Switchback: A Nightshades Novel (Nightshades, #2)

by Melissa F. Olson

• ISBN13: 9780765398284
• Publish Date: 24 October 2017
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 4 April 2022
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Tor Books
• Format: Paperback
• Language: English

Reviews

[Melanie]

My review and an extended sample of the audiobook are posted at Hotlistens.com.

Switchback is another fun, if short installment in the Nightshade series.We have the head of the FBI Bureau of Preternatural Investigation team (BPI), Alex, coming off several weeks of recovery from a battle in the previous book. The team has been running a long trying to do their best without him. His second in command, and best friend, has been MIA for most of these weeks. Lindy, the second eldest known vampire/shade and BPI consultant, is going off on her own investigations, looking for her older brother and villain from book one.

It doesn’t take long after Alex rejoins his team that word comes in about several killings in a small town outside of Chicago, as in pretty much their entire police force was killed in the police station. BPI is on the case, as it looks like vampire killings. And there is a special needs boy that is missing.

While these stories are short, they are full of action and investigations for our FBI team. I’m really enjoying these characters. They all have different personalities that mix together really well.

The biggest fault that I have with this book, is that it ends (like the previous book) on a cliffhanger. I’m not anxiously awaiting book three.

Narration
Luke Daniels continues to do an amazing job with this series. I love his narration. He always does a great job with picking voices of both male and female characters. His pace and tone are always on point. If you’ve never tried Luke Daniels, you’re really missing out.

**I like to thank the publisher for providing me with a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

[EBookObsessed]

The second book in this series, while still short, manages to give us an interesting story and begins to build the characters.

My complaint with both the first and second books in this series is that they are very short. The audiobook narrations are just over 4 hours. The first book was laying down the world building, introducing characters and attempting to give us an FBI investigation. It was too much in such a short time, although the introduction of vampires was intended to be vague since we only just found out they existed. I presume that the learning curve will be part of the entire series, at least for a while.

The second book does what I hoped it would do, and begins to build on the characters in a very natural way as the story develops and just like you would if you were meeting new people.

Now that the world has accepted that shades (vampires) are not a youtube hoax or government lie, several states are creating fear-based laws so they have cause to arrest any shade they can find, such as the recent Wisconsin law that drinking blood is illegal. When the first arrest is made, in a small town of Switchback, the entire police force is found murdered in what looks like a shade retaliation.  The BPI, Bureau of Preternatural Investigation, is sent in to investigate and determine if this was a shade attack and if it has anything to do with Hector and the abducted teens a few months ago.

As we investigate the attack on the police force, we start learning more and more about Alex McKenna and the rest of the BPI agents, as well as more about Lindy Frederick, who is a shade working with the BPI. The agents, while still leary of Lindy, start to realize that she will not harm them and they begin to accept her as one of them as the story builds.

The story was very good and well laid out to blend the investigation and character building and left me wanting more.  That is the problem with reading back to back stories.  It is just a shame that there wasn't more to it. The next book is due out sometime in May and I will definitely pick up the audiobook to enjoy more of Luke Daneils's captivating narration.