This is a collection of thirteen original short stories by thirteen authors: Joseph Badal, Linwood Barclay, Rhys Bowen, Jeffrey Deaver, Heather Graham, Alan Jacobson, Paul Kemprecos, Shannon Kirk, Jon Land, John Lescroart. D.P. Lyle, Kevin O’Brien, and Hank Phillippi Ryan.

I am not a fan of short stories but this is a hectic time of the year so figured it would be easy to read one or two stories and decorate the house & tree, as well as read my typical 100+ pages in a novel.

Novel starts with a fun introduction by Jeffrey Deaver
My favorite stores are:
“All Aboard” by author Hank Phillippi Ryan
I have never travel long distance on a train; only used commuter trains. However, last Summer.my book club was invited to a “Book Launch” on Sunday in LA: it only a 45 minute trip but we decided to all go together and take the train.. On the way back it included wine, cheese and crackers ~ total fun. So taking a sleeper train must really be fun.. . Right?
Additionally just finished [book: Confessions on the 7:45] so train trips sound interesting!
Also
“A Creative Defense” by Jeffrey Deaver
Robert and Beth a youngish couple attend a classical music concert, the music is not something they typical enjoy but is the event sponsored by the fine- arts program as the small college where Beth is a professor so they decide to be supportive.. The last piece on the program is “The Midnight Sonatina” a piece that is rarely performed ~ it is a lightning fast piece that has the young violinist sweating and the audience frozen.
On the drive home Robert is in a daze and he has not had anything to drink but he seems extremely tired and not focused on driving.
He continues to act strange the next few days. Hmmm you need to read to find out why.
Both of these short stories left me wanting more.

Additional I enjoyed reading “About the Authors’.
This part gave a short bio on each of the authors.
Heather Graham is one of my favorite authors. She majored in theater arts at the University of South Florida. She did some dinner theatre but after the birth of her third child turned to writing and has since written over 200 novels. She is a certified scuba diver and also loves ballroom dance ~( which immediately had me move her up on my “LIKE” scale.) I love to dance and love when someone lists dance as something they love

Want to thank NetGalley and Suspense Publishing for this Digital Galley. This file has been made available to me for professional review purposes only. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.
Publishing Release Date was November 12, 2020.

The stories in this collection are each different and entertaining. Each is a mixture of suspense written by masters of their genre. I enjoyed them all. It reminded me of the old Alfred Hitchcock magazine I read when I was younger, only darker.
I would recommend reading these stories and judge for yourself.

I love anthologies! You get a quick short burst of whatever the theme is, be romance, fantasy, thriller or suspense. My love started with Kiss Kiss by Roald Dahl which has since become my benchmark for anthologies.

Nothing Good Happens After Midnight as the title suggests has a common theme of grisly events happening just after midnight. As with any anthology some stories will be liked more than others. I rated each story to my enjoyment. Some were three star, some four and some five star reads. I averaged the book out to four stars overall.

I did initially worry that these might be horror stories but they were mostly entertaining tales, some with a chilling twist and some I found quite amusing.

My favourite five star stories were Linwood Barclay's Night Shift and Shannon Kirk's Tonight is the Night, both authors used revenge as a plot line. Jon Land writes an eerie but uplifting tale using magical realism in ATM. Whilst Kevin O'Brien's Cell Phone Intolerant is a humorous and cautionary tale starring a curmudgeonly vigilante. Jeffery Deaver's A Creative Defense was another five star read.

Nothing Good Happens After Midnight is an anthology of thirteen short stories, from the masters of suspense, that will have you glued to the pages until well after midnight.

Nothing Good Happens After Midnight is a good collection of thrillers and thought provoking mysteries. Great authors in this collection.

Nothing Good Happens After Midnight
A Suspense Magazine Anthology

by Jeffery Deaver, Linwood Barclay, Rhys Bowen, Heather Graham, Alan Jacobson, Paul Kemprecos, Jon Land, John Lescroart, Kevin O'Brien, Hank Phillippi Ryan, Joseph Badal, D. P. Lyle

Thirteen authors
Thirteen stories
All take place after midnight
All were a wee bit (or more) creepy
And now I want more ;)

I saw this and thought that it would be a good way to read the writing of well-known authors as well as a few that I had not heard of or read before. I thought for sure I would read a few and move on quickly BUT I found that each story I started was one that I could not put down before I read the very last word. The stories were all exceptionally well told and held my interest. I did not skip any of the stories as I thought I might. Thirteen authors, thirteen stories…and I highly recommend this collection for your reading pleasure!

