40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Night" series...Fantastic, September 23, 2000
This review is from: Night Tales: Night Shift/ Night Shadow/ Nightshade/ Night Smoke (Paperback)
Four oldies but goodies from Nora Roberts. The woman continues to astound me with her ability to write so many great stories! NIGHT SHIFT: Edge of your seat suspense! Cilla O'Roarke is a night time DJ, she plays the greatest RR in the Denver, Colorado area. One night during the open line request portion of the show she gets a threatening phone call from someone who says he's going to kill her. Although Cilla is stubborn and doesn't want to call in the police, the manager of the radio station calls them in. Detective Boyd Fletcher is one of the two officers assigned to protect her and solve the case. The ensuing drama of catching the man threatening Cilla's life and the heated romance that begins between Cilla and Boyd keep the reader riveted right up to the last page. Highly recommended!
NIGHT SHADOW: Deborah O'Roarke, Cilla O'Roarke's sister from Night Shift, has graduated from law school, passed the bar exam and taken a job as Assistant District Attorney of Urbana. The hero of the piece is Gage Guthrie whose character bears a striking resemblance to Roarke in Nora Roberts series written as J.D. Robb. There's also a mystery hero who roams the streets at night, Nemesis, who reminded me a great deal of Batman! Deborah first encounters the illusive Nemesis when she is attacked one night after visiting a potential witness in a bad part of the city. The story has twists, turns and many surprises. A fantastic read that keeps the readers attention!
NIGHTSHADE: Lieutenant Althea Grayson was Detective Boyd Fletcher's partner in Night Shift. Now Boyd Fletcher is Captain and Althea ends up partnering with Private Investigator Colt Nightshade to find a young girl who ran away from home and was then abducted and held prisoner by a porn-video ring. Althea has her own past shadows that make her a tough cop and an even tougher woman. Colt is an old school friend of Boyd's and is in Denver to find the girl because her parents, old friends, asked that he intervene after they received a letter from a young woman who said she had seen their daughter. Sparks fly between Althea and Colt as she is a `by the books' copy and he is a `no rules apply' kind of guy. The mystery of the girls whereabouts and the powers behind the porno-video ring unfold to a dramatic and class A mystery ending. A terrific read, beginning to end.
NIGHT SMOKE: Natalie Fletcher, Boyd Fletcher's sister, is head of the Fletcher business empire. Natalie is fiercely working on the opening of a new chain of women's high class lingerie when the warehouse containing the majority of her stock burns down. Arson inspector Ryan Piasecki determines the fire is arson and sets out to uncover the motive and the criminal. Natalie and Ryan are exact opposites and immediately lock horns. This book brings back the characters from all the previous stories and it's great to meet them again. There's a dramatic conclusion to the story, with Nemesis lending a hand and the surprise of who is actually behind the fires and the motive.
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55 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Night Tales" satisfies, if not sates, December 11, 2000
This review is from: Night Tales: Night Shift/ Night Shadow/ Nightshade/ Night Smoke (Paperback)
"Night Tales", a 4-book collection re-issued in this volume, has as its focus heroes who operate best after the sun has gone down -- or at least, that's what the book's jacket would have you believe. In reality, the books are related because the characters IN each of the books are related. Other than a catchy marketing hook, night time doesn't really have a lot to do with anything.
In "Night Shield", Cilla O'Rourke is a radio DJ who is threatened by a stalker. Detective Boyd Fletcher and his partner are called in to investigate, and feelings develop between Boyd and Cilla that make protecting her his new top priority.
Book 2, "Night Shadow", centers on Cilla's sister Deborah and her career as an assistant district attorney in a fictional town called Urbana. For some reason, fictional towns irritate me, and it's probably because they are used in tales that are somehow supernatural or otherworldly. This is the case here as well -- Deborah falls in love almost simultaneously with "two" men, one the wealthy businessman Gage Guthrie, and the other the city's do-gooder crime-fighter known only as "Nemesis". It's obvious to the reader immediately that the men are one and the same, and the reader has to wonder how Deborah doesn't see it right away. In any case, the book is pleasant but if you're not a Batman fan (fictional dark cities, with images of a constant mist shrouding the hero's face), you may not enjoy this.
In book 3, Boyd Fletcher's partner Althea Grayson meets her match in private investigator Colt "Nightshade". The two have to work together to track down a missing girl in a pornography ring, and sparks (both good and bad!) fly. Meanwhile, Althea has to cope with some memories from her own childhood and she has to learn how to be loved.
Of the 4 books, the final book, "Night Smoke", was my favorite. Boyd's sister, Natalie Fletcher, is a businesswoman on the verge of opening up a new flagship store when a string of fires threatens to put a stop to her plans. She has to work with arson investigator Ryan Piasecki to catch the "torch" and meanwhile, the two create some heat of their own.
As with many of Nora Roberts' collections, you can really see the difference in the storytelling from the first book to the last. This is less obvious when the books are all written during the same general timeframe, but when they are separated by a number of years (in this case I believe 7 from first to last), it is very noticeable. This is not a bad thing -- it just shows her continuing progression as a writer.
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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A romantic family saga with continuing family stories, November 11, 2000
This review is from: Night Tales: Night Shift/ Night Shadow/ Nightshade/ Night Smoke (Paperback)
Nora Roberts develops 4 love stories around a group of family members. The first story Night Shift is about detective Boyd Fletcher and his romantic tale. The second story Night Shadow deals with Boyd's sister-in-law Deborah O'Roarke and her romance. The third story Nightshade is about Boyd's partner Thea Grayson and her romance. The final story, Night Smoke is the story about Boyd's sister Natalie Fletcher and her romance. Each book is a story on its own, but its fun to read the continuing story of this "family". Each book is only about 200 pages, so each story is quick to read. I really enjoyed the stories - it's great to see the same family in all the stories.
I enjoyed the 5th book - the latest Night story Night Shield as well. Its the story about Boyd's daughter, and her romance, so the tale continues. Of course it's in a separate book.
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