Review: Day Shift by Charlaine Harris

Released May 5, 2015
by Ace

A man walks into a hotel in Dallas... Manfred Bernardo, psychic, is in Dallas to see clients. He does see the clients, but he also sees Olivia from back home in Midnight with an unknown couple who turn up dead the next day. Meanwhile, one of his regular clients ends up dead just as their reading is getting started. Her son Lewis is accusing him of having stolen her jewels from her purse. Somehow Manfred knows that Olivia can help him out and get things back to normal as fast as possible, as normal as things get in Midnight, Texas anyway.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, so to speak, Midnight has a hotel being mysteriously remodeled. Also, there are insights into the lives of the other Midnight residents with the exception of Teacher and Madonna who we really don't know why they live in Midnight since they don't appear to have any of the peculiarities that the other residents have. All of the other residents are special in some way, including the Rev, who didn't seem to have much going on for himself has a visitor that brings his uniqueness to the forefront before the end of the book. 

It's an interesting book about the town and it's occupants and leaves things open for the next book. It's well written. There is a short appearance by a couple of characters from the Sookie Stackhouse series. 

My biggest and perhaps only real disappointment in the book is that it seems we are going to learn more about Olivia and her background, which we do up to a point. But it seems like it's going to play a bigger part of the plot, and instead it sort of fizzles out. It's definitely wide open for action in book 3 though. My other disappointment is that there is little motivation for revealing the uniqueness of Joe and Chuy other than to inform us and make Madonna and Teacher stand out more.

Otherwise, it's a good mystery. It's pretty much a cozy since it's solved by amateurs of sorts. And, of course, the overall book has paranormal overtones. 

I give the book 4 stars. It's well written and interesting. And it leaves you wanting to know what will happen next for the characters in Midnight.


Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.