Abby Vandiver provides a double handful of crime tales written by an interesting assortment of authors of color. You have urban crime gone wrong (Lucky Thirteen), book stealing (Skin), magic (The Witching Hour), computer crime (The Night the Internet Died), and crime of passion (Mata Hambre) along with many others. Each story is self-contained, but often has the reader wanting more for this universe. In other words, the writers really sunk their hooks in the reader. So set back, grab your favorite beverage and be sure to leave a light on while you read this book!

Thanks Netgalley for the opportunity to read this anthology

I enjoyed this book of compilation of short stories with murder, mystery, Thrillers and absolutely loved it. Every single short story is written brilliantly. I found a few of the stories really creepy and scary. Enjoyed the writing style and plots. Definitely recommend.

A terrific crime anthology. A thoroughly enjoyable short story collection. While the stories are short, really the perfect length, they all back a punch. While revenge/crime stories dominate this anthology I never knew what was coming next and really enjoyed the reading experience.

This is a collection of mysteries. Everyone will find one that he or she likes, assuming that he or she likes the genre. This also means that there will be some stories that he or she will not like. For instance, I love the first story "Thirteen," which I think is a strong opener but if you prefer cozy mysteries you will have to look in the middle of the book.

The stories are collected together to showcase writers of color rather than type of mystery, and that's a little disconcerting to me. My preference would be all one type of mystery. I did notice that many of these mysteries had revenge as a character motivation so that is another unifying feature.

Overall, more hits than misses and that is a winning combination for any collection of stories.

Definitely more suspenseful than my usual read.
A great collection of short stories for those who like more intense mysteries.
I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book.

This was probably my first ever read of short stories and it didn't disappoint. I was amazed at how suspenseful such short stories could be. The anthology included murder, plot twists and everything you'd expect of good crime fiction. Will definitely recommend.

This book was excellent. Some tales were the perfect balance of mystery and darkness, others were a bit weaker but still interesting. Overall I gave it 4 stars because the last stories were a bit underwhelming compared to the other ones, it left me wishing for that creeping feeling you get at midnight, but still it was a great read and presented me with many new authors to follow.

An above-average collection regardless of the color of the authors. This has a nice variety and readers might discover some new authors to follow. Not surprisingly, most of the stories are pretty dark, but entertaining nonetheless. Recommended for crime story enthusiasts.

Thanks very much for the ARC for review!!

After reading the first 4 or 5 stories I thought: Is it possible that there's an anthology that contains only stories I really like? But no. There's always the odd one out. Or more than one.
Overall there's a great variety although all crimes happen at midnight.

The range of "creepiness" in these stories meant there was something for everyone! Abby did an amazing job of not only writing her own great short story, but compiling a very talented group of authors with short stories for people who can't handle a whole lot of creepy, to people who could handle a horror movie's worth in a short story. I thoroughly enjoyed this collection and would love to see more like it!

*3.75 stars

'Midnight Hour' is a grisly collection of short stories, all tied together by the common theme of crimes committed during the hour after midnight. There are twenty stories in total; I enjoyed some far more than others, so I decided to rate them all separately and use my average rating as the final result.

The second half of the anthology definitely had more content that appealed to me than the first, and engrossed me in reading until I suddenly found myself staring at the Author Biography page. From fake séances gone wrong to suspicious life insurance company policyholders, from cybercrime to homicide: this collection has a story for everyone, and I was not an exception. It was really fascinating to see how a number of different authors were given a genre and a theme, and ended up writing such vastly different stories. With characters and settings from all around the world, and crimes to match every personality, I can say with certainty that I had a good time reading.

I will be publishing a more comprehensive review on my blog closer to the publication date.

