Review: Day Shift (#2 Midnight Texas) by Charlaine Harris

Day Shift is the second book in Charlaine Harris's Midnight Texas Series - now a TV series - and is set in a small, isolated town, where no one is quite what they seem...

I enjoyed this book more than the first one. Perhaps because the characters had already been set up and it seemed to move with a quicker pace. Manfred, the psychic, finds himself the prime suspect in a murder enquiry when one of his clients dies during a reading, and his friends join together to help clear his name. There is also a new character: a strange young boy who comes to stay with the Reverend. Quinn, a character from one of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, makes a cameo. We also learn more about the mysterious Olivia.

I think this is why I prefer the books to the TV series - the characters' secrets are not revealed at once and there's a proper mystery to solve. I would have given it five stars, but the mystery did fizzle out a bit towards the end, although the identity of the murderer came as a surprise! And justice was served - er, literally.

Review: Midnight Crossroad (#1 Midnight Texas) by Charlaine Harris

I bought this one because I'm a huge fan of Charlaine Harris and I loved her Sookie Stackhouse and Harper Connelly books. Unfortunately, I'm the kind of person who downloads ebooks and then promptly forgets I've bought them, so it was only when I saw the trailers for the TV series (Midnight, Texas) based on this book that I remembered I had it!

Midnight Crossroad is the first book in a trilogy. The others are Day Shift and Night Shift, although I did see an interview with Charlaine where she said she might write more. Psychic Manfred Bernardo has just moved to to the town of Midnight in Texas, which is basically just a few run-down stores around an intersection with one set of traffic lights. His new neighbours seem friendly enough, if a little ... strange ... but he's sure he's going to fit in just fine. He's right about that, because while Manfred has a few secrets in his past, it's nothing compared to those of his new friends.

Midnight Crossroad is basically a cosy mystery crossed with a paranormal. There was a lot I enjoyed. I loved the characters, particularly Manfred, Fiji and Mr Snuggly. I loved the murder mystery, the clever twists and the left-of-field final denouement. I loved the idea of this mysterious town where every inhabitant has a secret, not revealed all at once (unlike the TV series). I liked the fact that it was a quite leisurely read, taking the time to build up the characters, but unfortunately it was a little bit too leisurely at times. There was an awful lot of detail about the way the characters had decorated their houses, what Fiji had planted in her garden, and what was on the menu at Home Cookin'. There are also a lot of characters introduced very quickly and I got a little confused as to who was who.

I wavered between giving this a four or a five star, and settled on four - even though that ending blew me away, and I've just bought the next two books. So I'm feeling a bit mean.

Recommended, but only if you like your cosy mysteries with a gentle pace and supernatural characters - and bear in mind it's a lot different to the TV series.