![]() The main characters are somewhat interesting: Nick Miller as the newly commissioned detective, an intelligent, jazz piano-playing man in his mid-20s Ben Garvald as a career criminal who sporadically emits shards of beneficence, cutting a tragic figure Jack Brady as the older policeman who shows his jaundiced eye at being surpassed by the younger university-educated Miller Chuck Lazer as a sincere person and pianist-for-hire who provides a shocking illustration of the depths of despair that drug addiction brings Jean Fleming as a prim-and-proper lady who is mysterious in her motives, despite having some childhood history with Miller on the wrong side of the tracks Bella as Garvald’s ex-wife who is seemingly innocent yet salacious Harry Faulkner as the villainous husband of Bella. Yet, in its own way, this novel is redeeming, for one can read it for what it is - a very quick yarn which is meant to convey what it is like to conduct a single shift of police work. For this reason, the novel suffers from the simplicity of its storyline: a man convicted of a heist is released from prison before being harried by his ex-wife’s gangster husband and his cronies. Its plot is fast, if only because it spans an eight-hour overnight shift of a young detective. It is the first offering in the Nick Miller series (‘The Graveyard Shift’ ‘Brought in Dead’ ‘Hell Is Always Today’). Set in England in the 1960s, this early work of Jack Higgins is more a police mystery than anything else, and for this reason it is quite atypical. ![]() My favorite character was the American expatriate drug addict who makes ends meet by playing piano he has a strong and rather touching chemistry with Nick, and I hope he figures in the two books that round out this trilogy. ![]() Unfortunately, the main character remains something of a cypher, though an intriguing one-a bit of a dandy, pretty well off but dedicated to police work, with a real streak of brutality. This is an efficient thriller with a strong plot that manages to illuminate a lot of character through action. I gather that this book was written before his golden period in the 70s when Patterson began turning out bestsellers under that pseudonym. I grew up seeing Jack Higgins books on my dad's bookshelf but I never read any. Nick Miller, a detective working the graveyard shift, looks into the matter of a newly released ex-con with a fearsome reputation who may be out to settle some old scores, only to learn over the course of an eventful night that both honor and sin often exist where they are least expected.
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