The midnight knock A novel

John Fram

Book - 2025

"In the frigid west Texas desert, seven weary travelers converge on a lonely motel at the foot of a massive mountain. Ethan and Hunter have left behind a corpse, an arson, and a horrific act of violence. Kyla and Fernanda are making a desperate escape to the border. Stanley and his granddaughter are on their way back from Mexico with a mysterious man pursuing them on a motorcycle. All of them are on the run from something. All of them have something to hide. And somehow, they're all connected to the motel's eighth guest, an enigmatic woman named Sarah Powers. Within hours, Sarah is dead. The strange twins who run the motel inform the surviving guests that her murder demands justice. The guests are given an ultimatum: bring pr...oof of who killed Sarah Powers by midnight or die when the protective lights around the motel go out. Because something very old and very dangerous lurks in this corner of the desert. And it's hungry. But nothing at the Brake Inn Motel is quite as it seems. As time ticks away, alliances fracture, and secrets unravel, the guests will have to confront not just the violence of the past-they will need to face the darkness within themselves. A masterful blend of psychological tension, supernatural horror, and intricate storytelling, The Midnight Knock pushes the boundaries of what a mystery can be. And with its unforgettable climax, this novel cements John Fram as a contemporary master of thrillers"-- Provided by publisher.

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Subjects
Genres
Thrillers (Fiction)
Horror fiction
Psychological fiction
Novels
Fiction
Romans
Published
New York : Atria Books 2025.
Language
English
Main Author
John Fram (author)
Physical Description
416 p.
ISBN
9781668069424
9781668069431
Contents unavailable.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

And Then There Were None meets The Twilight Zone in Fram's inventive latest (after No Road Home). The action opens with a handsome man named Hunter wandering into an auto body shop in the moribund town of Ellersby, Tex., and demanding a job from shop owner Ethan. Six weeks later, the pair are headed for California, leaving behind "a corpse sprawled on a couch in the spare room upstairs and a string of fires burning in the engine bays." After a diner patron advises the men against driving on Dust Road, claiming it can get "hungry" and trap desperate travelers, they're forced to take it anyway, only to run out of gas near the Brake Inn Motel, where 12 people vanished 50 years earlier. There, Hunter and Ethan gradually meet seven other guests, including two friends rushing to the Mexican border and a woman and her grandfather fleeing a motorcycle-driving stranger. When people start dying and the guests realize they can't leave, their individual predicaments converge into a supernatural locked-room nightmare. Fram keeps even savvy readers guessing about where he's headed next and manages to flesh out each member of the book's large cast. The result is wickedly satisfying. Agent: Melissa Danaczko, Stuart Krichevsky Literary. (Oct.)

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