What a creeptastic read.

Having read the opening pages, I honestly didn't know what to expect.

A truly scary story.

Fast-paced and filled with twists and turns.

Clever use of red herrings had me on the edge of my seat and constantly guessing the culprit.

I'd recommend reading this with the light on.

Unable to read the proof copy I was given due to the hideous side bar that was on every single page. Unfortunate because I was really looking forward to this book.

A fantastic book which is well written and completely engaging. I have been completely pulled in and kept hostage by this one.
This is unique, intriguing and one that I have devoured.

“If you open your door to the Midnight Man
Hide with a candle wherever you can
Try not to scream as he draws near
Because one of you won’t be leaving here”

That little jingle really chilled me to the bone. I love a good detective thriller, especially one that I can't quite seem to figure out what's coming next and this book delivers that with a creepy bang! It swirls around an urban legend that turns out to be real and the characters that are in this story were perfect.

I loved this book and can't wait to read more from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and publishers for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion and review.

Caroline Mitchell is one of my favorite authors. She's one of the best in delivering a creepy scary book. They're just always so believable and leave you satisfied. Like all of her books, I couldn't put it down once I started.

Highly, highly recommend.

It was 1994, and Sarah Noble and her family lived at Blackhall Manor with her grandma and granddad. That all sounds nice, but one night everything went wrong. It ended with murder and suicide. Blackhall Manor remains empty even all these years later. But a game has begun if you dare to play. Five girls go into the house on Halloween night, but not all of them come out. Would you summon The Midnight Man?

This is a cracking story from author Caroline Mitchell, who seems to have dangled her toes back into the supernatural elements like she used to. The story is a mix of the Supernatural, suspense and Police procedural, and it’s done with style. The opening scene will rattle your insides because everything is intensified by the dark, the confinement of a wardrobe, and only hearing what is happening. What makes it more horrific is this story revolves around teenagers. It is an instant low blood pressure cure.

Once the past has been woken up, it wants what it didn’t finish all those years ago. The story is unsettling, to say the least, with that feel of Stephen King’s ‘It’ and saying Candy Man three times in a mirror. I admit to checking the wardrobes when I go to bed, not to see if anyone is in them but to make sure I could get in if needed!

One of my favourite characters was Elliot, a young boy that can see far more than most people can, he just doesn’t know how to read it yet. I hope to see much more of him in the future as this is the first book in a new series. So there may be even more bumps in the night stuff to come. I love the town name too. Slayton.

I wish to thank the publisher and Net Galley for an e-copy of this book which I have reviewed honestly.

This is creepy and I love it. Perfect book for the Halloween month! I genuinely loved this story and I read it in a 24 hour period!

This was like a horror movie with a plot and decent acting. Run-down, abandoned house? Check! Teenagers sneak in to break in at midnight to play a creepy game (what could possibly go wrong)? Check! Teen goes missing? Check again!! This was so much fun! As an 80's teen, I grew up loving all of those teenage slasher movies so I thoroughly enjoyed this one! I loved Sarah Noble and Believe this is Book 1 of a series? I hope so, as I will certainly read that one also! Going to go back and check out more from this author, also. Fans of horror movies and thriller books, i.e. Riley Sager, alike, will like this one!

Thank you to #NetGalley, Caroline Mitchell and Embla Books for this ARC!

On Halloween, a group of young girls goes to an old creepy house to play the Midnight Game, and one of them ends up murdered. Sarah is back on the police force from leave after a traumatic incident involving her husband's misdeeds, and ends up reconnecting with some old friends who both may have something to do with the investigation. This was good, not great. There were some almost supernatural elements, nothing too out there, and I didn't love the ending and the reasoning of the so-called Midnight Man. I think this may be part of a series to come, and I'd give a second book a shot. 3 stars.

I was hooked from the very beginning! With a line like: “It Was Supposed To Be A Game” foreshadows the game that went wrong. As the truth of the midnight game, and the midnight man’s identity is revealed the past and present collide.

The author did a great job of creating a scary, and realistic setting. The unfolding of the events felt very true crime like which I loved.

