Nightshift by Charlaine Harris

Nightshift

Author: Charlaine Harris
Title: Nightshift
Series: Midnight Texas 3
Genre: Paranormal
Pairing: M/F
Rating: Two Petals

On the Author's Website:
http://charlaineharris.com/?event=publication-night-shift

Summary:

At Midnight’s local pawnshop, weapons are flying off the shelves—only to be used in sudden and dramatic suicides right at the main crossroads in town.
 
Who better to figure out why blood is being spilled than the vampire Lemuel, who, while translating mysterious texts, discovers what makes Midnight the town it is. There’s a reason why witches and werewolves, killers and psychics, have been drawn to this place.
 
And now they must come together to stop the bloodshed in the heart of Midnight. For if all hell breaks loose—which just might happen—it will put the secretive town on the map, where no one wants it to be...

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Maggie's Rating: Two Petals

Maggie's Review:

This time Manfred doesn't know what's happening to Midnight, just that people keep killing themselves in the crossroads.  Midnight's quiet and peaceful existence goes further into jeopardy with every death drawing more and more attention, but given their own lives might be the next lost, the Midnighters know they have to band together to defeat this enemy.  

This was a disappointing ending to what was a very disappointing series.  I missed the drama and suspense coupled with wonderfully exotic magic that I experienced from some of Harris' other series.  None of that great writing was present in this book or in the entire series.  There were hints of it, what with Manfred and the rest of the Midnighters having some interesting backstories, but Harris completely squandered it all by never actually going into any depth at all about the characters or the magic in this series.  I expected at least something, given the evil they were fighting in this book, but it feels like Harris simply forgot that providing depth to a book is necessary. 

The worst part of this book in particular was the ending.  I don't want to give too much away, but it's safe to say that the last chapter of this book was a terrible cop-out with Harris tying a bow so neatly around the plot and her characters that everything that happened to them felt far too structured for real life.  I literally finished the book feeling like I needed to go read something else in order to push the terrible ending of this one out of my head. 


Maggie's Recommendation: 

I found this book and the series as a whole to be incredibly disappointing.  I know what Harris is capable of writing and this wasn't even close to her best.  In fact, given the truly terrible end to this book, I would say this series is her worst.  I absolutely do not recommend this book or the series.