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 Though it’s the second book in a new paranormal mystery series by Harris, I didn’t have much problem getting into Day Shift without having read the first book that gives the Midnight, Texas series its name. Midnight is a tiny, one-traffic-light town with a collection of eccentric residents with closely guarded secrets who appreciate the relative quiet and privacy that their isolated Texas community provides.

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If you’ve read the first book, you’ll be familiar with the Midnight residents, but if you’re new to them as I, you’ll find yourself being introduced to these handfuls of characters in the first few opening pages of Day Shift. This may be a bit overwhelming at first, but I quickly got steadied, and Harris does a really good job in providing new readers contextual reminders when these characters return to keep things straight. Likewise she summarizes past events and revelations from the first book sufficiently that a new reader won’t feel behind the news. She nicely does this info-dump of already established matters in pieces, largely unobtrusively.

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Several of the town’s residents get their own point-of-view sections in Day Shift, but the main character Harris brings closest to the reader is Manfred Bernardo, a professional psychic whose powers have their moments of strength, weakness, or absence, but who always tries to keep his client experiences as professional and honest as possible. While on a trip to Dallas to hold client sessions, Manfred notices at a restaurant one of Midnight’s mysterious residents, Olivia, talking to a couple over dinner who turn up dead the next morning. Drawn into this through association, Manfred’s day goes even further south when one of his more wealthy clients dies during their psychic reading session.

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Manfred returns to Midnight, but soon finds the media converging on his house after the deceased client’s son claims his mother has been killed by Manfred and that Manfred has stolen her valuable jewelry. The other residents of Midnight don’t appreciate the sudden inrush of attention, particularly when the arrival of the media coincides with the unexpected reopening of an old hotel by a strange national corporation who brings in a handful of workers and some elderly residents to live there. As Manfred scrambles to clear his name and enlists the help of Olivia in discovering whether his client’s son had a role in the woman’s death, the other members of Midnight continue about their own business, look into the new hotel residents, and help take care of a young, rapidly growing, boy that has been mysteriously given into the care of Midnight’s aloof Reverend.

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Dedicated readers of Harris’ books will recognize a large number of characters from her other series. Having only read the first few of her Southern Vampire Mystery novels (and seeing True Blood adopted from them) I could pick up on references to Bon Temps, Sookie Stackhouse, and the appearance of a character from those books who briefly showed up on the HBO show as well. But it seems that Midnight, Texas is a tiny crossroads not just physically, but also figuratively within a shared-universe of multiple series by Harris. Manfred appears in her Harper Connelly novels, another resident apparently comes from the Lily Bard novels, and more. This surely makes the series a pleasure for Harris’ fans to read, enjoying the team ups and crossovers much like you get in comic books. However it also makes the Midnight, Texas books an excellent place to become introduced to Charlaine Harris’ paranormal mystery worlds.

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While her other major series focus on a single protagonist through the books, this one deals with an ensemble cast, like a Robert Altman film – or more in tune with this genre, a lot like what True Blood became like in later seasons. Juggling multiple characters and interlocked stories can be tricky business. True Blood arguably suffered greatly in quality as secrets became revealed, characters added, and complexities propagated. Harris’ fans also seem divided on whether the multiple point-of-view writing and ensemble cast of Midnight, Texas and Day Shift work. For me, I enjoyed the characterizations and the flow of the novel, and didn’t greatly mind shifts in point-of-view.

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Though urban fantasies with a paranormal cast of characters, Harris’ main interest in a writer seems to be the mystery genre. Day Shift opens with a series of deaths, but only one of these crimes exists as a mystery for the length of the novel. In the grand scheme of things, figuring out who killed Manfred’s client is not as interesting as discovering why, and this criminal mystery itself pales to the myriad other mysteries hovering around Midnight. Harris uses the paranormal aspects of her world as mystery elements. The reader wants to know what secrets each townsperson is hiding, what their agenda is. There is the mystery of the hotel reopening, the odd young boy, the reclusive reverend, Olivia’s seemingly dangerous job, the identity of the elderly residents of the revamped hotel, the reason why the temporary gas station owners are staying… and many more. As in the Southern Vampire Mysteries/True Blood, many puzzles involve trying to figure out what kind of paranormal creature a given character is. Some of these many questions were answered in the first book of the series, some in Day Shift, but many still remain. The town of Midnight itself seems to be something special, drawing ‘abnormal’ people in, protecting them in some way, but it also seems the town itself needs monitoring for the good of the world, kind of like Buffy’s Hellmouth.

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It is easy to see therefore how readers will enjoy getting into this series or Harris’ work on a whole. It is pulp. Entertaining stories with a good dose of formulaic construction, lots of puzzles that extend across multiple books, carefully doled-out resolutions, and some easter eggs for dedicated fan appreciation. A former grad student in the lab I currently work in devoured the Southern Vampire Mysteries. They were the perfect easy read comfort to enjoy when the brain needs some relaxation. I have series that I enjoy like that too, in fantasy and SF and mystery genres. I tried the Sookie Stackhouse series, but found them tiresome. They were okay all, but they got old and repetitive on me fast. Partially this came from being already familiar with True Blood.

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Midnight, Texas felt more fresh to me. Certain characters I enjoyed more than others so would be eager to see more of them, learn more about them. A few I found less compelling though, so I could also see tiring of this series with time. (Some really absurdly silly names didn’t help me wanting to read more about some characters). But this mixture of characters as an ensemble makes me think that Harris may be able to get better mileage out of this series before it gets stale to all but the rabid fan.

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With pulp entertainment like this there usually isn’t anything deeper to discuss about the novels in terms of themes, but there is one interesting facet to the Midnight, Texas series that I picked up on that as I understand is generally present in Harris’ work: the diversity. Sometimes that diversity seems forced, but overall she does a good job of including many kinds of people/characters. But particularly with this, the town of Midnight, Texas is filled with a small number of relatively reclusive outcasts. They hold secrets, some really dark. But the various members of town are willing to withhold their tremendous curiosity of one another. They may question, but they don’t pry. They may briefly talk, but they don’t gossip. They respect one another and amazingly they support one another even when they may not know the full story. They are the personification of an accepting, reconciling community. When something threatens the town, or they discover that one of their own could be a threat to others they take care of the situation as needed, but they don’t judge, they don’t recoil. Because each knows that they have their own baggage and issues. This kind of community is refreshing to see.

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So, if you’ve never read Harris, or only read a bit of her other series, I think Day Shift would be a fine place to start and see if it is something you’d enjoy. Or it may be easier to start with the first novel Midnight, Texas. I’ll gladly read the next novel in the series, but I doubt I’ll go back to read the first because the main plot and revelations I already discovered in this. If you are already a fan of Harris, you’ve probably already read these, or if not your reaction may rest on how well you take to its ensemble, multiple-point-of-view nature.

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As a final note, Charlaine Harris is going on a book signing tour for the release of Day Shift. I had hoped to go to a local signing to ask some questions to go with this review. I haven’t heard anything yet, but I’ll put something up separately I guess if that does happen. You can check out her full schedule here and see if she’ll be in a city near you.

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