Review: Shift Work (Night Shift #1) by T.A. Moore

You'd think the werewolves would be the worst thing about the Night Shift; you'd be wrong.

All Officer Kit Marlow wanted was a cup of coffee and some downtime before his next night shift. Instead, he got a naked man in the elevator and an unaccounted-for dead girl in the morgue. He's going to need to deal with both before he can head for his bed.

Or anyone else's. Although not much chance of that.

Reluctantly partnered with the acerbic security consultant Cade Deacon—last seen naked in the elevator—Marlow delves into the dead girl's life. Between them, they uncover a new crime scene with the whiff of old corruption. A corruption that, five years ago, nearly took Marlow's life and ended his career.

Finding out who killed the dead girl on the slab might only be the start of this investigation. Oh, and it's the second night of the full moon. So 80% of the city, including Cade, will turn into werewolves in the middle of the case.

So, there's that.


My second foray into Moore and I’m not disappointed despite the mild rough edges in execution, editing, and the occasional confusing bits.

This is a somewhat bleak alternate reality where the population is 80% werewolves, 20% nulls. It stands to reason that rules and regulations are skewed towards the majority where every full moon, said majority loses their logical rational thinking and becomes deadly monsters. Kit here, is a plain ole normal human being, and he works the thankless job of a law enforcement officer on the night shift. He patrols for and controls any wayward wolves, keeping homicide and destruction at a minimum if at all possible. One night, a dead girl shows up at the morgue and the evidence points towards a werewolfy suspect. This forces Kit to work with the enigmatic Cade, werewolf and CEO of private security for his kind, who can perhaps ease the way in the investigation.

Make no mistake that these two have noticed each other from afar, and now that they're in close proximity, certainly not by choice, their unwanted attraction to the other comes out nonetheless. Honestly, it was fascinating to watch their so-called flirting that was full of acerbic wit, deserved but humorous self flagellation, and an overabundance of foot in mouth syndrome. It made these guys more relatable as Cade isn’t always the cool, calm, and deadly alpha that he tries so hard to project, and Kit has a certain vulnerability that he can’t always hide behind his droll dismissive attitude.

I can see why many readers may be disgruntled with this latest release from Moore. The romantic progression, if you can call it that, goes at a snail’s pace but the sexual tension is strung bow tight and ready to be released with the littlest provocation. The one kiss we get was nothing to sneeze at, and I’m totally ok with that for now. Some things can’t and shouldn’t be rushed.

And yes, this ends on quite the cliffhanger, hinting that Kit’s past is on the brink of rearing its ugly head to wreak havoc on him again, dragging Cade along. I suspect and am thankful that Moore probably wrote this story in one sitting and decided to divvy it up into two books, and the conclusion will be shortly released if not already. I look forward to seeing how this pans out - both in the overall story arc and where these two end up!




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