I have such a morbid fascination about cold places. Give me a thriller in such a setting and I am positively on board. This perfectly shows the way characters can not only be more than they seem, but also how much they can change when the stress of survival starts to weigh in them. Twists and turns abound, with a surprise that left me reeling long after finishing. Loved being involved in this adventure.

Please read this book. Jonathan Stone is one of those writers who never writes the same book twice, not even close. And this one is a doozy. A fast paced well written move/thriller, I guarantee you that you will read another of his books after you read this one. Guaranteed.

I am sorry to,say that I found this book a struggle to keep reading. I thought the amount of descriptive words was tedious. The story line was good and it did keep me guessing to the end but some of that may have been down to my mind wandering whilst I was reading. I am sorry to say I would not be recommending to friends and family.

Wonderful ,gripping read! Well done plot! I picked this up because I was so intrigued about the plot- an Antarctica murder. Isolated, alone, cold, you bet I was reading this one. This was hard to put down for me. The characters were interesting and the mystery well executed.

Review: DAYS OF NIGHT by Jonathan Stone

DAYS OF NIGHT is a Hemingway-esque thriller set on the planet's final frontier, Antarctica. Joseph Heller, detective of long experience, is appointed by the US Marshals' office to investigate an unsolved (possibly unsolvable) cold case murder at McMurdo Station. Heller, for quite serious reasons of his own, welcomes the opportunity. However, the case is really difficult and clearly the killer is highly cunning. His progress is nearly nonexistent-and then the unthinkable happens: McMurdo Station loses all contact--with anywhere. Apparently the worst has come to pass, and the end of the world has manifested. Even other Antarctic stations are unreachable...and it's "winter-over," the season of unending night, when travel is impassable. It's just 157 lonely scientists, technicians, administrators, and maintenance personnel, isolated, in the way below freezing pitch dark Antarctic night, likely the last humans on Earth. 157..156...

It's a claustrophobic book, was a good mystery story with interesting information and observations about life on Antarctica.

A Wonderful top-notch, well-plotted mystery. At first, it reminds you a bit of Asimov's Caves of Steel series with a police detective going to a bubble-like space station separate and apart from the rest of civilization to solve a murder mystery. So, it's sort of a locked room Mystery as is actually discussed in the story but it's a locked room murder mystery weekend in the Catskills taken to the extreme - in a scientific research station at the South Pole with 157 suspects as once winter falls they are all locked in for the duration. Interestingly, the lead character is a Joseph Heller, which immediately made me think of Catch-22 and, wouldn't you know it, that becomes a part of the story too.

There's so much packed into this novel, particularly what happens in a society cut off from the rest of the world and the odd things that happen in such a closed, isolated society. It gets even more interesting when that closed society loses communication with the rest of the world and starts postulating about what happened to the rest of the world and how the last survivors will adapt. Add on to that a great narrative style and great characters and you have an extraordinary mystery that sort of borders on science fiction too given the location and all.

Overall, this was a terrific read, hard to put down, and I'm sorry I didn't pick it up months ago.

Many thanks to Thomas & Mercer for providing a copy for review.

Jonathan Stone has created a novel with layer upon layer of mystery; including murders and deep philosophical, life-altering deeds. Joe Heller travels to the Antarctic to investigate a murder, and finds himself embroiled in dark, and desperate dealings. It is at once a fantastic mystery, but also a lesson in the true nature of living at the end of the world. A fantastic book that had me solving the crimes, only to be proven wrong time and time again.

I enjoyed the start of this book, and about the last 30%. That was it. I wanted to throttle Joe Heller, and the author through most of this plodding story. There was way too much inner dialogue, and it completely ruined the book for me. The actual story would have been a good read. Not a great one, but still good. I was so relieved to get to the end that it didn't even matter "too much," that it fizzled. This isn't a book I'd recommend to anyone, and I don't think I'd ever try to read anything from this author again. My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the chance to read and review.

McMurdo Station, Antarctica - "Part ramshackle frontier town, part interplanetary settlement."

I love stories of very cold climes, such as Antarctica, the Arctic Circle, Alaska, Canada. I'm not sure why. I just know that man vs. the frigid cold has always fascinated me.

So this book caught my eye right off. It's basically a locked-room mystery at McMurdo Station, Antarctica.

Joe Heller, a retired police detective, is called in to investigate a murder at the Station. He is called in by the U.S. Marshal’s office in Hawaii, which has jurisdiction over serious crimes at the American bases in Antarctica, through a recent agreement with the National Science Foundation, which operates the bases. NOTE: I am assuming this is actually true and not just made up for this story. I thought it was rather strange.

