Night Shift is the first book in the Night Tales series, that was originally published by Silhouette Intimate Moments in 1991. The books were all written by Nora Roberts. Each book in the series stands alone, there is no continuing story line running through all the books of the series. Minor characters from Night Shift later show up in some of the other books as main characters, and the major characters in this book show up again briefly in the later books. The first four books of the series were recently reissued in one volume, called Night Tales. I still see some of them in the stores, so it is still out there if you are interested in getting it.
PLOT
Cilla O'Roarke was at work doing her show. She was a DJ at KHIP, a radio station in Denver. She worked the night shift by choice because she prefered it. She took dedications every night. This night one of the calls wasn't a dedication, but a threat. Cilla didn't think anything about it because crank calls were normal for a radio station. The calls continued for a week. Cilla was annoyed by them, but she thought that if she ignored the calls they would stop. Mark, her boss, decided that it had gone on long enough and he called the police.
The unknown caller was described in a room full of candles, nursing his hate. He had a picture of someone named John. John had been betrayed, deceived, and used by a woman. The caller planned to make her pay for what she had done to John.
Boyd Fletcher and Althea Grayson were the cops that were investigating the phone calls. They went to the radio station to talk to Cilla. Boyd was attracted to Cilla right from the start, but she wasn't interested. She didn't want the police involved, and she was hostile towards the investigation and Boyd. She didn't want to cooperate with the police. She was upset with Mark for calling the police in behind her back. Boyd stayed in the studio during her show, and she hated that.
Boyd couldn't get his mind off Cilla. He asked her out, but she refused, saying she doesn't date cops. She made a few remarks to him about not liking cops, but she won't explain why. Boyd and Althea continued to sit in on her shows. They had no leads. Boyd and Althea planed to do some digging into Cilla's past, to see if she has any enemies. Cilla has refused to talk about her past with them.
Cilla called them, saying she just got a call at home. This call upset Cilla more because it meats whoever is behind the calls had found out her unlisted phone number. She lived with her younger sister, Deborah, who was in college. Deborah was upset because Cilla has been keeping her in the dark about what was been going on. When he called again that night, he said that Cilla murdered someone. She saw a man watching the house, so Boyd spent the night on the couch. He was determined to protect her.
That was the plot of Night Shift. Cilla being threatened, Boyd and Althea trying to find out who was doing it. Other things did happen, but the threats were the main focus of the plot. Boyd was attracted to Cilla and wanted to become involved. Cilla was attracted to him, but she didn't want to get involved with him because he was a cop. She fought with him over the investigation. She got mad at him for talking to Deborah about their past. She did eventually open up some, telling Boyd some things from her past. They became closer and did get involved. There was a final confrontation with the caller.
Night Shift was a romance with a mystery and some suspense. Some things about the book were predictable - it was a romance after all - but there were other things that happened that surprised me or I wasn't expecting. It was a really good book. It kept my interest throughout, and I didn't think any parts of it were boring. The book was written in Roberts' descriptive style, so the characters came to life and it was very easy to imagine what was going on. This was a fairly short book, so it was a fast read for me. There are similar elements from her longer books, but this book wasn't as complex.
The mystery in Night Shift was provided by the threats that Cilla received. Two of the characters in the book were police officers who were working on the case. Cilla continued to receive threats and phone calls throughout the book while Boyd and Althea tried to figure out who was threating Cilla. There was some suspense in the book related to the investigation, but the book wasn't extremelly suspensefull. This was a shorter book, so there wasn't as much time for the mystery to be developed. As a result, the mystery wasn't as strong or complex as the mysteries in some of Robert's longer books.
There was some romance in Night Shift that was provided by the relationship between Boyd and Cilla. They met for the first time during the course of the book, so people reading the book could see how the relationship developed. Body and Cilla did have a sexual relationship, but they did get to know each other before they moved on to that point. There were some sexual situations and sexual acts described in the books. Those scenes were descriptive, but not as descriptive as in some of her other longer books. The scenes weren't explicit, but they may be do descriptive for some readers. Anyone who is offended by descriptions of sexual acts shouldn't read this book.
Nora Roberts has written several books since she first started writing. She started writing for Silhouette Books in the early 1980s. She just recently published her last book with Silhouette earlier this year. She posted something about that on her website. Nora has been writing longer, more complex books for several years now. I have read several of those books and enjoyed them all. She has also been writing a futuristic series of books, the In Death series, for several years as J.D. Robb. I have all of those books and have loved them. The In Death series is different from her other books, but there are some similarites. People who enjoy books by J.D. Robb may also like the books by Nora Roberts since they were written by the same person.
Cilla and Boyd were the main characters in Night Shift They were well developed, more so than the other minor characters. There was a foundation laid for later books with Deborah and Althea. A little was told about these two characters now, but more will be learned in later books in the series. There were also a few characters who only showed up in one or two scenes, and those characters really weren't developed at all.
CHARACTERS
Cilla O'Roarke - She was a DJ at KHIP. Someone was making threatening phone calls to her. She didn't want to call the cops because she hated the cops - why she felt that was was explained in the book. She lived with her sister, who she was putting through college. She was stubborn at times, wanting to do things her own way. She didn't want to cooperate with the police.
Boyd Fletcher - Cop who was working on Cilla's case. He was interested in her from the start. He was a kind man. He was determined to protect Cilla. He was a good cop, dedicated to his job. He was friends with his partner. Some things about his part were revealed in the book that made Cilla want to avoid a relationship - it wasn't anything bad, just her insecurities.
Deborah O'Roarke - Cilla's younger sister. She lived with Cilla, and had since their parents died several years before. She was going to college and had plans to become a lawyer. She was very worried about her sister once she found out about the phone calls. She liked Boyd, and thought that Cilla should cooperate more with the investigation.
Althea Grayson - Boyd's partner. She was dedicated to her job. She was friends with Boyd and was worried about him getting involved with Cilla. Althea was also a dedicated police officer.
Night Shift was a good, entertaining book that is worth reading if you like this type of book. Fans of Nora Roberts should enjoy this book. This was one of her shorter books that was publised by Silhouette Books. Night Shift wasn't as complex as some of Roberts longer books, but I still enjoyed it. Some people who have only read the longer books by Nora Roberts may not like this one as well since it was different from the longer, more complex books.
I do recommend that the books in this series be read in order even though there is no continuing story line. By reading the books in order, you see how the characters develop over the course of the series. Also, a few references are made in the later books to things that happened in the earlier books, so you will know what they are talking about if you read them in order. Each of these books stands alone, so you can read them in any order, or just one or two if you want.
Night Shift
Nora Roberts
Originally published in 1991 by Silhouette
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