets are all revealed gradually—and even when the different pieces are revealed, readers may struggle to understand the significance of all of these details. There’s definitely a lot going on here—so many layers to the story. There are moments when the pace drags a bit—when it all just seems too complicated to figure out—but it all comes together in a way that’s strange but also satisfying.
This genre-bending novel can, at times, be confusing—and readers may need to take their time reading, to try to pick up on all of the hints and revelations along the way. But if you can fight your way through it, you’ll be rewarded in the end.
Listen to the review on Shelf Discovery:
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