Heller comes into this closed environment totally clueless about Antarctica and the extreme cold and the customs that have developed there - for both the larger summer crew and the much smaller wintering over crew.

This was a great story that had a couple of unexpected twists that made this a totally different story from others I've read about Antarctica. The twists were handled adroitly and I thought this mystery was quite well done.

The only complaint I have is that it bogged down in the middle, got repetitive, and had way too many philosophical discussions for my taste. It is still well worth reading.

I received this book from Thomas and Mercer through Net Galley in exchange for my unbiased review.

Oh my, what a pleasant surprise was this book. I am always interested in new mysteries and new locales. A murder in such a closed community, the impulse and compulsion and execution, literally, is pretty irresistible; the writing of this takes this story to another level.
The thoughtfulness of the writing, the careful consideration of the competing qualities of science, faith, community and isolation was quite a wonderful surprise.
It is often easy to skim through these kinds of stories to find out what happened, who did it and why. This is the way I thought I would read this book. I found myself being as interested in the thoughts and reflections of the detective as much, if not more, than what happened.
A true pleasure and surprise to read: the author revealed facts, understanding and curiosity of this strange and wonderful place and the strange and wonderful people who are drawn to it.
I recommend!!!!

Days of Night is a phenomenal mystery that really played with my emotions. Imagining myself in place of the main character was truly terrifying. I’m typically pretty good at guessing the ending to books like this, but I was not even close on this one. I look forward to reading more by this author in the future!

I am a sucker for stories in the arctic and Antarctica, so I was intrigued by the description of this book: a straight laced cop with few ties back home goes to Antarctica to solve the continent's first murder. He ends up getting much more than he bargained for.
This book is a really interesting take on a traditional police procedural, and investigates human nature much more than I expected.

When I first started reading this, I wasn’t so into it. It just seemed so….dry procedural. While I loved the descriptions of Antarctica and McMurdo, I wanted a thriller and I was getting Joe Friday. I almost stopped reading it.

But a little something happened on the way to the next murder. I started kind of digging this.

Stone gives us a really fascinating thriller, set off by the isolation of the Antarctic wasteland. There’s something about being stuck in the dark and cold while a killer hunts…and you have to face the possibility that you just might be the last humans on earth.

The psychology of dealing with isolation, fear, and devastation come into play here, turning what I thought was a dry procedural into something chilling (forgive me), suspenseful, and truly very clever.

I won’t tell you the truth of what’s happened in the world, of course. Just know that the book was absolutely worth staying with.

Oh, and Joe Friday (i.e. Joe Heller), I kind of grew to love him.

Joe Heller is an experienced homicide investigator come amateur astronomer who takes on a job in Antarctica to survive. His job is to fly in, assess the situation and begin to gather evidence regarding the recent death of a biologist possibly linked to an earlier homicide in 2000.
McMurdo Station is the main US station populated largely by scientists who by nature value the truth and desire an explanation for the death. As time passes Joe starts to understand their world, the types of people attracted to working there and why. When communications with the outside world are cut off Joe is faced with a serial killer and the end of the world as he knows it.
I was interested enough to do some Google research on this station and found out it actually exists though in a different location. I’m also fascinated by the thought of no sunlight for four months of the year and very interested in how it can affect the human body. Reading this book made me realise the commitment scientists and others make and their roles while in Antarctica.
Without giving anything too much away this was an absolutely incomprehensible situation to be in let alone the overwhelming emotional desolation that would accompany it. Also I wonder if someone could be as perceptive and intuitive in real life as Heller was in the book.
This author amazed me with his ability to create a story line with so many sides to it and keep the reader hungry for more. His writing style invokes a lot of imagery and at times I felt like I was actually there. Very thought provoking and the last book I felt like this about was Blackout by Marc Elsberg. You may be hypnotised so well you will not expect there is more to come. Cant wait to recommend this to my close friends and others.

Days of Night by [Stone, Jonathan]

I really, really enjoyed this. I will definitely be looking for his other books. It felt like much more than just a genre mystery. There were all sorts of interesting issues here and well-developed characters.

This was an interesting novel that keeps your suspense. A lot of interesting information about Antarctica also and the what it is like on that continent. All communication suddenly stops going out and coming in at McCurdo station and also 2 people mysteriously die from some type of poison. Joe Heller is retired but comes out of retirement to try and solve the problem before the long winter nights set in.

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