Midnight Cab

James W. Nichol's novelized adaptation of his popular CBC radio series suffers here, despite Scott Brick's efforts to animate the slow pace and often maudlin text. And Brick has no easy task, considering that he must supply a huge amount of back story to what was once a witty, fast-moving piece of audio theater. When the text descends into characters' often distraught psyches, this thriller about a warped Canadian dynasty becomes an unbearable soap opera, as Brick lays on the emotion in an effort to be true to the writing. Listeners are recommended to listen to the original "Midnight Cab" for a markedly improved experience. D.J.B. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine

November 22, 2004
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.