Review: Night Shift (Midnight, Texas #3) by Charlaine Harris

I quickly sped through the finale of this trilogy once it arrived in the mail. However, this was mostly to get to the end of the story rather than through any great love for the world or the characters. On the one hand, I am very satisfied with how some story lines concluded, such as the explanation for the hotel renovation and the purpose of the Reeds in Midnight.

On the other, however, this series jumped from murder mysteries solved by the town’s supernatural residents to demon wackiness awfully quickly, and the jump in this final book was a bit jarring. 

It also seemed like a lot of interpersonal character development was shoe-horned in as plot devise (such as between Olivia and Lemuel) or as convenience to tie things up (such as between Fiji and Bobo). Manfred, on the other hand, basically gets everything handed to him on a plate throughout the entire book, which was also less than satisfying.

While I’ve been sitting on the first novel in the Sookie Stackhouse series for years, I’m not in any hurry to read it. I have nothing but appreciation for an author who has achieved as much success as Ms. Harris, but her writing style of third-person omniscience is continually jarring to me. Her ability to tell a story is superb, and I appreciate her unique characters, but I need a bit of a break before going back to her writing mechanics.

Rating: 4 (out of 5) stars. Cross-posted to Amazon and Goodreads.