12:01 AM by Alan Jacobson: A serial murderer with hours to live and a kidnapped woman in the same situation…are the two related? Will she be saved? I read about Karen Vail and now want to read more

Cell Phone Intolerant by Kevin O’Brien: Cell phones have become an addiction…one that Ed McKinnon, an inventor, would like to make a difference in.

All Aboard by Hank Phillipi Ryan: a woman on a train overhears something and decides to use her PR fixer skills to make a difference.

Gone Forever by Joseph Badel: A Lassiter/Martin Short Story that introduces cops I wouldn’t mind learning more about. A mass murder in a church has an impact on all there…the ending was powerful!

Night Shift by Linwood Barclay: OMG…gob smacked. Two men talking in a bar shooting the breeze and a story is told that had me on the edge of my seat…I did NOT see what was coming!

Midnight in the Garden of Death by Heather Graham: Would you sleep in a cemetery in tents when you were in high school? This one was…VERY good.

The Sixth Decoy by Pascal Kemprecos: Here is was introduced to Aristotle “Soc” Socarides and now I wonder how many books might have him as the main characters. Soc is tasked with finding a “lost” art object and in so doing things get a bit…dicey.

A Creative Defense by Jeffery Deaver: Music and murder…intriguing idea in this book and it made me wonder…and worry a bit because…what if???

After Midnight by Rhys Bowen: Well, this started out as a fairy tale but turned into something else entirely!

Easy Peasy by John Lescroat: This is another story with teenagers as main characters. There is a bit of an underdog feel to it with a bit of a big twist that I did not see coming.

Tonic by D.P. Lyle: Creepy and strange and just what this collection needed to add that extra noire to the list.

Tonight is the Night by Shannon Kirk: Cold and cruel in a few places…this one had me going and as it was late…might revisit it later to see if I got it right or not…it was definitely dark and gritty!

ATM by Jon Land: Brilliant way to close the anthology…with a bit of hope for Venn and he definitely deserved it!

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Are there authors I would like to read again? Definitely

Thank you to NetGalley and Suspense Magazine for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

Anthologies can be such a mixed bag; often you get one or two good stories and the rest are duds. Sometimes you luck out and get a solid collection, and that was the case here. "Nothing Good Happens After Midnight" is wonderful story telling. Short stories are a challenge to do well, with not much room for character development or world building and the story has to be tight. Another challenge with anthologies is whether or not the writers can all successfully pull off the theme and this group did. The stories happen at or right after midnight or involve midnight as a plot point.

There are some heavy hitters in this group of authors and I think it works well as an introduction to any you haven't read before. The stories are all stand alones and most are not part of an existing series. I was impressed with the author lineup; honestly, that was the attraction for me. The theme was interesting but it was the authors who grabbed me. I had read some before and others were new to me. While a couple of the stories were underwhelming, the rest were very good and I got to sample authors I hadn't read yet. It was a win.

My favorite stories were Cell Phone Intolerant by Kevin O'Brien - most of us can relate to people who are rude in their cell phone usage; Night Shift by Linwood Barclay - a fascinating premise with an ending I never saw coming; Easy Peasy by John Lescroart - an all too realistic comedy of errors that fortunately has a happyish ending; and ATM by Jon Land - slightly odd and radically different from the one book of his I've read, which I hated. So that was a nice surprise.

"Nothing Good Happens After Midnight" is very good and well worth reading. Tight, engrossing stories written by authors who are masters of their crafts. I expect I'll be rereading some of these.

What could be better than a mystery short story? An anthology of mystery short stories by some of the absolute best mystery writers out there!! Many of my favorite authors are represented plus some new ones that are new to me. I loved this sampling of creepy, eerie stories!!

I loved these short stories: creepy, mystery, suspense, all great.
Thank you Netgalley for this anthology.

EXCERPT: A moment later Beth heard a soft sound behind her.

Humming.

Gasping, Beth turned and, in shock, stared at Joanne, who was gazing at her sister-in-law. Her face had the same eerie, blank expression as Robert's.

And the humming too, was the same as earlier, the notes her husband had hummed over and over again.

The notes that spelled D-E-A-D.

- A Creative Defense by Jeffrey Deaver.

ABOUT 'NOTHING GOOD HAPPENS AFTER MIDNIGHT': The sun sets. The moon takes its place, illuminating the most evil corners of the planet. What twisted fear dwells in that blackness? What legends attach to those of sound mind and make them go crazy in the bright light of day? Only Suspense Magazine knows…

Teaming up with New York Times bestselling author Jeffery Deaver, Suspense Magazine offers up a nail-biting anthology titled: “Nothing Good Happens After Midnight.” This thrilling collection consists of thirteen original short stories representing the genres of suspense/thriller, mystery, sci-fi/fantasy, and more.

