Review: A Midnight’s Silence by T. Frohock

The fate of mankind has nothing to do with mankind…
Born of an angel and a daimon, Diago Alvarez is a singular being in a country torn by a looming civil war and the spiritual struggle between the forces of angels and daimons. With allegiance to no one but his partner Miquel, he is content to simply live in Barcelona, caring only for the man he loves and the music he makes. Yet, neither side is satisfied to let him lead this domesticated life and, knowing they can't get to him directly, they do the one thing he's always feared.
They go after Miquel.
Now, in order to save his lover's life, he is forced by an angel to perform a gruesome task: feed a child to the daimon Moloch in exchange for a coin that will limit the extent of the world's next war. The mission is fraught with danger, the time he has to accomplish it is limited…and the child he is to sacrifice is the son Diago never knew existed.
A lyrical tale in a world of music and magic, T. Frohock's In Midnight's Silence shows the lengths a man will go to save the people he loves, and the sides he'll choose when the sidelines are no longer an option.

A Midnight’s Silence is another solid story by T. Frohock. Real characters are placed in dark and distressing situations, using a combination of music, magic, love and trust to survive. It introduces the reader to a world of angels and daimons in 1930s Spain, with our protagonist Diago being half angel, half daimon. This puts him in a unique position because the two worlds generally don’t play all that nice with each other (as one might expect).

Diago has managed to live outside of these two groups, committing to neither one. He is, however, fully committed to his lover, Miquel, who is a member of Los Nefilim. This is a group that polices the daimons. This doesn’t exactly make Diago, being unaligned and half daimon, very popular with Miquel’s co-workers.  The book is dark, and despite there being angels and daimons, there is not really an overtly religious tone to this book. In fact, Diago even confesses to not knowing if there is a god or not. It is like they are two supernatural orders that function independent of the religion that people in our world usually associate with them. I enjoyed this ambiguity to a greater being, it was nice to see the angels and daimons just as on their own as regular people.

Diago is placed un an unthinkable situation of being asked to choose between his lover and his newly found son, as we are introduced to Rafael, Diago’s son that he never knew he had. Rafael has been cared for at an orphanage run by Sister Benita, a very unpleasant nun. Nun or not, she’s a horrible person with no empathy or compassion. So, taking this into account, I guess you could say that there is a portrayal of fallible religious people. Just because someone is religious doesn’t mean they are a good person. The actions people take, how they treat and respect others, that is what is important, and you see evidence of this in A Midnight’s Silence. Sister Benita did amuse me though, so she might not be anyone I’d like to take care of my kids, I was happy at her inclusion.

For anyone that looks for good examples of real relationships with LGBT characters, add this one to the list. Diago and his lover, Miquel, are human, and care for each other, and honestly, it’s just written the same as any relationship between two humans should be. There’s a good balance of suspense and characters in this and I look forward to seeing what is next.