This was a good thriller.

Sarah returns to work after a long period of sick leave after the death of her husband and the discovery that he was a paedophile.

The flawed detective, Sarah, was very likeable, however the hostility towards her and resentment by colleagues on her return to work was somewhat uncomfortable and I wondered if in her shoes would I have put up with what could be classed as workplace bullying?

Also the ending felt a little clumsy and came almost out of nowhere.

I suspect that as this is the first in a series, the follow up books may be better now that the background stuff has been addressed.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my review.

Five girls enter Blackhall Manor on Halloween but only four come home. It's a case that will force Detective Sarah Noble to face events of the past she has spent years running from.

This was a generally enjoyable, if somewhat underwhelming, thriller read. The premise was interesting, but unfortunately the execution fell a bit flat for me. While the writing felt slightly amateurish in places, overall it did succeed (for the most part) in holding my attention and suspension of belief.
The character relationships felt a bit two-dimensional and seemed only to exist to serve as plot points with little fleshing out otherwise, which is a shame as a number of them had potential to be quite interesting.

Ultimately, while nothing groundbreaking, this was a fast and easy to read thriller.

Thank you NetGalley and Embla books for my e-arc of this title, received in exchange for an honest review.

Something terrible happened in Blackhall Manor and it’s been known as the creepy house in town ever since. And it’s where 4 young girls are invited to play a game known as ‘The Midnight Man’. One of them never makes it home.

Detective Sarah has been on sick leave for her mental health, after her husband did something awful, and has just come back to work. (The other officers treat her like absolute garbage, including name calling, setting her up for embarrassing situations, constant reference to her laziness, even though she’s been placed on restrictive duties etc, all because ‘she left them short staffed’. This really irked me the whole way through the book. It didn’t really seem to add anything to the story, other than to make Sarah feel more harassed? I don’t know, I just found it odd).
Anyway, as the case escalated, Sarah finds herself dragged in to it and having to relive some extreme trauma from her past.

The Midnight Man effectively had two mysteries to solve, one in the past and one in the present. I was definitely invested in both mysteries and really enjoyed Sarah’s character, but ultimately, the revealed ‘reasons’ behind the culprits of the mysteries (especially one of them) were just so anticlimactic and odd.

I didn’t not enjoy this book, I did, I just wish the ending had of had more oomph to it.

'If you open your door to the Midnight Man,
Hide with a candle wherever you can.
Try not to scream as he draws near,
Because one of you won’t be leaving here…'

The Midnight Game has become a tradition for teenagers to play at Halloween in the small town of Slayton. A select group is ‘invited’ to play by sneaking into a creepy, derelict house before midnight and follow a set of instructions to invite in the Midnight Man on the stroke of midnight. Each player then lights candle so they can explore the house, but if the candle goes out it means the Midnight Man is near and one of you could die.

You are cordially invited to play the Midnight Game
Blackhall Manor, 31st October 2019 00:00
If you tell you’ll go to hell

In 2019, five teenage schoolgirls receive this invitation to play the Midnight Game. But only four of them will go home again.

Detective Sarah Noble, just returned to work after a year’s leave, has been assigned a desk job to ease her back in to work. The rest of the team are less than welcoming, resenting her for being away for so long and are reluctant to involve her in the investigation of the missing girl. However, unknown to them, Sarah knows more about Blackhall Manor than anyone else in Slayton. She knows what happened there twenty-five years ago on Halloween and why the house has never been lived in since. It’s something she’s been trying to forget all her life but now she’ll have to face her worst nightmares if the Midnight Man is to be stopped.

This atmospheric, suspenseful novel is a combination of police thriller and horror story with a touch of the supernatural. It’s an intense and spine chilling read that will hook you in and compel you to keep reading. Blackhall Manor is the perfect gloomy ruined mansion for the creepy game the teens play. Like every small town Slayton has its secrets and its odd characters like Christian, at the beck and call of his obese mother when he’d rather be in his room gaming, and Elliot the psychic young boy who has nightmares about the Midnight Man.

