Just After Midnight is an effective suspense thriller with fast pacing and an unexpected ending. Too bad it isn’t longer. If it were, it might actually have a believable romance as well; as romantic suspense it doesn’t quite work.

When Danielle Williams was a high school senior, she began receiving notes from a secret admirer. At first she was flattered. Then the home of her rival for class valedictorian and a prestigious scholarship was burned down, killing the boy and his parents. Her admirer sent her a note assuring her he did it for her. If that wasn’t bad enough, her necklace was found on the scene, leading the police to believe she did it herself. She continued to live under a cloud of suspicion until, after winning that scholarship, she was able to leave her East Texas hometown to attend college in Connecticut.

There she met and fell in love with one of her classmates. When he, too, was killed in a mysterious fire, Danielle knew her admirer had caught up with her. With the assistance of a therapist she began seeing after the first incident, she changed her name and transferred to a different school. Years later, she is now known as Darien West, a criminal psychologist who often works with the Houston Police Department. She lives an isolated life without many close relationships, continually fearing that her admirer will find her.

When Richard Berkley moves in next door to her, Darien is understandably wary. She has good reason to be. Richard Berkley isn’t her stalker; he’s the brother of her college sweetheart. Having learned about her past, Richard is convinced that she’s a black widow who killed his brother, especially since she inherited a large sum of money from his estate after his death. He spent years tracking her down. Now that he has found her, he intends to catch her by making her fall for him, then waiting for her to come after him. But he’s not the only one who has uncovered Darien’s whereabouts, and it isn’t long before her admirer strikes again.

As a suspense novel, this is a gripping read. The first chapter is kind of clunky and the story initially doesn’t seem that promising. But once the action moves to the present day, it really starts to click. I tore through it in less than two hours, never putting it down once I picked it up. It’s a moody story with a nice sense of building tension. The mystery is effective, with a number of possible suspects, none of whom leaps out as obvious. The author also delivers an effective twist at the end. Darien is a sympathetic heroine and Richard, while not particularly likeable, is an interesting figure. The plot moves quickly, making for a fast, exciting read. On that level, I really enjoyed it.

At 300 pages, this is one of Harlequin’s short single-titles, and it really could have used the extra length afforded in a bigger book. The romance is fairly unconvincing. Richard spends well over two-thirds of the book hating Darien. Not just being suspicious of her, but hating her. It lasts so long that the author forces an abrupt about-face in the last quarter or so of the story to have him fall in love with her. It was too little way too late for me to believe in their happy ending. It certainly didn’t help that I didn’t get any sense that Darien was attracted to him, other than she was feeling vulnerable and turned to her neighbor for help. The last few chapters are also very rushed, as though the author realized she was running out of space and has to hurry to squeeze everything in. The ending is completely abrupt, which made it less satisfying than it might have been. The story felt well-paced for the most part, moving as a good, steady rate, until the author suddenly slammed on the accelerator near the end, only to slam on the brakes as soon as the destination was reached. I almost had whiplash.

Just After Midnight doesn’t lack for entertainment, even if it doesn’t satisfy on all counts. It’s a chilling mystery that will keep suspense fans on their toes. Readers looking for a believable love story on the other hand will have to look elsewhere.