Midnight Plus One

Midnight Plus One
1990 UK paperback cover
Author(s)	Gavin Lyall
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Thriller novel
Publisher	Hodder & Stoughton
Publication date	1965
Media type	Print
Pages	222 pgs
ISBN	0-340-53924-3
Preceded by	The Most Dangerous Game
Followed by	Shooting Script

Midnight Plus One is a first person narrative novel by English author Gavin Lyall, first published in 1965.

Plot introduction

Lewis Cane is an ex-SOE operative who worked with the French Resistance against Nazi Germany. He stayed in Paris after the end of World War II, making a somewhat precarious living as a business expediter. One day he is approached by a lawyer, Henri Merlin, a former resistance comrade, with a job: a wealthy international financier, Maganhard, needs to be driven from Brittany to Liechtenstein in secrecy and within three days. The fact that the French Sûreté have an open arrest warrant out on Maganhard seems like a simple problem. However, when half the hit-men in Europe start gunning for them, things get complicated quickly. As Cane races the clock, the police, and the assassins across France and Switzerland, whom can he trust? His alcoholic and trigger-happy bodyguard? Maganhard's mysterious private secretary who seemingly goes out of her way to create problems? Or his former Resistance contacts, who might or might not sell him out for the highest price?

Literary significance & criticism

Midnight Plus One won the British Crime Writers' Association's Silver Dagger Award for thrillers in 1965.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

The film rights to Midnight Plus One were purchased by American actor Steve McQueen, who had planned to adapt it to the cinema before his untimely death. ^[1]

Notes

1. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,3604,878937,00.html Guardian obituary