Midnight Cab by
James W Nichol
pbk out February 04
(Canongate Books)
at £9.99
Playwright James Nichol's first book takes its inspiration from his hit Canadian
radio series, also called Midnight Cab. In that series of half-hour mini-dramas,
Walker Devereaux was an aspiring writer turned taxi driver, drawn into the
lives of his fares by their stories and behaviour, and assisted in his
investigations by the crippled Krista, the despatcher for the taxi company for
which they both work.
Here we first meet Walker Devereaux at the age of three, abandoned by
his mother and clutching a roadside wire fence. "Hold on tight" she'd told him.
His rescuers must pry his fingers one by one from from the fence. Sixteen
years later, he leaves his adopted family and sets out for Toronto, convinced
by a letter and an old photograph recovered from police files, that the big city
conceals the secrets of his past. But what if those secrets are things he'd
really rather not know, secrets that might expose him to unimagined danger?
By no means groundbreaking stuff then. But Nichols's economic, often
evocative prose, quickly overcomes any feelings of unease as Walker
establishes himself in Toronto and involves Krista in his quest. But those
uneasy feelings begin to reappear as Nichols develops a second, parallel
narrative strand. This features Bobby, a young boy brought up in rather
different family circumstances, circumstances that will produce, it is clear quite
early on, a psychopath of traditional if formulaic dimensions. Most crime fans
will have a pretty good idea where we go from here.
Nevertheless the plot has all the requisite twists and turns and the
suspense quotient is high. Whilst I would have preferred that both the
characters of Walker and Krista and their evolving relationship were more
fleshed out (perhaps not a problem for regular listeners to the radio series?)
what you are left with is a well-written page-turner that will whistle you through
the pages until tomorrow comes. You could do far worse.
Midnight Cab by
James W Nichol