Readers’ favorites come together to explore the mystery of midnight. The ‘best of the best’ presenting these memorable tales, include: Joseph Badal, Linwood Barclay, Rhys Bowen, Jeffery Deaver, Heather Graham, Alan Jacobson, Paul Kemprecos, Shannon Kirk, Jon Land, John Lescroart, D. P. Lyle, Kevin O’Brien, and Hank Phillippi Ryan.

Take their hands…walk into their worlds…but be prepared to leave the light on when you’re through. After all, this incredible gathering of authors, who will delight fans of all genres, not only utilized their award-winnikng imaginations to answer that age-old question of why “Nothing Good Happens After Midnight”—they also made sure to pen stories that will leave you…speechless.

MY THOUGHTS: An interesting collection. There is not one story in this collection that I disliked. And there's three good solid five star reads amongst the thirteen offerings. There are authors that I am familiar with, and others that I have not previously read. The title line, 'Nothing good happens after midnight' appears in several of the stories.

My favourite three stories, in the order that they appear in this anthology, are:

Night Shift by Linwood Barclay, who is a 'go to' author for me;
Midnight in the Garden of Death by Heather Graham, a new author to me, and which had my heart pounding; and
A Creative Defense by Jeffrey Deaver.

My least favourite was 12:01am by Alan Jacobson

A good collection for dipping into when you have five minutes to fill.

⭐⭐⭐.6

#NothingGoodHappensAfterMidnight #NetGalley

ABOUT JEFFREY DEAVER: #1 international bestselling author of over thirty novels and three collections of short stories. His books are sold in 150 countries and translated into 25 languages. His first novel featuring Lincoln Rhyme, The Bone Collector, was made into a major motion picture starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. He's received or been shortlisted for a number of awards around the world.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Suspense Publishing via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of Nothing Good Happens After Midnight, collated by Jeffrey Deaver, for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage

It's very hard to pass up an anthology when it comes with these names attached to it. That's what always brings me in at first. That and the thing that links them together (pretty easy in this case). But what I am really looking for is that new name. The one that I have not read before that I can then itemize and devour their catalogue. Would I find this here?

What I found that I liked:
Cell Phone Intolerant by Kevin O'Brien. A new author to me. Ed hates people who are rude in public because they are on their cell phones. Not everyone, exactly. Just those ones who bring their private into your public or ignore the world in exchange for that tiny device in their hands. So, he does something about it. I could appreciate his frustration. I could appreciate his horror when it goes wrong.

Night Shift by Linwood Barclay. Not a new author but still a favorite. A journalist tells about the craziest night he ever had working the night shift at his paper when he and another reporter received a call from someone bent on a mass shooting. The look into the mind of a killer is brief but fascinating.

Midnight in the Garden of Death by Heather Graham (heard of but never read). Who doesn't love a good haunted-cemetery-serial-killer-on-the-loose-stupid-teenagers story? It really does have everything a good, old fashioned scary story needs. Oh. and Louisiana.

A Creative Defense by Jeffrey Deaver. I've read a lot of Jeffrey Deaver. I watched the show inspired by The Bone Collector. We all know music can moves us. Maybe we don't all know but I choose to believe that we all do. Can music hypnotize you? Can the right blend of notes, played the right way, in the right order, with the right tempo make you do things you don't want to do?

All of these stories happened after midnight. Some even include the title in them. Regardless of your tastes, I think there is definitely something in here for everyone. Don't like the ones above? Read about some of your favorite characters from other series. Or read of grave robbers in Tonic. There is something for everyone here.

Thank you to all of the authors, Suspense Publishing, and Netgalley for the ARC. See my review for this and more at my blog: https://readeotw.wordpress.com

A fabulous anthology of suspense, mystery, and danger. Most of these stories are from other series but I do not feel you lose any of the intrigue if you have not read them. Not all the stories were 5 stars read but all are enjoyable and I think this is a must read for lovers of this genre.

I love anthologies of all genres and will keep one with me every where I go. I can fill even the shortest down time with an interesting story and I can and do discover many authors whose works I have not read. many anthologies share a theme. This one is midnight or late. The 13 stories are fabulous. They could not be anything except fabulous when written by this stellar group of authors. Their books span many genres but at any given time, one genre melts into another as we land in the middle of a good story. The mark of a truly skilled writer is the ability to grab a reader's attention and hang onto it throughout a story. Add in the requirement to tell a story from to start to finish in a very short amount of words and you have award winning writing. And that is what we have here. Happy reading!!!

