Memories of Midnight

Sidney Sheldon’s The Other Side of Midnight was his breakout mega-successful novel. It is also by far the worst he’s written in hindsight. So you can guess why I was less than enthusiastic about reading its sequel, Memories of Midnight. The least interesting book and setting getting an expansion?

Thankfully, I could see from the first few dozen pages that this was better. The Sidney Sheldon formula he developed after Midnight was obvious, and that’s not a bad thing. Young Constanin Demiris is more interesting as he heads to Saudi Arabia, and Sheldon’s research into both the mechanics of oil drills and the “desert queen” phenomenon where scarce western women become fifty times more attractive in such an environment is a lot better than “here’s Aristotle Onassis”.

Sadly, we had to return to Catherine The Dull, the “heroine” of the last book before she got amnesia (long story). Which leads to a pattern in this book: When it goes back to its wretched predecessor, it doesn’t often work (although shipping tycoon Demiris is far better an antagonist than the two in Midnight, or even the past version of himself). When it stretches its legs into the world of the pop epic Sheldon excelled at so much, it works. There’s even an eerily prophetic courtroom scene where a super-defense lawyer in a high profile case uses a physical prop (I won’t spoil it) in a way that reminded me of the later OJ Simpson trial to get his client acquitted.

This weird trend makes it below average by Sheldon’s standards. But below average is still better than “bottom of the barrel”. It’s far better than its direct predecessor and in isolation is perfectly readable, but I still wouldn’t recommend it as anyone’s first Sidney Sheldon book. Even an excellent conclusion that involves a million double crosses and Chekov’s Heating Boiler (seriously, it was foreshadowed in a way that made me smile) can’t totally redeem it. But it can make for a massive improvement….

Not that that’s saying much.