The Darkest Time of Night (Jeremy Finley)

The Darkest Time of Night
Jeremy Finley
St. Martin's Press
Fiction, Sci-Fi/Thriller
*** (Okay)

DESCRIPTION: As a girl, Lynn's father only ever struck her once: the time she broke the rule and followed him into the woods behind their Nashville home. He was adamant that she never go in there, that it was dangerous, that people who wandered into those woods never returned. Growing up, Lynn raised her children with the same rule. Now in her 70's, she tries to discourage her grandchildren, as well. But little boys will be little boys, and one night young William ventures into the trees on a dare - and doesn't come back. The only witness is his brother Brian, who is struck mute by whatever he saw, save one last sentence whispered to his nana: "The lights took him."
Lynn knows those words. She remembers them from when she was a young woman working with an eccentric astronomy professor who ran a sideline investigating mysterious abductions where people disappeared into lights from the sky. Though Lynn could hardly credit the idea of aliens and government conspiracies, she saw many things in her time with Stephen, things nobody else would believe. She tried to put that all behind her when she became a mother and her husband's legal and political career took off. Now, with William's disappearance, she can't shake the gut feeling telling her that the boy's disappearance is no simple kidnapping - and that maybe her father knew full well what might happen to children who wandered into the woods behind the house, all those years ago. In order to find the boy, Lynn will have to return to her own past and memories she tried her best to bury.

REVIEW: This story has such a strong X-Files vibe that I have to wonder if it started life as an alternate universe fic of Mulder and Scully, in a timeline where neither were in the FBI but both got pulled into the Conspiracy all the same. The conspiracy theorist professor even was spurred by witnessing a sister's abduction as a child, while the obligatory "men in black" (also women) spend an awful lot of time smoking while spouting their threats and manipulations of the truth. Enough of the serial numbers have been filed off that it's not quite the same dynamics.
Lynn's a politician's wife and garden shop owner, a woman who has settled for a life she's clearly not happy with and a man she tolerates rather than loves (a feeling that seems so clearly reciprocal that one wonders why the two bothered getting married at all, when she has stronger chemistry with - and is so much more obviously respected by - other people). As such, she's packed her intelligence and wants and needs away and doesn't ask questions anymore about anything. She also spends too much time not doing things and sitting on facts, even when a child's life is on the line. It takes a determined long-time friend a lot of effort to push her into saying anything, to others or the reading audience, and even then it's couched in qualifiers and hems and haws to the point of frustration. Much of the plot hinges on people knowing important things and not telling other people those things until it's almost (or actually is) too late, or simply not listening or believing so said things have to be repeated. As Lynn slowly and reluctantly returns to her roots and old contacts in the UFO hunting community, she adroitly dodges and ignores bright red flags that tie everything to her own history, then spends some time giving up until finally pushed onto the trail again. Readers really enjoy it when a main character decides the plot isn't worth pursuing for significant stretches of the story... I suppose. In any event, as Lynn gets pushed back into the deep end (taking her friend and garden shop co-owner with her, a gutsy woman who provides a lot more spunk and initiative than Lynn, who has literal skin and flesh and blood in the game), she uncovers a thorny conspiracy and a danger that extends far beyond anything she ever imagined even at the height of her UFO investigation days... and a plot that, if you think about it too much, doesn't make a ton of logical sense, but does provide a lot of X-Files-style deception and danger, complete with secret bases and stolen memories and a truth that is, indeed, out there. At several turns, I wanted to shake Lynn to get her to stop being so willfully obtuse and spineless about her own convictions, and shake other people for not having spit out things that would've saved everyone a lot of grief when they had the chance (and didn't spit out for the flimsiest of reasons). It builds to a somewhat over-the-top climax and epilogue that gives every hint of The Darkest Time of Night wanting to become a series, though thus far this book remains a standalone. Which is just as well, as I don't think Lynn would carry a series that well, given how hard she had to be pushed and shoved and coaxed and threatened to get on with the plot in this one. (I stand corrected - there is apparently at least one more novel.)
This is another title that had some decent ideas and moments, but ultimately fell flat to me, maybe trying a little too hard as it both emulated and tried not to directly copy The X-Files.

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