When the Bells Tolled at Midnight

(SPOILERS AHEAD)

When the Bells Tolled at Midnight is a teen mystery novel written by the incredibly talented J.G. Hayes. Its atmosphere is drawn from books like Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew and follows our main character, Sean, trying to solve a mystery involving the Liberty Bell and his family's history.

Starting with the good news: Hayes' has always shown himself as a writer capable of meshing real historical events and real locations in his book but I really liked how far he took things in Bells. The gigantic amount of apparently non-converging mysteries and what they mean at the end is very good and Sean's voice as a character is nice to follow.

Now the bad news: Sadly, none of these things were enough to tighten the narrative, for it was how it was presented that turned me off in the first place.

I liked how Hayes wrote in a more accessible and informal way, keeping in mind we're following a fairly normal, big hearted teenager. But Sean's voice is really erratic: sometimes it clicks, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it feels like you're reading Sean thinking and speaking, sometimes it feels like you're reading Hayes thinking and speaking.

Then, you have the rest of the town which I can't help but feel they were wasted. Yes, you have Miss Sawyer at the end and her sister-in-law (Which, from what I recall, never showed up in the book until these last few chapters) but you also have all these set-up characters, filled with personalities and tics and all else that simply doesn't go anywhere: from Professor Singleton to Mrs. Hutchinson, from The Men in the Thicket to Kevin, Mister Hallsley, and others. The book ends with something missing for all of them. Kevin helped from the outside and simply disappeared at the end. Mrs. Hutchinson shows up at the start, leads Sean into the point of no return and totally dips out of the book. The Men in the Thicket only makes sense at the last chapter, from a second hand account - Regina's and Timmy's disappearence is solved the same way.

You see, I think these are the book's biggest flaws (which aren't exactly flaws but I can't find a better wording): How the story is 100% stuck on Sean and how Hayes' too detailed writing detains the story's rhythm:

1. Sean, is a well written character and his voice has a lot of weight to the story, but in focusing on his side and his side only, the story's scope diminishes a lot. We're left wanting a closure for the town's people characters and, maybe most importantly, we're left wanting a story for the burglars.
2. Did Hayes' contain his intense writing in this one? Yes, and it makes sense for this type of book, so that's a good thing. Was it enough? No, specially on the first half.
Uncle Justin's and Professor Singleton's conversations during the first few chapters were boring at best, pace destroyer at worst. Sean also had his pace breaking moments, like the chapter where he reminisces on how to use Sawyer's nerves to get a gory story out of her - though, I am the first to admit: Sean's moments were also rather sweet and the whole Matt panic was great - sadly, it was solved too fast and at a really weird timing? It could've been discussed at the hospital, Matt sneaks in, but anyway...

Finally, the story leaving it all up for ESP didn't sit well with me. Aunt Sadie's voice was an interesting magical realistic touch but most of Sean's intuitions felt like an easy way to not stop the narrative, even if it weren't the author's intention. If only we had Kyle's point of view and saw his unwanted dreams and intuitions as well, then we would at least be able to understand that there was a whole “family connection” going on.

It's a book in which most of its problems could've been solved in the editing. I feel like it could've been 50 pages shorter or more. I didn't even talk about other smaller details, such as: Sean denying his OCD at the start of the book and then acceptingly mentioning it at the end, when there was no journey for this change at all. Or Sean's attention span, which never proved to become an issue, or at least a recurring motif, for him during the investigation. The heating grate which didn't exist until Kyle mentioned it or Jimmy Earl who didn't exist until Timmy mentioned him - These two being payoffs with no setups.

As someone who loves Hayes writing, this review might seem harsh but that's probably because I already saw what he's capable of in his other books. Since he's a Goodreads Author, there's a small possibility that he sees this review, and I really hope he doesn't take it to heart, specially since anxious is not enough a word to describe my feelings regarding the wait for his next book.