Midnight on Mourn Street: A Play in Two Acts, by Christopher Conlon

If you haven't read Chris Conlon's Stoker-nominated novel, Midnight on Mourn Street, you should. The guy is an outstanding writer, and this is a magnificent piece of fiction. It was my personal favorite book of 2008 and many others I have spoken to loved it as well.

Midnight on Mourn Street is a painful story. Quite literally, it is filled with pain. It deals with some of the vilest actions humans can commit, but Conlon handles these subjects with compassion and empathy.

A lonely man with a secret lets a homeless teenage girl into his house one cold, rainy night. His motivations are completely pure. Well, he wants to help the young lady, but he is also desperately lonely. The teen is a streetwise runaway, yet underneath her tough veneer is a scared little girl. Yet she has secrets of her own, as well as a deadly vendetta.

The two begin an unconventional friendship. He is shy, reclusive, bookish. She is old before her time and has already lived a brutal life on the vicious streets. All seems well at first, but their relationship is an emotional timebomb that is ticking toward an eventual explosion.

I've barely touched the bases of this powerful story, but to reveal any more would be a disservice to the book as well as to potential readers.

Now, two years after the publication of Midnight on Mourn Street, Christopher Conlon has adapted his own work into a play. It has been performed and now Midnight on Mourn Street: A Play in Two Acts, has been published and is available for purchase.

Conlon doesn't merely rewrite Midnight on Mourn Street into a scenario. While the story is essentially the same, there are subtle character differences and the finale is completely different. So if you loved the book, I urge you to buy the play. If you haven't read the book, I'd recommend that you read it first, and then read the play. But it wouldn't kill you to do it the other way around, or to simply read the play instead of the novel. You can try that, but if you do, my money says you'll be shelling out for the novel soon after you read the play.

Midnight on Mourn Street: A Play in Two Acts is an inexpensive trade paperback that is available at Amazon and other retail outlets.