Okay, I need to begin by saying that this book is the 2nd in the Adam Tyler series and I haven’t read the first. I mention this because if you haven’t read the first book you really do find yourself on the back foot as so much of the novel is taken up with the personal life and backstory of the lead character. This is the reason it is a 4* rather than a 5* novel in my opinion. If Russ Thomas can find a concise way
of filling in the reader on Tyler’s backstory and achieve a better balance between the amount of time spent on the current timeline and the past timeline, he’ll crack the 5*s from me.

Anyway, on with the plots. There are 3: a cold case concerning the death of Richard Tyler, Adam’s father; the investigation into the murder of a child; the discovery of the body of a Chinese student in the Botanical Gardens. Interspersed with all of this are: the group of Nighthawkers (metal detectorists) who give the book its name; a family of local gangsters; the family of the murdered student; the police department Tyler works with.

It will be obvious from the complexity of that brief roundup that there is a lot happening in this book and although there are a lot of characters it is so well handled that you always know who is who and although the POV moves around it always ’sounds’ like the character’s voice it’s attributed to.

There may be some readers who object to a cliffhanger ending and I might agree if it impeded a satisfactory resolution of the storylines. That isn’t the case here, it’s simply a great plot twist that leaves you wanting more. Great read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster UK for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

After reading Firewatching last year i preordered Nighthawking as soon as i saw it was available and was so happy to be approved for an arc on netgalley so i could read it early. This next installment follows Adam Tyler and Mina as they try to solve a murder in Sheffield. What i love about this book is that it is set in my hometown so i know all of the places that Russ Thomas is referring too making it so much easier to picture the scenes. This book had me hooked and i read it in one sitting, There was one point in the book - 15% in when i got to the last line of a paragraph and had to put the book down because i was just like...did that really just happen and had to immediately continue. From start to finish i wanted to know what was going to happen next, Excellent writing and an excellent plot. I cannot wait to see what Russ brings out next.

We first met DS Adam Tyler in the excellent Firewatching, and what an interesting, annoying and complex character he is! In the second in the series, set in the dark underbelly of Sheffield, he and his partner Mina are brought from their cold case unit when a body is found in the city's Botanical Gardens. The plot revolves around so-called Night Hawks, detectorists who work under cover of darkness trying to find that one exciting discovery that can set them up for life, and Toby Jones is nowhere to be seen! Alongside the case Adam continues to look into his father's suicide. An engrossing and fascinating read which leaves one wanting more.

A great read. So good I read it in 1 evening. The suspense is what keeps those pages turning! Although this was the 2nd in a series and I haven’t read the first, I didn’t feel I was missing out at all

Russ Thomas writes a fabulous sequel to his Sheffield based crime series featuring the gay DS Adam Tyler working in the Cold Case Review Unit, having acquired the terrific and ambitious DC Mina Rabbini, not a woman that can be pushed around. Unfortunately Adam is pursuing his own lines of inquiry, failing to provide any management or support of Mina, telling her to just get on with it as she covers up for his frequent absences. Adam is looking into his cop father, Richard's so called suicide after DI Jim Doggett suggests murder and conspiracy. The trouble is that he is struggling to make any headway, relying on DCI Diane Jordan to cover his back with 'the eel', Detective Chief Superintendent Stevens, looking to abolish the CCRU. Under cover of the dark, a nighthawking metal detectorist is trespassing at the Sheffield Botanical Gardens, discovering more than he wanted when he comes across a buried body.

With budget pressures, and DI Doggett leading the inquiry into the murder of a 5 year old boy, Jason Talbot, Jordan appoints Adam and returning DS Guy Daley to lead on the Botanical Gardens murder. However, Adam pursues his own personal inquiries and Daley, a troubled man, is not contributing either, leaving Mina the only one doing any detective work, having to cover for both men. That is until Adam is warned off and violently attacked, which ignites his interest in the case. The victim turns out to be a young Chinese PhD student who went missing 6 months ago, Li Qiang, in the Animal and Plant Sciences Department, run by Professor Robert Calderdale. With Adam taking an interest in helping a young homeless man, Callum Morgan, multiple threads begin to slowly connect in a harrowing investigation where further murder takes place and Adam tangles with a notoriously dangerous criminal boss, Joey McKenna.

The conclusion to the story ends with a cliffhanger, one of my least favourite ways of finishing a novel, although I have to admit it does have me wanting the read the next in the series as soon as I possibly can. This is a dark, intense, suspenseful and engaging crime read that is both entertaining and compulsive. The major reason for this are the characters of Adam, making a hash of his relationship with firefighter, Paul, looking for his brother, Jude, who has returned to Sheffield, and the brilliant DC Mina Rabbini, who is establishing herself as a indomitable force to be reckoned with. This is a crime series that I think will appeal to many crime and mystery fans. Many thanks to Simon and Schuster for an ARC.

