I first read this authors Archer and Bennett book series and really liked it, but even the 3rd book in that series led me to think she was running out of steam.
I then read one she wrote with James Patterson that was terrible.
I next read the first book in the Crimson Lake series and it showed promise, so I tried this book which is the 3rd in the series.
The story was almost a locked room mystery. 1 kid out of 4 disappears from a room. It sounded great.
Sadly the book wasn’t great at all.
The child abductor is obvious right from the beginning, then the reader has to slog through 300 pages of “who cares” to find out why he was abducted.
The Amanda character is over the top annoying, the police are bafflingly stupid, and Ted the other main character is so wrapped up in his history and baggage I just was over his situation.
I seriously doubt I would read another book from this author. She has good story ideas but can’t execute a story around these premises. This book was just a waste of time. ( )

I enjoyed this book much more than Redemption Point, the previous entry in the series. One thing Fox does well is to ratchet up the tension and then resolve it. Several times while reading [b:Gone by Midnight|41087327|Gone by Midnight|Candice Fox|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1545001701l/41087327._SY75_.jpg|64196421] I found myself thinking "That's it! I don't need this much stress in my life. I'll finish this book, but no more." And then she gets Ted or Amanda (or Lily in this book) out of whatever disastrous corner they've been boxed into, and all is well.

It's not as if you can just shrug and say to yourself, "It's a series. They need Ted and Amanda for the next book, so it has to work out." Terrible things have happened, and keep happening, to both of them. It's just a question of HOW bad the misery will be. And she showed us in Redemption Point that she is capable of doing away with a character we have let ourselves become attached to. So we can't assume that harm will not come to Lily.

I also like the fact that the stories seem to be transitioning away from Ted's (and Amanda's) past, and toward solving new crimes that come their way. I will definitely be ready to see in the next book how the War Between The Bikers and The Cops plays out! ( )

I LOVE this series! When I got the chance to read GONE BY MIDNIGHT didn't I hesitate, I had to read it straight away. And WOW! The first book was great, the second was fabulous, this one is awesome!

READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW OVER AT FRESH FICTION!
( )

I have finished the Crimson Lake series and wonder if Candice Fox will return to these characters.
The main characters: Ted Conkaffey and Amanda Pharrell do not fit the mold of investigators. Amanda, a petite fairy-like woman, has tattoos all over her body, plus multiple scars on top of the tattoos. Amanda has so many rules: no touching, no riding in cars, etc., but I like her. Both Amanda and Ted have internal and external scars from their time in prison. In this adventure, an eight-year-old boy has disappeared. Has he been kidnapped or is he dead? Ted’s three-year-old daughter comes to visit for three days. One of the geese, Peeper, must go to the vet due to a fungus. Enter a love interest for Ted. What focal points enter the story? Mother love/hate and loyalty among friends. Amanda and her bikies give an example of loyalty regardless the circumstance. Really enjoyed this novel. ( )

Note: Some spoilers for previous books in the series.

This is the third book in the “Crimson Lake” book series.

Ted Conkaffey, divorced after eight years and a former cop in Sydney, having served five years a drug squad detective. He has recently relocated to Crimson Lake outside of Cairns in Queenslands. He went to that remote spot in an attempt at anonymity after being released from an eight-month stint in prison for the rape and murder of 13-year-old Claire Bingley. Ted had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, but couldn’t prove his innocence. Nor, however, could the court prove his guilt, and the charge had been rendered as “no billing.” But while the Office of Public Prosecutions couldn’t find enough evidence to convict Ted, the public needed no such proof; he was guilty in their eyes. As soon as people found out who he was, he was reviled as a violent pedophile. As Ted mused, “When an accusation like that comes into your life, it never leaves.”

In Crimson Lake, Ted has been working as a private investigator with Amanda Pharrell for the past year. Amanda had served eight years in prison for stabbing a seventeen-year-old schoolmate to death. As Ted explains, and as we learned in the first book, it was done in self-defense, but “like my crime hers was a one-way ticket out of the ‘normal’ world.” It is hard, Ted muses, “to turn the great ship of public opinion around.” Most people believe that if you were accused, you can’t be totally innocent, even if you didn’t do what you were accused of.

In the previous book, the actual killer of Claire Bingley was found, but unfortunately executed much to Ted’s chagrin, since he wanted to be publicly exonerated. No matter: as Amanda points out, it’s just “The Life” now - i.e., life after having been shamed in the public eye. “It meant accepting, even anticipating, hatred from other human beings, perhaps forever.”

In this book, Ted and Amanda have been hired to help find a missing 8-year-old boy, but as usual, their involvement creates complications. The police consider both of them vile criminals and hate them. In particular, Amanda is the target of venom by Joanna Fischer, the former partner of DI Pip Sweeney, who was gunned down in the previous book while trying to rescue Amanda. Amanda turns for help to her biker friends, known criminals who nevertheless have, albeit reluctantly, “adopted” Amanda. Amanda told the head of the group, Bruce, that Ted was worried about her hanging out with them. Bruce responded, in a great summary of one of the themes of this series:

“I don’t know why he worries about us. Bad people are predictable. We’ll always do the wrong thing. It’s easier. It’s faster. Cops and heroes - those are the ones you have to worry about. The temptation is always there to cross over, to cut corners, to break the rules. Good people are always treading water, trying not to drown. Bottom-dwellers like us have gills.”

Ted is also unusually challenged. In the first place, he finally is having a visit by his daughter Lillian, almost 3, when they get assigned this case. He needs help looking after Lillian because he can’t ignore that a child has gone missing. In the second place, he may have begun a relationship with the local veterinarian, Dr. Elaine (“Laney”) Bass, but she doesn’t know (yet) about his past, and he is afraid to tell he because he doesn’t want to lose her.

Tension escalates as the various crimes are solved, with both Ted and Amanda and even Lillian getting into grave danger.

Evaluation: As in the other books in this series, we track the development of several stories that coalesce neatly in the end. It was not difficult to follow them, and it was rewarding to learn how they were connected. Ted and Amanda are great characters. I hope the author decides to continue with the series. ( )