While the build-up of the plot was terrific with plenty of spookiness and some nail-biting moments, the ending felt somewhat contrived. The revelations suddenly came a bit too fast without enough prior lead in and the appearance of a new character could have been better foreshadowed. However, the journey was still well worth the ride, especially if you enjoy the thrills of a good horror story. Perfect for reading at Halloween or on a cold, dark winter’s night.

A spooky read for spooky season! I enjoyed this read, although it took me a little bit to get invested in the book but after I did, I couldn't wait to find out who the villain was. I would recommend this read.

This is penned as the 1st in the Slayton Thrillers series and I for one can not wait for the rest!
On Halloween night 5 teenagers are invited to play the midnight game. They write their names on a piece of paper and prick their fingers to add their blood. At exactly midnight they knock exactly 22 times on the door of the empty, rundown building that was once Blackhall Manor, inviting in The Midnight Man. Who can survive and keep their candle alive until 3.33?
By the end of the night 1 of the girls is dead and the others are to scared to ‘tell else they’ll go to hell’.
Blackhall Manor has been empty and rundown since a tragic murder/suicide there years earlier, but was everything as it 1st seemed at the time?
Returning to work after medical leave we follow Detective Sarah Noble as she is reluctantly drawn to Blackhall Manor a place she does not want to go to. But why? What is it about the Manor which makes her reluctant to go there? Who killed Angelica? And who is the Midnight Man and why is he playing this deadly game?
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and loved the twists and turns it took as we unravel not only Sarah’s story but that of the people around her. We discover more about Blackhall’s past and the tragic events that happened there.
I loved the supernatural twists, is their a ghost haunting the Manor? Elliot’s premonitions and Sarah’s feelings.
I totally loved little Elliot and just wanted to hold him as he suffered his night terrors.
I cannot wait to read more from this series and really hope that certain characters continue their journeys in the books to come as I really cannot wait to find out more about them

Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this title
Caroline has once again written a fantastic read

WOW. I rarely get freaked out from books or movies, but this one got me! I thought I'd be fine reading it before falling asleep and that was a mistake. It was the perfect fall/Halloween/spooky season read. Lately I've been good at guessing the twist of thrillers, but not this one. I was completely surprised.

I also really loved the main character and that she was messy. It made her more human to me.

Caroline has done it again, an excellent thriller that keeps you entranced from start to finish. Well written and atmospheric this is a must read in my opinion. I would recommend you don't read it whilst alone though.

Wow! What a brilliant read. The midnight man is creepy as hell, perfect time to read it as well so close to Halloween!
Full of twists, right up until the end, I didn't see the ending coming at all! I would highly recommend reading this.

'𝑰𝒇 𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒍 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒂 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆, 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝑩𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝑴𝒂𝒏𝒐𝒓'

A spine-chilling, terrifying, totally engrossing plot that had me cowering under my blanket as I read.

When a group of teenagers are anonymously invited to the dreaded Blackhall Manor, to play the Midnight Game, an urban legend that has been around for decades, against their better judgement, they rise to the challenge. But when one of them turn up dead, the town of Slayton fears that there is a killer on the loose. Det. Sarah Noble is back to work after a year of medical leave. Already battling enough demons of her past, she knows she is not ready for the job. But she also realizes that she is the only one who can stop the killer.

With Halloween just around the corner, this was the perfect read to get the spooks-factor up. The author has done a fantastic job in creating a sense of foreboding as she describes the town of Slayton and Blackhall Manor that that darkness is so palpable as the narrative progresses. While the story in itself was riveting, the psychic and spectral elements in the plot made it unputdownable.  The ending was a bit long drawn out, but impressive.

Sarah isn't your usual strong and suave protagonist; she is, in a word, a mess. And yet you tend to root for her as she tries to find her feet in the world after everything that has been tossed her way. Elliot is another one of my favourite characters in the book, for obvious reasons. The manner in which the author has addressed various addictions throughout the storyline - be it Elsie's to food, Christian's to video games or David's to porn - is quite commendable.

Overall, a terrifying read that is apt for the season. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a digital copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.