The Characters that Ms Harris creates are quite interesting. I really got hooked into them, particularly because I wanted an urban paranormal story that was NOT all tied up with juvenile seeming romance, or overly dramatic adult romance.
I'm not sure though, that I'd call it a Mystery, because it's pretty transparent. In fact, I might have to call it Young Adult, because the reasoning is so simple... several times i started to fall out of the story, yelling "come on, you people can't be this stupid". but then they'd sort of stumble through to the reason they shouldn't.
Overall, I still have to leave it as pretty decent ( )

https://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2023/09/2023125-day-shift-charlaine-harris.html ( )

Welcome to Midnight, Texas, a town with many boarded-up windows and few full-time inhabitants, located at the crossing of Witch Light Road and Davy Road. It’s a pretty standard died-up western town. Stop at the one traffic light, and everything looks normal. Stay awhile, and learn the truth… Fun books -- I like that the world isn’t ending, it’s not anything major, it’s just a small town of like ten people who all have secrets and some drama that arises coincidentally, not because there are GRAND PLOTS omg. It’s a nice break once in a while. ( )

Day Shift
4 Stars

Series note: If you are new to Harris's works, I do not recommend starting with this series. There are several crossover characters from Lily Bard, Harper Connelly, Sookie Stackhouse, and even one from Aurora Teagarden. The backstories for the characters in these series add another layer of enjoyment to the books.

The tiny town of Midnight, Texas with its single stoplight and reticent residents gets an unwelcome influx of attention when Manfred Bernardo, the local medium, is involved in the suspicious death of one of his clients. Matters are only compounded with the reopening of the local hotel and the arrival of a mysterious boy who is anything but normal.

Harris writing style is particularly engaging. She has a knack for captivating the reader and making seemingly mundane characters and situations interesting and intriguing. In this installment, readers learn more about the enigmatic Olivia Charity and there are revelations regarding other characters as well as hints at developments to come - I do wish Bobo and Fiji would get a move on with their romance though.

The mystery is the weakest element in the book. To begin with, it is never clear why the reader should care about the victim aside from the inconvenience her death creates for Mandred and the other inhabitants of Midnight. Moreover, the resolution is very anti-climactic with an obvious culprit and motive.

In sum, an entertaining read and I look forward to the final installment. ( )

I'll give this a four, even though it might not deserve it on a scale of all the books ever written. It is, however, worthy of four out of five within it's genre (at least in my book) so there you go. I enjoy Harris' characters and the atmosphere of her books (maybe barring the Aurora Teagarden books), and the books are infinitely entertaining. I also like the mismash of the random characters from the previous series. ( )