Nighthawking by Russ,Thomas

'A body has been discovered in Sheffield’s beautiful Botanical 

Gardens. A young woman, dead from a stab wound, buried in a 

quiet corner. Police quickly determine that the body has been there 

for months, and would have gone undiscovered for years – but 

someone has dug it up.

Who is the victim? Who killed her and buried the body, resting 

two ancient Roman coins over her eyes? And who dug her up?

DS Adam Tyler will find himself drawn into the secretive world of nighthawkers: treasure-hunters 

who operate under cover of darkness, seeking the lost and valuable, and willing to kill to keep what 

they find…'

 So, here we are back in Sheffield for the sequel to last year's Firewatching, Thomas's rather good debut novel and the question has to be "can he match that?" 

The story starts with a body found in the Botanical Gardens by a nighthawker - a metal detectorist working under cover of night. Tyler is on the case but keeps drifting off on his own investigations so the onus falls on his assistant Mina to cover for him. 

As is often the case there are other cases which all eventually come together and Thomas does a really good job with this as I really couldn't see how it was going to work... or who the murderer was going to be... or 'that ending' (really never saw that coming) - yeah, well done Russ, you really had me flummoxed 😂

Being a Sheffield lad born and bred I enjoyed 'seeing' the story develop as I know most of the places featured and this added an extra dimension to the story. 

So, back to the main question, how does Nighthawking compare to Firewatching? Well, I'm pleased to say, in my opinion, this second in the series is even better. The characters developed and seem to be getting their own individualities, indeed Mina seemed to carry this book more than Adam which suggests a broader reach for the cast and in a series like this that always helps keep things fresh. 

Russ Thomas is here for the long haul and I will be there for each new book 

Highly recommended 

5/5*

Thanks to Anne Cater and Random Things for inviting me onto this tour and to Simon and Schuster for supplying the review copy. Please take time to look at the posts by the other Bloggers if you can.