I am TG Wolff and am here with Jack, my piano player and producer. This is normally a podcast where we combine storytelling with original music to put you at the heart of mystery, murder, and mayhem. Today is a bonus episode we call a Toe Tag. It is the first chapter from a fresh release in the mystery, crime, and thriller genre.
Today’s featured release is The Midnight Call by Jodé Millman
The Midnight Call was released October 11, 2022 from Level Best Books and is available from AMAZON and other book retailers.
Jodé Millman is the acclaimed author of HOOKER AVENUE, an American Fiction Award Finalist for Legal Thriller, and THE MIDNIGHT CALL, which won the Independent Press, American Fiction, Independent Publisher, and the Bronze IPPY Awards for Legal Thriller. She's an attorney, a reviewer for Booktrib.com, the host/producer of The Backstage with the Bardavon podcast, and creator of The Writer's Law School. Jodé lives with her family in the Hudson Valley, where she is at work on the next installment of her "Queen City Crimes" series—novels inspired by true crimes in the region she calls home. Find her at Jodé Millman - (jodemillman.com)
The Midnight Call is a legal thriller. Jessica Martin is a corporate attorney whose mentor, Terence Butterfield, is in big trouble – the bloody kind. Jeremy Riley is the past-his-prime defense attorney Jess brings in to defend Terence. Hal Samuels is the Assistant District Attorney pressured to make sure justice is a big, public win. But it’s not that easy – it never is. Past relationships cloud the facts until the web is indeed a tangled one.
Strengths of the story. The story is told in three parts. In the first, we see firsthand the wheels that are set in motion by the midnight call. From the opening phrases through the Grand Jury, the story is well crafted, working through the angst and strategy of a murder trial. The middle part of the story shifts focus to the private lives of the main characters and how the publicity and pressure of the trial affects their choices and their families. The characters are put in difficult situations, and we watch as, for some, emotion overrules good judgment. The final sequence returns to the trial, where the lawyers roll up their sleeves and finish the job. The storytelling throughout is detailed and reasoned.
Where the story fell short of ideal: Compared to other legal thrillers, The Midnight Call does not go deep into the detail of the law and courtroom procedures. This will be a plus for readers who love the air of a legal thriller without the grainy detail and a minus for those who like to get so granular, sand falls from the pages. With the story focusing on the three attorneys, the accused killer Terence Butterfield is not front and center, so we do not get his side of the story. While the story tied off the legal strings, it left me with a few unanswered questions.
