Book Review: Night Kills

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Night Kills     Amazon US PB Amazon UK PB Amazon Canada PB
Charlotte Hughes
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Avon, Nov 1998, $5.99, 288 pp.

Comfrey, South Carolina is a place where everyone was well aware that Lucy Hodges was a victim of spousal abuse until her husband died in a fire. Many of the town's gossips were shocked when Lucy used the insurance money to repair her battered face into a visage that left men quaking with desire. Lucy also began to bed many of the local males, especially married ones who she could easily torment.

However, Lucy again becomes a victim when someone ties her up in her own bed, butchers her face, and ultimately stabs her to death. A drunken Jack McCall, recalls having been at Lucy's house the night she was killed, but cannot remember anything else. With plenty of physical evidence on hand, the police arrest Jack for the murder. Jack has suddenly come into some cash and manages to make bail. He soon shows that there is enough evidence to look elsewhere if the cops are only willing to try.

Rural Southern towns are commonly used as ideal backdrops for a Gothic melodrama because on the surface everyone knows everybody's secrets, but hidden agendas are everywhere. Charlotte Hughes demonstrates that she has the talent to perfectly capture that atmosphere while surprising her readers with escalating events of mounting suspense tied together by a difficult to detect common denominator. NIGHT KILLS is true suspense that scares the audience at every twist and turn.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner

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