Published By: Viper
Pages: 352
Released On: 10/04/2025
‘This is a work of fiction. This is not a confession.’
Lucas Cole is a bestselling writer. He is also a father, a widower, and a beloved celebrity in his small town. He is an unassuming man - tall, thin and quietly friendly. Lucas Cole is also a serial killer.
Nathan Cole has known the truth about his father since he was ten years old. Too terrified to go to the police, he ran away from home as soon as he was able, carrying the guilt of leaving his sister behind. But when Lucas is found dead in a dingy motel room, Nathan returns to his childhood home for the first time in seventeen years. It’s there he finds The Midnight King, his father’s final unpublished manuscript, a fictionalised account of his hideous crimes, hidden in a box of trinkets from his victims. Trinkets that include a ribbon belonging to a missing eight-year-old girl who disappeared only days before his father’s death.
Now, Nathan must deal with the consequences of keeping his father’s secret. But it may not be as simple as finding a lost child. For The Midnight King holds Nathan’s secrets as well as Lucas’s, and he is not the only one searching for the truth…
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Viper for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
This is my first book of Tariq’s and was super excited to read it.
It’s like a book within a book, which was interesting as it feels as though the characters are finding things out at the same time as the reader.
It is very graphic. At first, I meant that in the sense of the descriptions of what has happened as opposed to describing the murders, it was more graphic in the images you create in your head. But as the book goes on, it gets worse and worse in terms of the graphic. Especially as it’s child murder, and animal murder. Obviously no murder is easy to read about, but child and animal murder seem to be the two that affect people the most, and so it does do well to have a strong stomach.
On more than one occasion I did let out an audible gasp, as Tariq presented twists and shocks that I never saw coming, which is exactly what I want from a thriller. And by the time you get to the last third, it’s twists left, right and centre, and yet it never feels too much.
It’s been a while since a book made me feel physically uncomfortable like this one did. It’s dark and unsettling and frightening and emotional. And as the reader you feel powerless to help the characters.
If you’re a thriller fan, then definitely get this book on your radar. It’ll be unlike anything you’ve read before, and yet will still hit those buttons you expect from the genre.
There has been a lot of hype about this, people saying how it’ll be the thriller of the year, and whilst it may only be March (at time of reading), I can definitely see why they’re saying it. It’s uncomfortable, torturous, horrific, sad, tense, dark, morbid, frightening, mad, horrendous, scary, rabid, thrilling, and absolutely 5-star fantastic! It’s so intelligently written, so clever, and has so much depth. I’ll definitely be looking up his other books.
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