Even before he became a Miami detective tasked with investigating Nocturn-related crimes, he was a part of UMBRA, a top-secret government organization involved with the hunting down of any wayward blood drinkers. Once known as the Pharaoh Menkaure, Alex has racked up quite a resume for dealing with supernatural incidents in the thousands of years since he’s been around. Haspil does succeed in injecting some fresh elements into this equation, and foremost of them is his main protagonist Alex. Unfolding like your typical police procedural, the story might not be breaking any new ground, but author Michael F. While it didn’t turn out to be as original or distinctive as I’d hoped, Graveyard Shift was still a lot of fun. Desperate to put an end to the chaos but quickly running out of time to do it, Alex and Marcus are forced to team up with dubious allies in order to save innocent lives and keep the city from tearing itself apart. Meanwhile, paranormal crimes are at an all-time high across Miami, straining the already stressed resources at the special police department in charge of such matters, which is unfortunately leaving their detectives with little support in the field. Now Alex and his partner, an ancient vampire named Marcus, are on the case, doing whatever it takes to sniff out new leads, from shaking down black market blood-dealers in back alleys to trying to infiltrate the shady blood clubs operated by the violent gangs. Anti-vampire attitudes have led to groups of vigilantes targeting and killing Nocturns, and worse, the police has also recently learned of a rash of incidents involving poisoned artificial blood drinks showing up on store shelves, sending whoever consumes them into an uncontrollable frenzy. While vampires-or Nocturns, as they prefer to be called-have been integrated into society ever since their big reveal many years back, these incidents are proof that not everyone has been quite accepting of them. It appears that the serial killer known as “Abraham” has struck again, dealing another vicious blow Nocturn-human relations. When the story begins, our aforementioned former pharaoh/mummy protagonist and Miami vice cop Detective Alex Romer has just been called upon to investigate the scene of grisly murder. On top of genre staples like vampires and shapeshifters, this intriguing debut also features a millennia-old main character who used to be a pharaoh and mummy, and as far as selling points go, you just can’t get much more irresistible than that. Graveyard Shift, pitched as paranormal urban fantasy meets hard-boiled mystery noir, landed on my radar earlier this year and immediately had me salivating at its potential. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own. I received a review copy from the publisher.

Book Review: Graveyard Shift by Michael F. Haspil