Nighthawking

By: Russ Thomas

Narrated by: Anthony Mark Barrow

"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 series by Tana French.” (AJ Finn, author of The Woman in the Window)

When a nighthawker on the hunt for antiquities instead uncovers the body of a foreign student, Detective Adam Tyler is pulled into a serpentine mystery of dangerous secrets, precious finds, and illegal dealings.

You are a trespasser. You are a thief. You are a Nighthawker.

Under the dark cover of night, a figure climbs over the wall of the Botanical Garden with a bag and a metal detector. It's a dicey location in the populous city center, but they're on the hunt - and while most of what they find will be worthless, it takes only one big reward to justify the risk. Only this time, the nighthawker unearths a body....

Detective Sergeant Adam Tyler and his newly promoted protégé, Detective Constable Amina Rabbani, are officially in charge of Cold Case Reviews. But with shrinking budgets and manpower in the department, both are shunted onto the murder investigation - and when the victim is identified as a Chinese national from a wealthy family, in the UK on a student visa, the case takes on new urgency to prevent an international incident.

As Tyler and Rabbani dig further into the victim's life, it's becomes clear there's more to her studies and relationships than meets the eye, and that the original investigation into her disappearance was shoddy at best. Meanwhile, someone else is watching these events...someone who knew the victim, and might hold the key to what happened the night she vanished.

©2021 Russ Thomas (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"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 series by Tana French." (AJ Finn, author of The Woman in the Window)

Outstanding.... 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."(Publishers Weekly)

"A satisfying, intricate thriller." (Kirkus Reviews)

Narrator is not so great

Narrator’s doesn’t attempt to distinguish characters with the exception of one who sounds like he’s from Caribbean island. There’s random changes in tone and or volume possibly due to editing.
And…there’s at least one spot where the narrator goes from second to first person protagonist. Makes you wonder if the author initially wrote in third person and missed an edit?