Midnight on Mourn Street
Christopher Conlon
Earthling Publications, $16, 220 pages, ISBN: 9780979505430
reviewed by Barry Hunter

Earthling has published quite a number of interesting titles, but this one is one of the most interesting, well written books to come from any publisher lately.

Christopher Conlon has taken a small cast of characters and tells a story of intertwined fates, extreme circumstances and an ending that will remain on your mind after you finish the novel.

Reed Waters works in a soup kitchen in Washington, DC, but leads a solitary lonely life. He mentors Will Bliss, a young black man hoping for a scholarship to improve his lot in life. Reed keeps a low profile because he has a secret.

Mauri is a teenaged runaway who shows up sleeping on Reed’s lawn. She has done what ever it takes to get by on the street. Even with all she has done, she also has a secret.

As Reed and Mauri grow to know each other and Will ends up as a background player, the two secrets become known and the story ends on a note of hope and redemption.

This is Conlon’s first novel and it is one that sure to gain him notice and after you read this, he will be on your list to be on the lookout for. Congratulations to Conlon and Earthling for a hauntingly memorable book.