As the title suggests, this is a collection of 13 short stories by various authors, where the stories center around mysteries that happen after midnight. There are quite a lot of new-to-me authors in this anthology and I am so glad that I was able to discover their writing styles in this book.

To be honest, anthology or short stories are usually a hit or miss for me but this one was definitely a hit for me! Out of the 13 stories, I really enjoyed 9 stories while the rest were just ok. And this is a pretty good ratio!

I loved Cell Phone Intolerant by Kevin O'Brien that tells the story of an old man who created a device to punish rude & ignorant cellphone users.

I was surprised by the twisty and 'did-not-see-it-coming' endings in All Aboard by Hank Philippi Ryan and Night Shift by Linwood Barclay. After Midnight - Cinderella Then & Now by Rhys Bowen is an interesting retelling of Cinderella fairy tale: one with a different ending and the other was a darker version.

I was excited to read Tonic by D.P. Lyle. He has worked as consultant for many popular crime writers and popular TV shows such as Law & Order, Monk, Diagnosis Murder, etc. Last year I've read his book Forensics and Fiction: Clever, Intriguing, and Downright Odd Questions from Crime Writers and absolutely loved it! Tonic was an enjoyable story although it was a little too similar to the true case of Burke and Hare murders, in which the word 'burking' was derived from.

Jeffery Deaver who edited this anthology, also contributed a short story with the tile A Creative Defense. It was an interesting story about how a piece of music called "The Curse of the Midnight Sonatina" may be the reason behind the erratic behaviours of its listeners.

Although most of the stories are mysteries, I find that the final story by Jon Land called ATM is sort of a supernatural kind of story. It was intriguing for sure!

In a nutshell, this is one fantastic anthology and it is rare to read one which I really enjoy! I'd recommend this anthology to all crime/mysteries fans!


Pub. Date: Nov 17, 2020

***Thank you Author Guide and NetGalley for this gifted review copy in exchange for an honest review.***

I'm not a huge fan of short fiction, but after I read (and loved) a collection of domestic thriller short stories I decided it was just the genres that I had read previously. So this anthology had two things that attracted me: 1. the short stories are in the suspense genre and 2. Rhys Bowen contributed a story.

Nothing Good Happens After Midnight is a collection of 13 short stories that span the gamut of the suspense genre. The common thread that ties the stories together is they are all set in the wee hours between midnight and the break of day. I had only read two of the included authors - Rhys Bowen and Jeffery Deaver. Two more authors, Heather Graham and Hank Phillipi Ryan, I had heard of but have not read. I was largely unsure of what I was getting myself into.

All the stories are well written. I struggled with some of the early stories in the anthology. Some of it was because I was tired (I'm not adjusting well to time change). And some of it was because they were a little too strange for my taste.

There are a few stories in the collection that would be excellent for sharing around a campfire. Night Shift by Linwood Barclay, Midnight in the Garden of Death by Heather Graham, and Tonight is the Night by Shannon Kirk are the perfect urban legend type stories that give us chills while roasting marshmallows. The first story features a news reporter who is waiting for his colleague at a bar. A stranger seating nearby strikes up a conversation that leads the reporter to share a tale in which he and another reporter stopped a mass shooting during the graveyard shift in the newsroom. There's a twist at the end, and though I put two and two together right before it was revealed, it gave me chills just the same. The second story starts off with teens sharing an urban legend about the graveyard they are camping in and then they become the stuff urban legends are made of. And lastly, Kirk's story involves a serial killer and a man whose tales no one ever believes.

If you are trying to scare your teenagers into being good, then John Lescroart's Easy Peasey is the ticket. An innocent teenage prank almost takes a deadly turn when on the same night another teen seeks revenge for being socially snubbed.

I was most surprised by was A Creative Defense by Jeffery Deavers. I had listened to one or two of his short stories as audiobooks and thought they were just okay. Now I think that I just wasn't focused on the stories while listening as I was totally engaged in his entry. It was my favorite story in the collection.

