The book
A superlative work of hardboiled detective fiction, The Midnight Promise introduces readers to an instant classic in the annals of noir antiheros: P.I. John Dorn. Dorn’s woman has left him, he lives in his office, and he drinks too much. His one friend, a lawyer named Demetri, hands him an infinite supply of lost causes, to which Dorn, ever the champion of the underdog and the oppressed, is drawn to “as a sledgehammer is to a kneecap.” A great read for fans of China Miéville's genre-bending crime fiction and for readers of superlative procedurals like Ian Rankin's Rebus novels and Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder books, The Midnight Promise wonderfully evokes the underbelly of contemporary Melbourne, its battlers, its hard men, its victims, and its ill-fated heroes.
The author
Zane Lovitt
Zane Lovitt's stories have appeared in Scribe's New Australian Stories 2 and in the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. The Midnight Promise is his first book. He lives in Melbourne.
Press
- Aug 2 2013
Endless Falls Up Blog: "The Midnight Promise offers a ruthless view of modern Australia..." - Jun 5 2013
Booklist: "Lovitt is sure-handed in sketching characters, and he laces Dorn's cases with sardonic humor and prodigious bits of human frailty." - May 6 2013
Publishers Weekly (Starred Review): "Lovitt's powerful hard-boiled debut..." - May 1 2013
Detective Mystery Magazine: “What You Get Is Good Story Telling” - Apr 30 2013
AustCrimeFiction: "Beautifully written, wonderfully evocative."