The Nature of Midnight

Postal inspectors, one of America's most succesful law enforcement officers, rarely get their due in American mysteries but here Robert Rice has created a great team that doggedly searches for the killers of a postal employee and customer in Montana. Inspectors Loomis and Dombrowski uncover an 85 year old mystery and a clever fictional twist on a major historical event - the sinking of the Lusitania, which helped propel the U.S. into WWI. Rice has created great characters and a great puzzle. The only negative I can mention is that some of the action at the end seemed pretty silly and there were a few loose ends about how the whole plot was put together at the end. The answers to these open questions can be assumed by the reader but it would have been nice if the author put them on the page.

Robert Rice's _The Nature of Midnight_, features Postal Inspectors Gillian Loomis and Max Dombrowski and could be the start to a very successful series. When a postal worker and a customer are found dead in a rural Montana post office, the case is given to Loomis, an inspector who travels around the state. Dombrowski, a former pro football player, is flown in from Seattle and is the primary on the case, but he lets Gillian take charge of the investigation. Gillian is a former Seattle policewoman who quit after accidentally killing a young boy while on duty, and, since then, she has refused to carry a weapon, which is a breach of duty for a postal inspector.The deaths appear to have some connection to a cache of old letters, found when an old safe and other equipment was moved from the old post office to a new one. The letters were written by a man named Sharpless Walker, who was lynched way back in 1918, and appear to have something to do with the sinking of the Lusitania. As Max and Gillian investigate, they begin to uncover a conspiracy that at first appears to reach to the highest levels of both the American and British governments.This was a great, old-fashioned page turner. Rice does a great job of creating his conspiracy and then doling out the clues bit by bit, ratcheting up the tension and suspense. Max and Gillian are interesting characters and we come to care about them as they are besieged on all sides, by assassins and by higher-ups in both the Postal Inspection Service and the FBI, who may or may not be trustworthy. Rice also does a good job of drawing the scenery of rural Montana, as the two drive from place to place, pursuing the investigation. This was a riveting book and I for one would like to see another book involving these characters. Highly recommended.

I started reading The Nature of Midnight at 5:00 this past Saturday afternoon. At 1:30 Sunday morning, I had to FORCE myself to turn off the light to get some sleep. I have never read for that long a period straight, but I was absolutely enthralled!The characters are marvelously believable -- each has his own quirks, and that's what makes them so human and real. The plot moves in ways I certainly wouldn't have thought of, but Rice manages to make flow easily and smoothly.The only thing I might possibly say against it is that it kept me so gripped that I finished it in two days, so NOW what do I read??I recommend this book highly to anyone who enjoys any kind of mystery or thriller. And if I had to pick one word to describe it, I would say, "MARVELOUS."

Postal Inspectors are the law enforcement branch of the US Post office and have full police powers for cases within their jurisdiction. Max Dombrowski is a Postal Inspector who is forced to work in Internal Affairs by Constance Barton, finding the dirt on people she wants out of the service. He is forced to obey her orders because she has something on him that if revealed could send him to jail.Connie is sending Max to Norris, Montana for two reasons. A postal worker and a customer were murdered in the rural post office. Max is to serve as the lead investigator on the case but he is also ordered to find some dirt on the resident agent Gillian Loomis so Constance can legally fire her. When Max arrives in Norris, the duo conduct their investigation and find that there is information about the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 that someone doesn't want to surface. Max and Gillian race against the killers to see who can get their hands on the documents and in the process two more innocents are murdered.Conspiracy buffs are going to love THE NATURE OF MIDNIGHT a thriller that portrays a realistic scenario on how the Germans knew where the Lusitania was located. Robert Rice has plenty of action and chase scenes but what makes this novel stand out in the crowd are the two protagonists who make a great team despite the demons that are haunting them. It is to be hoped that Mr. Rice will have more novels starring this dynamic duo.Harriet Klausner