‘This is a work of fiction. This is not a confession.’
Lucas Cole is a bestselling writer. He is also a father, a widower, and a beloved celebrity in his small town. He is an unassuming man - tall, thin and quietly friendly. Lucas Cole is also a serial killer.
Nathan Cole has known the truth about his father since he was ten years old. Too terrified to go to the police, he ran away from home as soon as he was able, carrying the guilt of leaving his sister behind. But when Lucas is found dead in a dingy motel room, Nathan returns to his childhood home for the first time in seventeen years. It’s there he finds The Midnight King, his father’s final unpublished manuscript, a fictionalised account of his hideous crimes, hidden in a box of trinkets taken from his victims. Trinkets that include a ribbon belonging to a missing eight-year-old girl who disappeared only days before his father’s death.
Now, Nathan must deal with the consequences of keeping his father’s secret. But it may not be as simple as finding a lost child. For The Midnight King holds Nathan’s secrets as well as Lucas’s, and he is not the only one searching for the truth…
I’m thrilled to be sharing my review of The Midnight King by Tariq Ashkanani today. Huge thanks to Viper for my advance copy of the novel, received through Netgalley.
I was blown away by Tariq Ashkanai’s debut, Welcome to Cooper and its sequel, Follow Me to the Edge, cemented his position as one of my must-read authors. The Midnight King was one of my most eagerly anticipated novels of 2025 and while it may still be early in the year to start mentioning top reads, this stunningly dark thriller is going to take some beating…
Lucas Cole was better known to his legions of fans as Jack Cross, the author of glossy bestselling novels he acknowledges in his final book, “idolise vigilante justice, casual sexism and toxic masculinity.” However, his unpublished manuscript, entitled The Midnight King is written under his own name, rather than a pseudonym and in his author’s notes, he explains is a fictionalised account of local serial killer, the Music City Monster. Between August 1994 and May 2008, this serial killer murdered thirteen children and seven parents, but his reign apparently came to an end when Edward Morrison was convicted of the abduction of a ten-year-old boy and the first degree murder of his parents. Except now Chloe Xi, an eight-year-old girl is missing, and although Lucas Cole has recently been found hanged in a hotel room, it looks as though his story isn’t finished after his son, Nathan discovers Chloe’s red ribbons among his collection of trinkets saved from his scores of victims.
The intricately layered plot mostly follows the perspectives of Nathan, who has returned to Nashville after years away, and his childhood friend, Isaac, a former police detective, now a private investigator who has also come back to their hometown. Lucas’s manuscript adds a fascinating, metafictional element to the storyline and gives us an insight into the warped psyche of a killer who abducted and murdered scores of children. What’s perhaps even more intriguing though is the impact his words have on those who read them. As Isaac eventually realises, Cole’s confession is ultimately “a viral load. It’s a concentrated dose of madness.”
Tariq Ashkanani avoids having a heroic protagonist in The Midnight King, preferring instead to reflect a more nuanced, believable reality and so Isaac is constantly fighting the darkness which almost consumed him when the accumulated burden of all he bore witness to as a detective finally became too much. Forced to leave after he violently snapped, the physical and mental scars still weigh heavily on him, manifesting in the form of his chronic stomach problems. He agrees to take on the case intending to only work on it for a couple of days before handing over any information he uncovers to the police. However, they are dismissive and he is soon embroiled in a case which risks him becoming more damaged than ever.
Meanwhile, Nathan is haunted by his upbringing and tormented by guilt. He too was a victim of his father’s violence but when he realises that Chloe was probably taken by Cole, he finally has the opportunity to act upon the feelings which have plagued him for years. His return to Nashville also reunites him with his sister, Kate, now married to Bruce but likewise, indelibly affected by their warped childhood and the secrets they kept.
The propulsive plot twists and turns relentlessly but as much as this is a breathtakingly creepy, disturbing and shocking mystery, it is also a razor-sharp, complex exploration of the motivation behind the characters’ actions and the moral dilemmas which find them seeking both justice and release from their respective demons. The Midnight King isn’t a book for the faint-hearted; it is a brooding, atmospheric thriller which never flinches from portraying the murkiest shadows of humanity. However, readers who yearn for provocative, risk-taking crime fiction with a rich sense of place need look no further. Devastatingly dark, gritty and twisted, The Midnight King is an exceptional read and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
About the Author
Tariq Ashkanani is a solicitor and co-host of the writing podcast Page One. His debut novel, Welcome to Cooper, won the Bloody Scotland Debut Award 2022, as well as being shortlisted for both the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger and Capital Crime Fingerprint Award. His second novel, Follow Me to the Edge, was published in 2022. His upcoming novel, The Midnight King, will be published by Viper in 2025. He lives in Edinburgh with his wife and two sons.
