Midnight Horror Show

By: Ben Lathrop

Narrated by: Tee Quillin

Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

It's end of October 1985, and the crumbling river town of Dubois, Iowa, is shocked by the gruesome murder of one of the pillars of the community. Detective David Carlson has no motive, no evidence, and only one lead: the macabre local legend of "Boris Orlof", a late-night horror-movie host who burned to death during a stage performance at the drive-in on Halloween night 20 years ago, and the teenage loner obsessed with keeping his memory alive.

The body count is rising, and the darkness that hangs over the town grows by the hour. Time is running out, as Carlson desperately chases shadows into a nightmare world of living horrors.

On Halloween, the drive-in reopens for a midnight show that no one will ever forget.

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Best 8 hour road trip companion ever

I bought and read the book when it was first published. I thoroughly enjoyed the reading experience. When the audible book came out, I bought it and saved it for a road trip from Durango, Co to Phoenix, Az...8 hours without gas/bathroom/lunch stops. This audible book made the trip a pleasure and kept both me and my passenger engrossed in the exceptional plot. The narrator did an excellent job with the various characters and changing degrees of pace through the investigation and resolution of an unexpected and exciting climax.

I would wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone who likes a bit of the unexpected, hard to explain and totally surprising with a very good mystery. Congratulations to the author and the narrator for a very fine audiobook!

A Spook-Tacular Experience

A little backstory might be in order for this review.
This story is built around the old Screen Gems release of Universal horror pictures in syndication to television stations in the late 1950s. With the encouragement that the stations bring in a host to introduce the "Shock" and later "Son of Shock" pictures, Screen Gems helped to platform an industry, first popularized by Vampira, the original horror host on television. There have been many others along the way, including notable icons such as Vincent Price, Joe Bob Briggs, and Elvira. Midnight Horror Show captures a nostalgic snapshot of a time that's lost in memory, turning it into something truly sinister, and telling a fantastic tale along the way.
With a series of unusual killings in the sleepy Iowa town of Dubois in 1985, Detective David Carlson finds himself thrust into the midst of an all-too-real horror show. Investigating the seemingly unrelated crimes, he encounters James West, a strange young man with a fixation on horror and heavy metal, soon to host his own horror show at a local drive-in with a dark history.
James's obsession with a former television and drive-in host, Boris Orlof, brings Detective Carlson face-to-face with secrets and terrifying truths previously buried in the past. Confronting his own forgotten memories, a file of missing person cases from twenty years before, and the very real possibility that there's more than simple movie magic taking place behind the scenes, Detective West finds himself fighting a ticking clock to solve the unbelievable mystery and save the young man he's grudgingly befriended before Halloween night.
Midnight Horror Show is a captivating story that leaves you guessing what's going to happen right up until the end. When you think you have a handle on what's next, Lathrop manages to dodge your assumptions and veer off in a different direction.
The narration provided by Tee Quillin is fantastic and believable as he voices the assorted characters populating the tale with seeming ease.