Author: Charlaine Harris
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Year: 2014
Genre: Fantasy/Mystery
Age: Adult 18+
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Welcome to Midnight, Texas where the heat is dry & the residents are an eclectic bunch of folks.
There's Fiji Cavanaugh who is a real witch, she runs a store for herbal remedies & talisman's out of her house but she could freeze you faster than a bolt of lightning.
Bobo Winthrop is a handsome thirty something man who owns the pawn shop in town & he is dating Aubrey Hamilton.
Joe Strong & Chuy Villegas are partners & they own the Tattoo Parlor & Nail Salon. They live there with their dog Rasta.
Madonna Reed & her husband Teacher just had a baby & they own & run the Home Cookin' Restaurant.
Then there's Emilio Sheehan who is the town reverend & he oversees the pet sematary & weekly services, plus the occasional wedding.
Olivia Charity has a mysterious job that everyone thinks involves finding & killing people. She lives in the basement below the pawn shop with Lemuel Bridger who is a vampire that siphons energy instead of drinking blood.
Then there is the Lovell family. Shawn is father to Creek & Connor. Creek is college age & Connor is 14. They are not native Midnighters, they moved to the are to escape a mysterious past so they fit right in.
Finally there is Manfred Bernardo. He is a psychic who makes his living on the internet through his many reading sites. He's also new to town & isn't sure if he fits in yet.
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In this first book in the now finished trilogy Manfred has come into town at just the right time. Aubrey has gone missing & Bobo has no idea where she could be. Her dead ex-husband Chad Lowry, was killed robbing a bank & he was a member of the Sons of Liberty, a white supremacist group. Bobo & the rest of the town suspect that their leader Price Eggleston was behind her death.
After Aubrey's body is discovered down by the river the investigation & trouble begins. The Sons of Liberty start coming to Midnight to check up on Bobo since he too has a dark & complicated past that is similar to theirs. Bobo & Manfred are jumped one night, 2 men go missing after they come into the pawn shop, & then Fiji is taken as bait. Olivia & Lemuel are very useful in the cause because of their unique backgrounds & skills.
Mean while the rest of the residents of Midnight are spending their nights eating at Home Cookin' & trying to live their lives as normally as possible. But did Price really kill Aubrey or was it one of their own from Midnight?
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There is a show that premiered in early 2017 on NBC based on these books. It features some new faces to television as well as some old favorites like Arielle Kebbel from The Vampire Diaries & Peter Mensah from Spartacus.
I watched the entire show on HULU since it had already aired. It was 10 episodes & I was sad to see it end. I won't go into too much detail but I know now after reading this first book that the show must include events from all books.
In short the show was very good & I enjoyed it. I watched all the episodes in about 2 days. It is well worth the time & it increased my desire to read the books. There are several very large differences between the 2 but I enjoy them both a lot.
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Likes: The book had a great mix of characters & the story itself evolved quickly & kept my attention. Of course from watching the show I knew how it would end but I wasn't disappointed.
There wasn't as much romance going on in the book, so far at least, as in the show. I liked the mystery & all the diverse characters over wanting the romance. I'm hoping to see more but I wasn't upset by the overall lack.
As usual Harris takes supernatural characters & plants them in our world which creates an interesting mix. There are traditional details like vampires drinking blood but she introduces fun new elements like Lemuel's ability to take in energy from others.
I discovered I like mysteries. My usual genre is YA fantasy so this was new for me & I really enjoyed it. I have read several of her other books from the Sookie Stackhouse series 7 really liked them as well.
I listened to this book & plan on continuing through audio. The read has a good mellow voice with a slight Texas accent that keeps your attention.
Dislikes: -
Rating:
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