Customer Reviews

Night Work

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

In "Night Work," Steve Hamilton introduces Joe Trumbull, a probation officer who lives and works in upstate New York. Joe is "part cop, part social worker, part guidance counselor, part rehab coordinator, part bounty hunter." His job is multifaceted: he visits his clients' homes and drags them out of bed, investigates their family lives, and writes up sentencing recommendations for the court. If he suggests probation and the judge agrees, then Joe tries to help his "knuckleheads," mostly kids in need of supervision, to stay out of prison. Joe is "your official court-designated guardian angel." He lives in a dumpy apartment above a gym, adores jazz, and dabbles in boxing.

Two years earlier, Joe's fiancée, Laurel, was murdered just days before their wedding. The case is still open. Lonely and afraid of staying that way, Joe puts a listing in a singles' site and lands a blind date with a beautiful woman. In a humorous opening, Joe approaches his evening out as if he were facing an impending execution. Fortunately, he and his companion hit it off and, for the first time in a long while, Joe is looking forward to the future. Unfortunately, a series of unexpected and terrifying events follow that make Joe the prime suspect in a series of homicides. To clear his name, he will need to find the answer to a crucial question: Who hates him enough to want to destroy him?

Steve Hamilton made his reputation with the solid Alex McNight series, and although this thriller lacks the punch of Hamilton's earlier books, it does have its strengths. Hamilton wisely sets his story in an offbeat location, Kingston, New York, and he gives his protagonist an occupation (probation officer) that is also a bit different. Joe is likeable enough, the writing is crisp and direct, and the mystery is fairly suspenseful. The only negative is that "Night Work" adheres too closely to the old formula: Nice guy tries to get over the death of his fiancée. He suddenly finds himself on the run from the cops, who suspect him of being a serial killer. He must find the real perpetrator before the detectives take him into custody. We have seen this plot too many times before, and Hamilton does not provide enough variations on this familiar theme to make his novel stand out from the crowd.

As a big fan of Steve Hamilton's previous books, Night Work came as a huge disappointment. Aside from the incredibly gloomy storyline, everything was too predictable. As Hamilton has proven himself to be a truly talented writer in the past, I continued reading this book with the assumption that the plot would take a surprising turn or, at least, I would see some of his enjoyable, lighthearted humor. Sadly, none of this happened. Not only was the story enormously dismal and dark, but everything was way too predictable. While I'm usually the last guy to figure out whodunit, Hamilton did everything but put a neon sign around the villain's neck very early in the book. Hopefully, Hamilton will drop the dull main character and sad tale of Night Work, and get back on track with his next novel.

I approached this novel with a little different angle. I am a retired big city probation officer, and I know that while P.O.'s are quite central to the criminal justice system, they almost never make it into novels, movies, TV shows. The novels came first, and since there is no tradition of probation officer fiction, there are few, if any, movies, and no TV shows featuring P.O.'s.

Ross McDonough wrote a good mystery in the 1950's, Meet Me at the Morgue, with a probation officer at the center, but Bantam Books thought Howard Cross wasn't hard bitten enough for the paperback trade, so there were no more Howard Cross mysteries. And so it goes. Revenge goes down better in the mystery trade than redemption.

So... I was impressed with Night Work. Steve Hamilton got the essentials of the probation officer line of work down right, and he made the contradictory mission of P.O.'s into the driving force of a plot with multiple murders. P.O. Joe Trumbull has come into contact with many hundreds of troubled people in his seven years on the job. When your job is redemption, then there are hundreds of ways for you to fail. The "T" you didn't cross, the "I" you didn't dot: you may have had a good reason, but you never know if and when you will pay. I can remember my own self thinking, please let no one die on my watch.

I hope that we see more of this small town probation officer from the Hudson Valley.

Joe Trumbell works in upstate New York as a probation officer. When the book opens he is about to go on a blind date: his first since his fiancee Laurel was murdered two years ago. The date with Marlene goes very well - but shortly afterwards her dead body is found. Despite assertations to the contrary, it is clear that Trumbull is the police's best suspect. As the evidence against him mounts, he becomes determined to find the killer and to clear his name before it's too late.

The storyline is a familiar one, but Hamilton has an enjoyable writing style and injects enough twists and surprises to hold the reader's interest. I was trying to make sense of the clues along the way but didn't guess what the final outcome would be. After a slightly slow start, the book picks up momentum and makes for a fast read to the end. Yes the eventual conclusion is pretty silly, but no worse than most books in this genre. I enjoyed this book.

Steve Hamilton is the author of a great series about a retired cop living in Paradise, Michigan. (If you haven't read any of them, start with A Cold Day in Paradise). Night Work is a one-off standalone novel, although on his website he suggests that there will be future books about Joe Trumbull.

NIGHT WORK by Steve Hamilton is the first book I've read by the author, and the first stand alone novel he's written. I liked it a lot and plan on reading more books by the author.

Joe Trumbull is a probation officer in Kingston , New York . Two years ago, his fiance Laurel was brutally murdered and he is just now beginning to date again. He has a lot of fun on a date with Marlene Frost, but then more tragedy strikes, and then more. Joe believes someone is after him, but the police, including best friend Howie and State Detective Shea are beginning to suspect Joe may be at the root of his own problems.

This novel is short and easy to read. It's a small novel about one man overcoming the evil against him. I liked it because of the characters and the first person narration of Joe. I liked his relationship with Howie and Det. Shea.

I glanced at a few other reviews and saw that many didn't like this book. However, many times, I read a novel by an author and never read them again. This book has me hooked, and I plan on checking out his other books.