I have given this anthology a 3-star rating, because it is the average of all of the stories I have read. This is definitely not a bad score and I would recommend this book to anyone. I rate stories based on a feeling, so this is a very personal opinion. I took short notes on my thoughts while reading the stories. They are as followed:

Story 1 'Lucky 13':
At the 4.6% mark it says "I'm apologize", I am not sure if this has been corrected yet, but should be corrected before publication. Great plottwist, but ending was a little anti-climactic for me. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 stars

Story 2 'Skin'
Moraly gray main character. Love.
Nice happy ending, but not very thrilling.
⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 stars

Story 3 'the bridge'
Nice plottwist / ending. Not neatly wrapped and tied with a bow.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5 stars

Story 4 'Dead Man Tell No Tales'
An expected outcome. It felt a little rushed, but I liked the writing style very much.
⭐⭐⭐ 3 stars

Story 5 'Doc's At Midnight'
I am so confused.
Too many jumps in time-line for a short story.
⭐⭐ 2 stars

Story 6 'Nighthawks'
Constantly wondering: what happens next? But there is also a casualty about it. It gives me a full length story feel.
Dialogue is a bit awkward.
At 31.2% it says 'or' instead of 'for'. Again please check if this is corrected.
There was a little too much explaining at the end.
⭐⭐⭐ 3 stars

Story 7 'The search for Eric Garcia'
Read this in 1 breath. Fun idea with the choices all ending with the same result. Ending was shocking. But this is one of the few stories that actually stuck with me.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5 stars

Story 8 'The Vermeer Conspiracy'
I literally wrote down: 'Yeah! Dutch history' :)
I liked the story, not much to comment on.
⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 stars

Story 9 'Midnight Confidential'
Cleverly written. It took me a couple of pages to get into it. But I ended up liking it.
⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 stars

Story 10 'Chefs'
WTF!?!!
⭐⭐⭐ 3 stars

Story 11 'Midnight Escapade'
Nice plottwist, even though I saw it coming. I really enjoyed reading this story.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5 stars

Story 12 'murderers feast'
Too many names for a short story. Nice plot revelation. Weird ending.
⭐⭐⭐ 3 stars

Story 13 'The diamond vanishes'
Loved it!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5 stars

Story 14 'Cape May Murders'
They were asked by police to stay a couple of weeks? Is that regulation? Police just blindly follows suspects instructions, without explanation or reason.
⭐⭐⭐ 3 stars

Story 15 'Change of plans'
I am hella confused
⭐⭐ 2 stars

Story 16 'The Black Widow of Oshogbo'
Too many characters for a short story. Loved the story. Could have been a wonderful full-length standalone book!
⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 stars

Story 17 'The witching hour'
A little predictable, but a lovely story.
⭐⭐⭐ 3 stars

Story 18 'In The Matter of Mabel and Bobby Jefferson'
Very long title. Nice plottwist, but somehow I was not very invested in the characters + plot.
⭐⭐⭐ 3 stars

Story 19 'The night the internet died'
It had the promise of a great story, but the ending fell flat for me.
⭐⭐⭐ 3 stars

Story 20 'Mata Hambre'
A little too much Spanish for me. Some words I had to look up and it took my attention away from the story. Since I am Dutch I already have to translate all the English in my head, so it was a bit much. This is a very personal thing though.
The ending was a bit strange. Especially since not a lot of characters seem to react appropriately to what just happened.
⭐⭐ 2 stars

I had the privilege of reading Midnight Hour ahead of its release thanks to its publishers giving me early access via Net Galley. Midnight Hour will be released on November 9th, 2021. Midnight Hour is an anthology of crime-based short stories written by authors of color. I thoroughly enjoyed each short story included in this book. It was incredible to be able to read stories from authors with such varied backgrounds and life experiences. I highly recommend this anthology to all!

Murder, mystery, horror and thrillers are among my favorite genres to read and this book has them all. This is the Grown Up version of Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark! I love a good short story and this book is packed full of some of the the creepiest, scariest, goose bump raising stories I’ve read this year. I loves how easily they hooked me in and left me looking around to make sure I was safe and sound. Give me more of these!!!

this book is a compilation of stories that are written by a diversed variation of authors, all about murders and horrors. Going through this I thought I would find it mediocre and so-so but I thoroughly enjoyed it! Some of the stories made my skin crawl and actually made me feel things and it's been so long since I felt things for books within this genre because of how hard it is for murder mysteries to be compelling enough for some people, just like me. This book really amazed me with how the stories are all of different forms, from their writing styles to their intricate plot. The only thing that made not bump this to 5 stars was the fact that some stories weren't as good as others but maybe this also shows how there's an existing variety within the book. Highly recommend and a really good read! Thank you for providing an ARC!