Night Watch

     Night Watch by Linda Hall.  (Click her name to go to her amazon author's page, she's got an impressive number of books under her belt.)

     Okay, I have to start by telling you what happened when I read this book.  I get a few requests a day to review books - I'm booked until the middle of next year - so it can be confusing as to which book belongs to which author.  I wrote Mrs. Hall that I was going to be reading her book this last week, and almost immediately afterward another Linda requested that I review one of her books.  When I started reading Night Watch, I was thinking it was the book the other Linda asked me to read.  The other Linda is a young girl, barely 20, and the book she wanted me to review was her first novel.  So while I was reading Night Watch I kept thinking, "Man! This girl is incredible.  She writes way better than me; like a seasoned author."  When I finished the book, and was gathering the links to author's pages and whatnot, I saw the profile picture of Linda Hall and suddenly everything made sense.  She's an incredibly talented, and well-practiced, author.  Mrs. Hall's writing style is refined and sleek.  I enjoyed the rich content of the novel.

     Quickly, before I get to the synopsis, I wanted to say that it is painfully obvious that Mrs. Hall loves writing.  You can tell by her well developed characters, rich plot, slow leads to a great climax, and an ending which leaves you satisfied, even though there is a heavy lead-in to a sequel.  A lot of times authors, even well published authors, lead a sequel with such a heavy-handed cliffhanger that you feel more frustrated than curious to buy the next book. (I'm even guilty of this.)  Mrs. Hall's work is well thought out.  Everything is smooth.  There is no rush to get from one point to the next.  She is a story teller telling a story she enjoys to tell.  Her characters are consistent and human.  Her plot has no holes.  Her pace is perfect (fast in the exciting parts, and slow where explanation is needed).  She writes well because she's well practiced, and she loves it.  I've been reading a lot of Indie work lately, and it was surprisingly refreshing to read something so well written that I wouldn't dare to criticize it.  It's frustrating to read a story which is supposed to be based in reality, but you just know that the character couldn't possibly do what was being portrayed.  Mrs. Hall obeys the laws of physics, and human capabilities and faults all while creating suspense.  It sounds easy, but so much of the work I've been reviewing has fallen oh so short in this task.  The characters act as people would act.  There aren't any random uncharacteristic acts thrown in just to make the plot make sense.  I guess that I've been reading so much amateur work lately that I've begun to associate Indie writers with amateur writers.  Mrs. Hall is not an amateur.  So, I guess what I'm trying to say is, thank you for the break from criticizing, Mrs. Hall.

     Okay, on to the synopsis...

     Em Ridge, the protagonist, is a new sea captain.  Her first voyage, after receiving her captain's license, is to take a yacht from Maine to the Bahamas.  Two of her trusted sailing friends accompany her on the voyage, along with the yacht owner's daughter, Kricket Patterson, and a man named Rob who is trying to build a sailing resume.  

     The story starts as Em is awoken from a restless sleep to find that Kricket has gone missing.  In a yacht, that can mean only one thing... man overboard.  After a frantic search, and fret over her freshly minted license, Em calls in the Mayday.  Em had recently lost her husband in a kayaking incident.  The pain was too fresh.  She knew the pain Mr. Patterson was feeling at losing his daughter.  She knew that there would be no excuse, ultimately Em was responsible for everyone on the yacht, and she had lost a passenger.  Mr. Patterson demanded that Em find his daughter.  The crew searches the seas and finds a bloated body which is hardly recognizable.  

     Upon returning to shore with the body, Em learns that the woman she thought was Kricket was an impostor.  Someone with Kricket's passport was posing as her to ride on Em's boat... but why?  

     Right after Em is interrogated, the state medical examiner sees her, and asks if he can take her out to lunch to discuss some new findings he'd come across about her own husband's suspicious death.  The incident is beyond bizarre.  The young boys responsible for his death were being protected by the community and their church.  Everybody sung their good behavior.  In the end, the case was thrown out as a simple accident, and the names of the minors driving the boat which ran down Em's husband's kayak were withheld. 

     The new state medical examiner was dissatisfied over the investigation, and did some investigating of his own.  He couldn't find any of the boys involved.  The houses they were supposed to have lived in were occupied by other people.  One house was occupied by an old couple who had lived in the house for years and had never had a young man live with them.  Stranger still, the church which supported the boys didn't exist.  The boat involved in the accident had a fire and was destroyed a few months after the case was closed.  The whole incident wreaked of cover-up. Em, of course, was shocked.

     From here, the thick, twisting plot begins.  The two murders may be linked.  Everyone is a suspect.  Em has family-like neighbors with whom she always confides.  I suspected them.  The detective in charge of the case is suspicious.  The crew members in the opening voyage are suspicious.  I even thought that Mr. Patterson might be involved.  

     The most enjoyable part of the book, however, isn't the twists and turns, the constant wondering, second guessing, or suspenseful mystery, it's the character-based focus.  Em is real.  You can feel her frustration.  You sense her hurt and feelings of betrayal.  She is conflicted.  She morns the loss of her husband, and wants to case resolved.  She fights for her own life and wonders why she is even involved in all of this.  The depth of emotion is rich and real.  There is even a slight romantic side of the novel, but it's not the "soap opera" ridiculous romance.  Em is conflicted because she's still morning her husband, and yet she is still alive and still feels.  

     Mrs. Hall has a great gift for pulling the reader into the story.  The suspense and mystery does keep you hooked, but I was more drawn by the realism of the characters.  Em is messy, emotional, but strong.  Ben, the detective, is not the super cop most novels portray.  There are no stereotypical behaviors.  The friendship Em has with her neighbors is endearing.  The whole human-connection is what made this story for me.  I loved it.

     I give this novel