Drama, Fiction, Radio, Fiction Subjects

Midnight Cab

Name: Midnight Cab
Author: James W. Nichol
ISBN: 9781841957920

by James W. Nichol

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Overview

"A terrified three-year-old boy is found clinging to a wire fence at the side of a country road. His mother had whispered to him, "Never let go," then vanished. The only clue found by authorities as to the child's identity is a photograph of two summering teenage girls and a letter presumably written from one to the other." Sixteen years later, Walker Devereaux is in Toronto to discover the truth about his biological mother, of whom he has a dim memory. Working as an after-hours cabdriver, Walker befriends Krista, a demanding, pretty, wheelchair-bound night dispatcher. Krista and Walker become fast friends, and she can't help but involve herself with Walker's quest to understand his shrouded identity. Soon enough, though, their off-hours sleuthing turns perilous. Walker and Krista's trajectory through darkened Toronto streets and the eerie, densely wooded countryside veers this duo ever closer to that of another abandoned boy who has transformed himself into the embodiment of his own desperate, violent, and sinister pathologies.

Synopsis

A three-year-old boy is found abandoned and clinging to a wire fence at the side of a country road, terrified. Sixteen years later, Walker Devereaux is in Toronto to discover the truth about his biological mother and start his life in the city. Working as a cabdriver, Walker befriends Krista, a pretty, demanding, wheelchair-bound night dispatcher. Krista and Walker are fast friends, and she can't help but involve herself with Walker's quest to understand his shrouded identity. Soon enough, though, their little off-hours sleuthing turns perilous as they come within the deadly grasp of a man whose own early abandonment has turned him into a desperate and violent psychopath.

Publishers Weekly

Adapted from a popular Canadian radio drama, this light, engaging first novel by playwright Nichol is a coming-of-age story steeped in mystery. Abandoned by the roadside at the age of three, 19-year-old Walker Devereaux sets off to find his birth parents with the aid of only two clues: a photo of his mother as a child and a cryptic letter to her from her best friend. In pursuit of his past, he leaves his adoptive family and girlfriend in Big River and moves to Toronto, where he finds work on the graveyard shift at a cab company. He falls in with his dispatcher, the attractive, wheelchair-bound Krista Papadopoulos. Together, they follow the trail of Walker's parents as it leads from Toronto's chic Forest Hill neighborhood to the shores of Lake Erie and finally to Kingston, Jamaica. Nichol weaves in the story of Bobby, an animal-torturing, Hannibal Lechter-like character who Walker must confront if he is to learn his family's dark past. In an attempt to dissuade them from probing further, Bobby sets Krista's car on fire and kills Walker's cat, Kerouac. Undeterred, Walker soldiers on. Nichol's instincts as a playwright serve him well. The dialogue between Walker and Krista is quick and playful, and though the suspense rarely builds to Hitchcockian heights, the novel is well paced and the pages turn quickly. (Jan.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

About the Author, James W. Nichol

James W. Nichol has been a prominent playwright in Canada since 1970. Midnight Cab was inspired by his immensely popular radio drama of the same name, broadcast on CBC in 35 half-hour episodes and sold internationally on cassette. His adaptation of Margaret Laurence's Stone Angel is currently revived in productions across Canada. Peggy Delaney, his most recent radio series, will feature eighteen new episodes on the CBC's Mystery Project this fall. Midnight Cab is James Nichol's first novel.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly

KLIATT - Nola Theiss

When Walker Devereaux was three, he was left on the side of a rural road near Big River, Ontario. Although he was adopted by a big family, when he turns 19 he seeks out information about his birth parents. This leads him to Toronto to try to find his mother. His only clues are a picture of two teenage girls, one presumably his mother, and a letter written by one of the girls to the other, his mother Lennie. Once he arrives in Toronto, he gets a job driving a cab at night and become involved with Krista Papadopoulos, a young woman in a wheelchair who works as a dispatcher for the cab company. Soon he meets another character named Bobby who is a psychopath. Bobby shares a similar background of abandonment and proves to be a danger to Walker. It is only Krista's ability to unravel Walker's past and to help him follow the clues to his identity that leads him back to the beginning and to safety and knowledge. As the author explains in his acknowledgement, this story was first told in 35 parts as a Canadian radio drama and although it is written as a novel, it retains the dramatic and suspenseful tone of its original format. The characters are young and take charge of their lives, in spite of their handicaps and their unknown pasts, and they will appeal to YAs.

Kirkus Reviews

The Canadian playwright's first novel, based on his own radio drama and first published in his native country in 2002, traces the links across a generation between two lost boys. Walker Devereaux remembers his mother leaving him clinging tightly to a wire fence when he was three years old. And he has a letter that seems to have been written to Lennie, his absent mom, by her school friend Kim, plus a photo that presumably shows the two girls together. But that's all he knows about Lennie or his own early life. At 19, he leaves his adoptive family in Big River to trace a possible lead to Toronto, where he finds a cheap apartment, a night job driving a cab, and a rapidly blooming friendship with Krista Papadopoulos, his wheelchair-bound dispatcher. What he doesn't find is Lennie. In fact, somebody seems to have a special interest in frustrating his search-somebody who breaks into his place, steals the letter and photo, sets fire to Krista's car, and kills a cat who's adopted Walker in turn. Undeterred by these obligatory threats, he traces Lennie to a suburban Ontario town and,ultimately, to Jamaica. As Walker zeroes in on his goal, Nichol keeps flashing back to the story of Bobby Nuremborski, a disturbed little boy 16 years older than Walker who becomes an even more disturbing young man under pressure from his demanding, protective father and his shameful attraction to other boys. Though it's obvious that these two stories will collide, and almost equally obvious how, Nichol keeps tension high by slipping off-kilter new characters into the deck and dangling repeated false solutions in front of Walker until it's finally time to bring his two frightened children face to face. A highlyeffective thriller that freshens familiar scenes, dodges, and themes by fleshing them out with an appealingly new cast.