A nighthawker under the cover of darkness and with metal detector in hand finds something he wasn’t bargaining for in the Botanical Gardens in Sheffield. The subsequent investigation involving DS Adam Tyler and DC Mina Rabbani takes this case into unexpected and very dangerous places. Running alongside this is DI Jim Doggett and Tyler’s growing conviction that there’s a conspiracy surrounding the death of Adam’s father Richard who was also a police officer.

I absolutely loved the first Adam Tyler novel ‘Firewatching’ and there’s always a concern that the second in a series won’t match the first. Well, thankfully it’s a very good follow up! First of all, the characters - yes, Adam must be absolutely impossible to work with especially as he keeps wandering off doing his own thing! However, he really intrigues me as he’s very deep and enigmatic with a kindness of heart as shown by his attempts to shield Mina from any fallout especially from DCI Diane Jordan or from the eel otherwise known as Detective Chief Superintendent Stevens. As for Mina, go girl! She’s finding her voice and how, she’s getting herself heard and I love that! She is amazing. There are some interesting characters in this one, not necessarily on the right side of the law and Tyler has to run the gauntlet on that.

At the beginning of the book it seems as if there are disparate lines of inquiry requiring a lot of police ‘juggling’ to keep up which I, sure is realistic in these days if financial restraint. However, it all starts to come together and connect cleverly and you start to join the dots like the dot to dot drawings I liked so much as a child only much cleverer!! The inquiry goes into some fascinating worlds as diverse as detector finds and rare orchids! The case is as twisty as a corkscrew and the plot pace builds well as we reach the end and what an end! It’s a shocking cliffhanger and a half! Where do I sign for book three please?? Pretty please?!

Overall, another excellent novel from Russ Thomas which I thoroughly enjoyed.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Simon and Schuster for the much appreciated arc for an honest review.

A very decent follow up to fire watching,taking place a few months later.
I have to be honest,I think this ones better.
This often happens when the first book is so much about laying the foundations of who the characters are.
This time things seemed more straightforward. That's not to say there weren't twists to keep you guessing. There were.
Also a story arc that could continue a while.
Two very solid lead characters too.
Definitely a series to look out for.

This is Russ Thomas's second Sheffield set crime novel featuring DS Adam Tyler and I really enjoyed it. A body of a woman is found in the Botanical Gardens with two Roman coins over her eyes, the murder hunt leads DS Tyler and his team to the nighthawkers. I haven't read the first in this series but would highly recommend this if you like a gripping police procedural with great characterisation and sense of place. I love the character of DC Rabbani and look forward to reading more from Russ Thomas in the future.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC.

A very absorbing crime novel with interesting characters and a complex plot that keeps you guessing with plenty of unexpected twists. I wish I'd read the first book in this series before this because there is a lot of reference made to it and I think it would help to understand some of the subplots that are carried forward here... I look forward to the next instalment but I'm off to read the first book first!

I read Firewatching earlier this year and loved it. Mystery is one of my favourite genres and also sadly a genre where LGBT rep is lagging behind (at least in traditional publishing). So Firewatching married those two things beautifully and I couldn’t wait to read Nighthawking.

The second book in this series picks up a few months after the end of the first. Tyler is back in his job, although less than focused on it for reasons which will become clear. And there’s a new cold-ish case to investigate: the dead body of a student has been found buried in the Botanical Gardens, her eyes overlaid with gold Roman coins.

As with Firewatching, the point of view in Nighthawking switches between the detectives (Tyler and Rabbani, occasionally Daley and Jordan) and the suspects in the case. Now, this is usually one of my bugbears because, done… not so well, it exposes the reader to information the detectives don’t have and therefore makes the plot seem slow because you’ve galaxy-brained your way ahead. But here, Russ Thomas deftly juggles those conflicting points of view. You do know some things the detectives don’t, but they find them out pretty quickly afterwards, and other things you are equally left in the dark about. And it gives some insight into the characters you might not otherwise get.

It also helps that the mystery is very tightly plotted and keeps you guessing until the last moment (although I did figure out who was behind it, but I think that’s my having watched way too many episodes of Midsomer Murders). It’s one of those great mysteries where not just the murderer is uncovered, but plenty else along the way. I knew I would love it given the first book, but I was still pleasantly hooked from the moment I opened the first page.

In addition to the mystery that is happening in this book, there’s also one that’s overarching across the series. In all honesty, I had forgotten that this was touted at the end of the first book, so I was just a bit confused, but it really gets going in this one. And the ending? I can’t believe I now have to wait however many months to even hear news about a third book when that’s the cliffhanger.

So if you’re looking for a new mystery series to start, I would highly recommend it be this one.