I was a little disappointed with Bowen's entry, After Midnight: Cinderella Then and Now. Her short story encompassed two Cinderella stories. They were really more like scenes. In the fanfiction world, they would have been called drapples. The Cinderella Then part of the story is based in the original fairytale. It starts with Cinderella fleeing the ball and ends when the guards show up at her home searching for the girl who fits the glass slipper. In between, Bowen adds the mystery of a stolen necklace. The second part, Cinderella Now, didn't really feel like a Cinderella story to me. It features a present-day hitchhiker who reveals her identity at just the right moment - to say more would give the story away. While I enjoyed the former, the latter fell flat for me.

The last story in the collection, ATM by Jon Land, was interesting but felt familiar. Unlike the other stories in the collection that have a supernatural element, this one does not feel like it was edging into horror territory. It was more of a feel-good story.

Overall, it's a nice collection of short stories. For people who love short stories, then this is definitely a book you'll want to read. The holidays are coming up, and with the diversity of stories, I can see this making a nice gift for your bookish friends and family.

My review will be published at Girl Who Reads on Sunday, November 15 - https://www.girl-who-reads.com/2020/11/nothing-good-happens-after-midnight.html

Nothing Good Happens After Midnight: A Suspense Magazine Anthology - Various authors

I've started reading more short stories this year than I've ever read in the past. In this case, the short stories are a great way to sample the work of established authors. Several of the stories that stood out to me are:

Tonic by D. P. Lyle - two cousins have the job of grave robbing. When they try to eliminate the middleman, they find out who is really paying for the bodies. So much to think about with this one and there is a big twist at the end.

Night Shift by Lin Barclay and Gone Forever by Joseph Badal, both of which give us insight into the minds of potential mass murderers.

Several of these stories feature characters who are in long running series. All the stories work to prove that "Nothing Good Happens After Midnight". Put all these stories together and you are not safe anywhere! I suggest staying out of bars, parking lots, cemeteries, your own home, church...there is no where that is safe. 

Thank you to Suspense Publishing and NetGalley for this ARC.

A dozen short stories by various crime authors around the theme of what happens after midnight. Many well-known suspense story writers such as Linwood Barclay, John Lescroart, Heather Graham and Jeffery Deaver all contribute. There is a mixture of protagonists from a serial killer, inventor, teenagers, men sitting at a bar, PR agent, train passengers and even Cinderella. Well written with a varying level of tension, but most will find enjoyment. Overall, a fine collation of twisted tales and rated 4 stars.

Nothing Good Happens After Midnight is a collection of 13 short stories by today's best selling mystery and thriller writers, charged with writing stories with the theme of the collection's title.

As with any short story collection, there is going to be great, good, and not so good stories. My personal favorites are Cellphone Intolerant, and The Sixth Decoy. My least favorites were Midnight in the Garden of Death and After Midnight. All others fell in between those two parameters. Overall there are more 4 star reads than anything else, so I'm going with that as my rating.

If you're a fan of short crime fiction than this is for you!

Thank you to Suspense Publishing, Editor Jeffery Deaver, and NetGalley for gifting me a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book is the second great collection of horror and ghostly stories I have read recently. I think horror/suspense is a genre that particularly lends itself to a short story format. I have read a few other short stories this year and was not impressed.

This book, however, has something for everyone. While I didn’t find it scary, one story - Tonight is the Night by Shannon Kirk (an author I had not heard of before but will be looking into) - had and extremely pervasive sense of creeping menace. It was really well done. Other noteworthy stories were Night Shift by Linwood Barclay and a Creative Defence by Jeffery Deaver. These were all 5 star reads for me. There was a bunch of 4 star stories too by Alan Jacobson, Kevin O’Brien, Heather Graham and D.P. Lyle. Some of these showed great creativity and there was also some humour, particularly O’Brien’s Cell Phone Intolerant.

I think most people would find something to enjoy in these pages. Many thanks to Netgalley, Suspense Publishing and all the wonderful authors for providing a copy. My opinions are my own.

Review featured at www.books-n-kisses.com

12 authors all with one rule… Write about “late night” or “midnight”... that is what Jeffrey Deaver put to 11 other authors and, of course, himself.

Some authors are my go-to authors already (Deaver, Graham) and some I do not recall I have ever read before so this was a great mix of authors to enjoy the ones I knew and find new-to-me authors.

Because these are short stories (what Deaver calls magazine stories) there was just not enough time to get to know each character from each story. There were a number of stories I wish had been a full length novel and some I was happy with just the way they are.

A great collaboration of authors and a lot of great quick reads to have on hand.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

A superb collection of short stories with themes varying from fantasy to crime thrillers. It's a really big effort to develop a plot in a short story and all the authors have done a fantastic work, some more than the others. I got to know some new authors whose earlier books I would be reading now. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher.