Nighthawking
the thrilling psychological suspense
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4.3 • 12 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
THE RIVETING FOLLOW-UP TO THE BESTSELLING FIREWATCHING
'Hard-hitting' SUNDAY TIMES, CRIME BOOK OF THE MONTH
'Comparable with the best of Michael Connelly’s Bosch books and James Lee Burke’s Robicheaux novels, and – naturally – Ian Rankin' AJ FINN
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NO SECRET CAN STAY BURIED FOREVER
Sheffield’s Botanical Gardens is an oasis of peace – until one morning when the body of a young woman is found there, buried in a quiet corner. Police determine that she’s been there for months and would have gone undiscovered for years – except someone returned in the dead of night to dig her up.
DS Adam Tyler and his team have many questions to answer – who is the victim? Who killed her and hid her body? And who dug her up?
Tyler’s investigation draws him into the secretive world of nighthawkers: treasure-hunters who operate under cover of darkness, seeking the lost and valuable . . . and willing to kill to keep what they find.
PRAISE FOR RUSS THOMAS
'I’ve got a new man in my life. His name is Adam Tyler. Yorkshireman. Enjoys cold drinks and colder cases. Hangs out in exceptional debut novels and exceptionaller sequels. Firewatching and Nighthawking are comparable with the best of Michael Connelly’s Bosch books and James Lee Burke’s Robicheaux novels, and – naturally – Ian Rankin; but there’s an elegiac quality here that reminds me of Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie titles and the Dublin Murder Squad novels by Tana French' AJ FINN
'I loved it! Nighthawking turns Sheffield into a dark and terrifying underworld, and the plot is wonderfully fresh and original' KATE RHODES
'Superb. Every part of Nighthawking is so well woven together . . . the end dragged me around and spat me out a broken man. Highly recommended' JAMES DELARGY
'In the clever and compulsive Firewatching, DS Adam Tyler navigates a complex cast of villains and victims in a cold case that suddenly turns very, very hot' LOUISE CANDLISH
'A pitch-perfect blend of the best of the old and the best of the new . . . I loved it' LEE CHILD
‘Devoured in three days. A cracking read with a terrific new detective lead. Red hot debut for 2020’ SARAH HILARY
'A great read. Totally absorbed me’ CASS GREEN
'Intelligent, pacy and compelling, it's everything you could want from a crime novel' SARAH WARD, author of the DC Childs mysteries
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Suspense mounts on all fronts in Russ Thomas’ twisty second thriller featuring the combative but appealing DI Adam Tyler. After an oddly arranged (and quite public) crime scene rocks Sheffield, the embattled cold-case squad launches an investigation that’s suddenly all too urgent. Named for the illicit treasure hunting that unearthed the dead body, Nighthawking balances in-depth character development and tense workplace politics with a judicious series of surprises, right to the shock ending. Trading perspectives between Tyler, new detective Mina Rabbani and some of their colleagues, this tightly wound sequel to Firewatching can just as easily be read as a standalone.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The discovery of a young woman's body buried in the sprawling Botanical Gardens of Sheffield, England, drives Thomas's outstanding sequel to 2020's Firewatching, which introduced Det. Sgt. Adam Tyler. The victim a Chinese national studying botany at the local university was found with ancient Roman coins on her eyes, historically valuable artifacts worth a lot of money. Tyler, struggling to get the wreckage of his personal life in order and still obsessed about finding out the truth of his father's alleged suicide, offers little help as the brunt of the work falls to Tyler's newly promoted prot g , Det. Constable Mina Rabbani, who realizes quickly that the case involves much more than a simple buried body. Thomas adeptly develops his diverse cast, but the novel's real power lies in its intricate structure the mystery surrounding the body is impressively deep, the various levels of tension are relentless, and every chapter ends with a narrative punch to the face. This police procedural is virtually unputdownable.
Customer Reviews
It’s okay
The author is English. Lives in Sheffield. Multiple jobs before he discovered book-selling, then started writing himself. This, his second novel, is a sequel to Firewatching (2020), which introduced Adam Tyler, a gay detective sergeant with a long list of family problems.
In brief
A nighthawker searching illegally for valuables with a metal detector uncovers a dead body in the botanical gardens in Sheffield. In fact, he only finds an arm and it is soon clear that the body attached is not recently dead. DS Tyler and his new offsider, the feisty, female DC Mina Rabbani, are dragged away from cold cases to help out. Rabbani, a good cop unhappy about discrimination against her based on gender and race, gets precious little support from her boss, who seems more concerned with investigating the death of his father, also a cop, years before. He also has a cold case on his mind, and a renegade brother, and an on-again-off-again BF situation. Whatever. The dead chick was a Chinese student who was a member of a night hawking club on the lookout for old Roman coins, of which there are a few about in Sheffield apparently. There’s one in each of her eye sockets when she’s dug up. The other club members are a trifle odd, surprise, surprise, and pretty soon there’s an organised crime figure in the mix too. No one except Rabbani has their mind on the job most of the time, and investigation proceeds in a somewhat haphazard way until all cases collide in a an implausible conclusion/cliffhanger-type situation. The end.
Writing
The author spends considerable time developing the character of Adam Tyler, which I might have appreciated more had I read volume 1. The writing was clear and competent, but I found the plot overly contrived, which is saying something when you’re talking about detective novels.
Bottom line
This book has plenty of good reviews out there. I found it unnecessarily confusing.