I enjoy Steve Hamiltons work, especially the Alex McKnight series, and am still a fan, even though this book is not an "Alex" book.

I have really enjoyed Steve Hamilton's Alex McKnight mysteries set in the UP of Michigan. I was looking forward to his new mystery. The story started with a treatis on jazz music set in an apartment over a gymnasium. Three women murdered in the first third of the novel. Was I reading another "Murder of Roger Ackroyd"? I plowed through the jumbled story line hoping that I was right-that the protagonist was the murderer and he was psychotic and leading us down a garden path of lies. But no--by the end we discover the killer was a buddy. The story line is so plodding, by the time I got to page 303 with 32 more pages to read-I skipped to the last two pages. I'm glad I didn't waste any more of my time. Steve Hamilton get back to the yoopers an tell us more about Alex and his friends, now that you killed off Joe Trumbull--what a downer.

Well now. We have gone from the upper peninsular of Michigan to upstate Ny for the setting of this one. We start off with a murder immediately that has thrown the lead man into a quandry. He has become a juvenile officer, that is tough enough but then he lives over a Gym in a little apartment. He works out and hard, trying to forget his fiancee that was murdered without the capture of the perp. Several years go by and he now decides to date a women. He does and leaves the next morning feeling fine and thinking he can start his life again and the next thing he knows he is asked to identify a dead women. It is the women he dated the night before.

The plot continues with many twists and has you thinking all the time. The final pages are ones that if you have enough hair will make it stand straight up. I totally enjoyed his book, a new setting and a new approach to his writing says he will be around a long time.

Steve Hamilton has written a number of works that generally either are excellent or flat. This novel sort of falls in between both areas. Like a train leaving the station the writing starts out slowly and is not explained very well until you are rolling down the tracks at full speed. The main character is a probation officer who's fiance is murdered in her bed one evening and the event causes the probation officer to turn inward for a few years and stay away from women. When he finally resolves to get back into the human race and try a blind date he finds it difficult, but goes through with the date none-the-less. After calling the woman the day after and reaching only her answering machine he thinks she is avoiding him and that he made a bad impression. Living alone above a make shift gym he gets advice from his fellow work out mates about maybe sending her flowers with a nice note asking for a second date. Later that night his life long friend a detective with the police department, asks about how his date went the other night and wants to hear all of the details until he is interrupted by a call and has go to work. Late that same night he is awaken by his detective friend and asked the name of the girl he went out with on his date. The detective meets his friend and they drive off to a crime scene to find that the woman has been murdered and in the same manner as his fiance.

The next day the probation officer goes to work even though it is a Sunday and he visits one of his clients only to find himself offering assistance to a possible battered wife living next door. He leaves his card and tells her to call him if there is anything he can do for her. She looks him up at the gym after being beaten again and he assists her in getting into protective custody, but she leaves and returns to her home. The probation officer decides to check on her the next day and he finds her dead in her home. The police begin to get suspicious with all of these new murders and they fit into such a pattern similar to how his fiance was murdered that they call in an outside team to investigate. The team quickly concludes that the probation officer is linked to the latest murders and perhaps that of his finance as well. Another victim pops up and the police think they have a real case when they find evidence that the items used to strangle these women all belong to the probation officer.

The mystery is resolved when the probation officer realizes that the murderer has to be someone he has worked with or put in prison and was released, perhaps a family member seeking revenge. Working on this angle he is led to the actual killer, but not before the police are closing in on him to arrest him for the killings. The ending has an interesting twist as to who the actual killer is and the reasons why the women were killed. The discovery by the police of a key clue puts a slant on the case that makes for interesting reading near the end of the story and a great conclusion. It's a short novel, but an enjoyable read for any avid mystery reader.

I'm a big fan of Steve Hamilton's "Alex McNight" novels, and if you haven't read any of the books in that series, you owe it to yourself to check them out. Night Work, however, is a stand-alone book, or maybe the beginning of a new series by the author. I actually enjoyed the novel right up till the last twenty-five pages or so, and then found myself shaking my head in disbelief and skimming over the rest of it. Some readers may not have a problem with the ending, but I certainly did. It just wasn't what I expected or was hoping for.

The story deals with probation officer, Joe Trumbull, whose job it is to determine if a teenager who's arrested for a crime should be placed in prison or kept on probation until the sentence is carried out. As the author states, the lead character is half cop and half social worker. Trumbull definitely loves his job and tries to save as many kids from prison as he possibly can. A few, however, always manage to slip through cracks and he inevitably blames himself for it. For the last two years, Joe has been dealing with the murder of his fiancé and the fact that the killer was never caught. Everything comes to a head when he finally decides to move on with his life and to start dating again. Unfortunately, the new woman in his life is murdered on the night of their first date. This throws Joe into a state of shock as he attempts to cope with this unexpected tragedy. The good news is that he's not initially a suspect. The bad news is that when the next woman he comes into contact with dies, the state police start taking a closer look at him, especially when the killer uses Joe's tie and shoelaces as the murder weapons. The killer has been patient over the years, and he's smart enough to set our probation officer up as the perfect suspect for the crimes. For Trumbull, time is running out. He has to find the person, or persons, responsible for the deaths before the police arrest him and throw away the key.

As I stated, the novel hooked me at the beginning and held my interest right up till the last few pages. Unfortunately, I found myself unable to buy into the resolution and what was done to Trumbull. Other than that, the book was excellent in my opinion. Hamilton certainly knows how to create compelling characters, realistic settings, and plots with a velocity that rushes the reader from the first page to the last in record-breaking time. Though Night Work is a good novel for the beach, I'm anxiously awaiting the next "Alex McNight" novel, which may be a couple of years down the road.