Midnight — Kevin Egan

Midnight is a compulsively readable legal thriller by Kevin Egan that keeps tightening the screws with every page.

How long can you hide a death?

The New York County Courthouse, in Lower Manhattan, has its own rules and traditions. When a judge dies, the members of his staff keep their jobs until the end of that calendar year. So when Judge Alvin Canter quietly expires in his chambers on December 31st, his loyal clerk and secretary find themselves in a difficult situation. Their jobs will vanish at closing time -- unless they can conceal the judge's death until after midnight.

Neither Tom Carroway nor Carol Scilingo can afford to be out of work. Tom is deeply in debt to an impatient loan shark, while Carol is a struggling single mom whose young son and aging mother depend heavily on her. And both Tom and Carol have secrets they're desperate to keep hidden.

Their plan seems simple enough: make it look like the judge died at home on New Year's Day. But that's before other people get involved: a crooked union boss, a brutal mob enforcer, and Carol's suspicious ex-boyfriend. . . .

Pretty soon, Tom and Carol find themselves over their heads in an increasingly dangerous conspiracy. And if they're not very careful, more than one body may be discovered in the new year.