One Moment After Midnight is a mixed bag. It starts off with a lot of excitement, but the action is tempered by some really stupid moves on the part of the heroine. Between that and a lack of coherence where the villain is concerned, this book never moved much out of average range.

Hannah Blackstone’s daughter Jolie has disappeared, and Hannah is positive that her abusive ex-husband, who is a policeman, took her for revenge. Her ex’s former partner hates Hannah enough to throw her under suspicion, which stalls the investigation into Jolie’s disappearance. After accidentally knocking out a cop, Hannah sees no choice but to run and search for her daughter herself. Her next door neighbor, Quinn, decides to help after she nearly steals his car. Okay. Turns out that Quinn is a former reporter with a reason to want to help Hannah.

Despite her first stupid move, Hannah turns out not to be so bad. She has a mother’s single-minded protective instincts to save her child, and a lot of mistrust of men in general thanks to her ex. Strangely, she accepts Quinn’s help. She’s abrasive, but understandably so in her situation. She warms up as the story moves on. I think Richards portrays a desperate woman searching for her child quite believably.

Quinn’s a bit more mysterious, but not too hard to figure out. It’s obvious he’s trying to make up for something. When it’s revealed what that is, it’s conveniently similar to what Hannah is going through.

Both characters are appealing enough, and they are constantly on the move. The action drew me in as my mind went where Richards wanted it to go in regard to the suspects. However, I just didn’t buy that going on the run was the only way for Hannah to find her daughter. Granted, it helped to have an investigative reporter assisting in the search, but it would have been more logical and realistic for Quinn to use his contacts and skills to draw attention to the situation and get help from other law enforcement agencies in addition to the small-town police.

The kidnapper came out of nowhere and didn’t make much sense to me. The first few suspects made more sense, but I suppose that would have been too obvious. Then again, sometimes there’s nothing wrong with being obvious.

Despite a stupid move or two on the heroine’s part and the random kidnapper, Richards’ story drew me in and kept me reading. There’s enough good here to balance what made me think I wouldn’t like the rest of the story. This is not a bad way to spend a few hours, though I have one more quibble with the editor who stuck the Men in Blue icon on this book. I was under the impression that was reserved for books where the hero was the cop, not the bad guy. Somebody let this one slip past.