The Midnight Knock

By John Fram
** Publication Date 21 October 2025 **
​4 stars


I love books that take you on an unexpected journey. Where concepts of time and space are just blown away. Where nothing is as it seems and even the format of the book is simply crazy. The Midnight Knock is one of these.


Ethan and Hunter are traveling from Ethan’s home in Ellersby, West Texas, when they stop at a diner. Ethan has an encounter with a really strange man in a gabardine suit that has seen better days. The man tells Ethan things that are odd and frightening. 


Fernanda and Kyla are also traveling down the same road. They pass the diner where Ethan and Hunter left shortly before them. They do not stop. They continue down the road.


Somewhere along this road Ethan and Hunter run out of gas. They stop on the side of the road underneath a sign that tells them a motel is 5 miles ahead with gas and food. They begin to walk. Fernanda and Kyla pass them, but do not stop for them. Eventually they will all reach the motel.


This is no ordinary motel. And the things that will happen there will make little to no sense at all. The four travelers will be joined by others - the twins who run the motel, Stanley and his granddaughter Penelope, Sarah the physicist, Ryan Phan, and of course, the man in the gabardine suit. It is in this motel that time will bend, creatures will appear, and death will come. Again and again. 


Wild and weird and terrifying and haunting. This is a book like no other. I’m sometimes blown away by the creativity that some writers have. The way that they can catch you in a novel and trap you there. Your mind cannot let it go. This is one of those. The format of the novel will throw you at first, but then you’ll catch on. There are so many surprises throughout the story. The people you least expect to be your heroes, somehow will be. 


A little bit of fantasy, a little bit of horror, a little bit of suspense, and a lot of brilliant writing. Absolutely recommend.