The Day Before Midnight

A Novel

By: Stephen Hunter

Narrated by: Philip Bosco

“A breathtaking, fascinating look at what could happen—given the possibility of an atomic ‘given.’ A wrap-up you'll never forget.”—Robert Ludlum

The countdown begins when welder Jack Hummel is abducted from his suburban Maryland home ans whisked to the South Mountain MX missile site—a top-secret nuclear complex now taken over by paramilitary terrorists.

All that stands between the Uzi-armed commandos and the launch button is a half-ton titanium block. They want Jack Hummel to cut through it—so they can unleash a devastatingly brilliant plot that threatens global disaster.

Now a Delta Force veteran and a think-tank defense wizard must get inside South Mountain—by defeating their own super-security systems and a darkly ingenious enemy leader . . .

. . . while Jack Hummel's torch burns closer and closer to the launch key . . . while the clock ticks closer to midnight—and Armageddon.

Praise for The Day Before Midnight

“Rockets toward a shattering climax like an incoming missile.”—Stephen Coonts, author of Flight of the Intruder and Final Flight

“Nonstop action and mounting tension.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Slam-bang action and relentless suspense.”—The Washington Post

“The novel crackles and jolts.”—Chicago Tribune

“The one to beat this year in the nail-biter class . . . an edge-of-the-seat doomsday countdown thriller.”—Daily News, New York©1989 Stephen Hunter; (P)2004 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

“A breathtaking, fascinating look at what could happen—given the possibility of an atomic ‘given.’ A wrap-up you'll never forget.”—Robert Ludlum

“Rockets toward a shattering climax like an incoming missile.”—Stephen Coonts, author of Flight of the Intruder and Final Flight

“Nonstop action and mounting tension.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Slam-bang action and relentless suspense.”—The Washington Post

“The novel crackles and jolts.”—Chicago Tribune

“The one to beat this year in the nail-biter class . . . an edge-of-the-seat doomsday countdown thriller.”—Daily News, New York

ABRIDGED!!!!

I loved the book and was so excited to have an audiobook copy. I was crushed when I saw the playtime was only 2.5 hours and I knew that it was an abridged version. save yourself the money and read the story in book form. DETAILS MATTER!

Early effort

Not sure if the abridgment eviscerated Hunter's pros, but this was clearly not up to the Bob Lee Stagger novels in terms of engagement and personality.

Pretty bad

I bet the story would have been good because Stephen Hunter is such a great writer but all that was available on Audible was the abridged version which I wasn’t happy about at first. However it’s probably a good thing that there isn’t the unabridged available because to sit through that awful performance any longer would be torture. This was the worst performance in a book I have ever heard.