As a preface, I recently read and reviewed for Fear Zone, Gabrielle S. Faust's wonderful first novel, Eternal Vigilance. This is a truly remarkable and memorable piece of writing. It is not all that common to experience such an artistic talent, and it is therefore worth highlighting and emphasizing when encountered. In my experience, to immediately prior or subsequent to such a fine literary discovery also come upon a second work of similar artistic and creative merit is exceedingly rare. Yet, that is just what has happened to me. Just prior to my receipt of Gabrielle S. Faust's already discussed Eternal Vigilance, I received a package from Paul Miller at Earthling Publications which, when opened, revealed an Advanced Review/Reader's Copy (ARC) of Earthling's about-to-be-released novel by Christopher Conlon, Midnight on Mourn Street. Conlon is a noted author of short fiction and poetry that has been published in a wide range of magazines and anthologies. His short fiction collection Thundershowers at Dusk: Gothic Stories was published in 2006 to glowing reviews. Conlon is also a noted anthology editor; his original and highly praised anthology, Poe's Lighthouse, having been published in 2006 by Cemetery Dance Publications, and his forthcoming 2009 Gauntlet Press anthology honoring author Richard Matheson, He Is Legend: Celebrating Richard Matheson has already been receiving a great deal of positive buzz.

Midnight On Mourn Street is being released in June 2008 by Earthling Publications as a two hundred and twenty page trade softcover (with the first one hundred copies being signed by the author) for an affordable $16.00, and also as a numbered, signed limited hardcover edition of one hundred copies at a cost of $50.00. Both editions feature an Introduction by noted author William F. Nolan, as well as striking cover art provided by the talented artist Edward Miller.

Midnight on Mourn Street is Conlon's debut novel, and it is a stunning, virtuoso debut. The novel, set in contemporary Washington, D.C., introduces and involves us in the lives of three characters: Reed Waters, Mauri Dyson, and William Bliss. Reed is a polite, quiet, and very private man entering early middle age who lives alone in an old house and who works in a rather menial job at an inner city soup kitchen. Reed meets and befriends William (Will) Bliss at a music store. Will is a late-teenaged African American who lives and works in an economically depressed area of the city, with his mother and numerous younger siblings, and dreams of gaining a scholarship so that he can pursue an otherwise unavailable college education. Will is the antithesis of a typical ghetto-dwelling youth, always immaculately dressed and groomed, speaking English without any trace of slang, enjoying classical music rather than hip-hop or rap. In so being, Will manages to make his life "in the Hood" that much more difficult for himself, standing out, in an area where it is rather dangerous to be both different and conspicuous. Of course, Reed and Will don't make the likeliest of friends, but they form a fast and growing friendship nevertheless. All this begins to change when Mauri appears half-frozen, sitting down in front of Reed's house in the midst of a winter snowstorm. Mauri, aged around sixteen years, is a teenage runaway who has learned to live on the mean streets of Urban USA, and will lie, cheat, steal, and even prostitute herself in order to stay alive. The key here is that none of these three people are quite what they at first seem to be. All three are keeping secrets, some shocking, some horrifying, but all are explosive and life-altering. The method and careful craft by which author Conlon carefully peels the layers of artifice, hidden motivations, and even self-deceit away from these characters and reveals their innermost cores is nothing short of brilliant.

Conlon creates three very memorable and complex characters and brings them all to vivid life in his novel. These are believable, real people, people that you will find yourself truly caring about and in whose futures you will be fully invested. Conlon is an accomplished poet as well as a fiction writer, and it shows in the sometimes dazzling and always impressive use of language found throughout the novel. Conlon does not use language ostentatiously, and thus the reader is never removed from the story itself when reading the novel. Rather the skilled and creative use of language transports the reader more fully into the story itself.

Midnight on Mourn Street is a "horror novel" in the same way and to similar extent that novels such as Lord Of The Flies and even Oliver Twist can be labeled as such. There are times within all three novels where fear and/or terror become the prevailing and operative emotions. However, all three novels truly transcend any easy genre-labels, and are primarily, and in a very good way, literature, plain and simple. A booklover can read steadily for many years without encountering a novel to equal the power and brilliance of Midnight on Mourn Street . It is a unique and truly remarkable debut by Christopher Conlon, and I hope that he is already busy writing his next novel for our edification, enrichment, and enjoyment. Kudos to Paul Miller and Earthling Publications for recognizing the excellence of Conlon's first novel, and for taking on the risks inherent in publishing any first novel.

Midnight on Mourn Street is a truly exceptional novel, one that could easily and deservedly become assigned reading for any number of advanced high school and university level English and Literature courses, with the added benefit of also being eminently enjoyable. I hope that everyone reading this review will not just obtain, but actually read the novel. After having read it twice through, I know that I felt it sufficiently worthwhile to formally recommend Midnight on Mourn Street for consideration for the Stoker Award for Best First Novel, (as I did with Ms. Faust's Eternal Vigilance). It is not a step that I take lightly nor often, and may be taken as a sign of my highest regard and endorsement of the book.