Date published June 2006
ISBN 0-345-48650-1
Suspense
Hard Cover
Reviewed by Gina
Following the death of her husband and after weighing her options, Cate Nightingale moved, with her twin boys to Trail Stop, Idaho. Aptly named for what it is—the end of the trail, Cate purchased a bed and breakfast that she and her husband had visited during their avid rock climbing days. While not where she would have thought she would spend her life it offers a secure home and environment for her children. Aware of each other, yet not imposing on privacy. The town handyman, Cal Harris seems to be able to fix anything and everything and a bemused Cate finds herself calling him in to fix this and that on a routine basis.
Cal Harris has a secret. Actually, he has a few of them and as each one enfolds Cate finds herself more and more surprised by a man she thought shy, retiring and eternally tongue tied. The bigger secret, however, is the one kept by former tenant, Jeffrey Layton.
Layton checked into the out of the way B&B, made a quick appearance one morning and then abruptly disappeared without a trace, but leaving behind his solitary suitcase and shaving kit. Cate swings back and forth between anger, amusement and worry pondering what happened to Mr. Layton. Had she known what had he ran from, fear would most definitely have been added to that list of emotions. When two hitmen arrive in Trail Stop they demand Layton’s belongings, which Cate turns over…but she forgets one piece. It is that one piece that brings not only the hit men back.
The premise of Cover of Night is intriguing and was what drew this Reviewer to her first book by Ms. Howard. The easy pace of the beginning of the book sets the scene of a young widow trying to raise rambunctious twin boys. It almost reads like a good heart wrenching Woman’s Fiction, however the story ambles it’s way towards suspense. Unfortunately, it never quite made it there. While the idea of isolating an entire town to achieve a goal is captivating to consider, this Reviewer could not make the leap to the bad guys doing this almost out of hand, making what followed implausible. When the device is discovered missing it would have made more sense for one of the hit men to call and simply say he was an associate of Layton’s and that Layton asked him to retrieve his belongings. One of the culprits, Goss, is actually an engaging sort of man, one who could be turned right by the right kind of woman. In fact, a story of his own would make for a good read. Goss is not only engaging, he is bright, so the actions he took were surprising, but not credible.
There are four other characters that this Reviewer found quite interesting: Joshua Creed, Cal, Neenah and Teague. Apparently Creed and Cal were in the Marines together. Or there is an allusion to it. Including their back story earlier on, perhaps when Teague recalls his interactions with Creed, would have made for a more interesting story. Yet the reader is only told they had some sort of connection. While it is good reading to have it be a surprise to Cate, developing these threads would have made for more fascinating reading for the reader. Neenah as well is an interesting character. She was a nun and while some mention is made early on and there are a few amusing segments where Creed, who is apparently attracted to her mulls over her former avocation, nothing is played up about it. Even a few scenes inside Neenah’s head and why she left the nunnery would have connected her to this reviewer. Aside from an implausible situation, this reader struggled with why such fascinating characters would be formed with no connection either between them or to the reader was developed.
Because several friends have highly recommended Ms. Howard to this reviewer I will again sample one of her books. To Ms. Howard’s credit her characters are interesting enough to give her another try. With a back list as extensive as the one Ms. Howard holds it is easy to see where one book may fall short of the mark. Cover of Night is a good read if you are able to suspend reality and merely go with the flow into the suspense and terror of being trapped in a town by unknown people, with no power, no phone and no way out.
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