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1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
"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.
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from December 7, 2020
      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 protégé, 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. Agent: Sara Manning, Bent Agency.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Narrator Anthony Mark Barrow's talent enhances this unique mystery about nighthawking--illegally hunting artifacts at night using a metal detector--set primarily in an English botanical garden. Listeners are saddened when student Li Qiang's body is found in the garden. Investigating is Detective Sergeant Adam Tyler, who is appealing and successful but distracted by personal and professional issues. Detective Constable Mina Rabbani, who is dedicated but challenged as a woman and a Muslim, is handling the bulk of the case. Barrow flawlessly renders both officers, as well as believable and fascinating nighthawkers, crooked cops, and plant thieves. Colorful descriptions of nature and detectives' findings add atmosphere. Audio is a must, given the multiple characters, complex details, and fast-moving action. S.G.B. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

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