A review: http://www.jgoodwin.net/?p=666

Alice in Wonderland as told by the cast of Deep Throat without any depth - no pun intended. Perhaps if I empathized with any of the characters my reaction would be different. The allusions to Alice In Wonderland are as subtle as blunt force trauma, which could be forgiven if, like Alice, there was cause for belief suspension. But Saknussemm keeps interjecting flashes of reality into the mix. While Alice befriended the constant flow of strange events and characters, there is but one piece of strangeness amidst a pseudo-noir setting with a two-dimensional protagonist purportedly on a quest of self-discovery through sexual situations that rival the best (or worst) of any BDSM porn film.

Private Midnight is not a continuation of the Loadmania Testament. It is not a sequel, or prequel, to Zanesville, Kris Saknussemm’s debut novel. Private Midnight succeeds totally on its own merits. I think that shows the author is not a fluke, not a one trick pony, he can write in other styles, he has other stories to tell us, and he writes very well indeed.

What does unite this story with the previous one is they are both totally bizarre departures from their expected paths. Without giving too much of the story away, a major portion of the plot is devoted to a hard-nosed male detective with some loose moral values and enough childhood trauma to make any psychiatrist very rich, Birch Ritter, being slowly transformed into Sunny, a decidedly un-male character.

One of the more subtle changes in the book, in direct contrast to the dramatic change Birch Ritter goes through, is the language. At the beginning of the novel, the dialog is all crisp and filled with the usual detective story aphorisms and descriptions. As Sunny becomes the more dominant character, the language slowly softens and the observations become more subtle. You should not take this to mean that Sunny is a soft woman, no, far from it; she becomes a woman with a mission to fulfill. The author is to be applauded for such attention to detail.

Private Midnight lacks the kick to the head, the “I’ve Never Read Anything Like This Before” feeling I got from Zanesville. Once I got over my disappointment of still not having the promised continuation of that trip, I found myself pulled deeply into the story and discovered it had some amazing quirks of its own that does indeed set it apart from a lot of other works out there. Once again, Saknussemm takes us places other authors only hint at. Philip K Dick comes close to probing the human psyche as deeply or asking about the definitions of the Self, but Saknussemm does it from a different direction.

If you are a fan of gender bending literature, if you are not afraid to confront our dual natures, try it. If you like your detective and police stories more in line with the classic Raymond Chandler or Joseph Wambaugh mold, don’t bother. Fans of the weird should enjoy this.

Overall, I’m going four stars plus some for this. Call it four and a half because it is a unique mashup of modern fantasy, eroticism and detective novel not quite like anything else out there. ( )

I may never look at Law & Order the same way again. Private Midnight starts out reading like a hard-boiled police procedural, but it turned into something much darker and much more twisted. This tale reaches into the dark deep hidden corners of your mind and then rather than pull you up, pushes you deeper. Private Midnight isn't for the squimish or the feint of heart, and I do want to warn right now that this review covers some of the adult material (although not in graphic detail) so please be warned before you click the "Read more..." Link ( )