I loved this story of intrigue and thrills and science. I love Kendra. I loved getting to know Lynch better. I recommend reading the first book in this series so you understand Kendra better. I did not want to put the book down. ( )

good book, except the author changed one of the main character's names!! wtf?! ( )

Never disappoints. I can read Iris Johansen all day. ( )

Night Watch is book four in the Kendra Michaels series, and this is the first book I have read from the series. However, I have read several other Iris Johansen books from her Eve Duncan series. So, I was looking forward to reading Night Watch to see if I would fancy the series as much as I love the Eve Duncan series.

Kendra Michaels is an interesting character, she was born blind, but got her sight back nine years prior to this book thanks to an operation. And, she's a bit like Sherlock Holmes when it comes to noticing things, thanks to her years of focusing on other senses than sight when she was blind and then when she got her sight back did she unlike the rest of us that are used to it, train herself to see "everything". So, she makes a hell of an investigator.

The story in this book started off interesting with Kendra being visited by Charles Waldridge the doctor who gave her the sight back. However, she can feel that something is wrong that he's not telling her everything. And, when he goes missing is she determent to find him. She even calls in an old friend Adam Lynch to help her find him.

The book is interesting, I like Kendra, and I liked Jessie a private detective that she meets in the book and I really liked Waldridge and I was worried that he would end up dead. It's interesting how you can care for a character that hardly in the book. However, there was something that just didn't work for me or rather a person, and that was Lynch, he feels like a carbon copy of Quinn from the Eve Duncan series, and I'm not even always that fond of Quinn so having a Quinn copy in this book just felt, well not that interesting. I think the whole, "I'm a badass guy, and a walking one person army kind of dude" just doesn't always work for me. And, when they started to do the whole "will they, or won't they dance" in the book did I feel my interest in the story cooled down. Seriously, I was thinking through the book that there are several interesting guys in this book, and she goes for the typical one? It just ruined the book a little bit for me.

Now, I don't say that the book was totally bad, I liked the story, but I felt I lost focus whenever Lynch showed up. Kendra is a smart cookie, and I liked reading about her past with Waldridge and her Sherlock Holmes tendency amused me. So, the book was in a way good, and in a way...less good than I had hoped it would be. I think that fans of this series will like this book, especially if they are fond of the idea of Kendra and Lynch together. Also, it was an easy book to get into so any newbies would probably enjoy the book as well.

I want to thank the S:t Martins Press for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review! ( )

Received via St Martin's Press and NetGalley in exchange for an completely unbiased review.
Also posted on Silk & Serif

Night Watch is book four of the Kendra Michaels series, although you really do not have to read the first four books to understand the history and plot behind this latest release. Kendra, blind for the first twenty years of her life before a scientific experiment made her see again, consults for the FBI utilizing her senses honed by the years she was blind. In this installment, the doctor who gave her sight again has been kidnapped and Kendra uses her FBI contacts to open an investigation into her benefactor’s disappearance. Not all is as it seems with Dr Charles Waldridge and Kendra is taken down memory lane as she rediscovers the man who “cured” her all those years ago.

Kendra’s search for Waldridge was a quick and easy read, complete with enough flashbacks to understand the intense relationship between doctor and patient as well as enough of a mystery to keep the reader guessing. The bad guys, although obvious from the start (think murky corporation with no morals), is one that is still “under cover” until well into the novel.

The sense of black and white begins to grey: bad guys are revealed to be characters who are only attempting to survive the long arm of a shady company.

I loved the elements of medicine sprinkled throughout this crime mystery. The whole premise of this novel is on the medical advancements that gave Kendra her sight, and the shady corporations who would do “bad’ with that knowledge. The concept that sometimes wanting to do the right thing can lead to doing the wrong thing in an effort to continue to do good is definitely prevalent throughout this plot.

Unfortunately, the only part of this book that seemed confusing and less than spectacular was the romance. I feel like without the history between Adam Lynch and Kendra Michaels, the “fiery” passion between the two main leads was a bit dramatic and rushed. The novel hints at a slow burn romance that, sadly, I missed out on by leaping into this novel so late in the series. To be honest, I didn’t really find Adam Lynch all that sexy either – he seemed a tad too “douche” for me..but that’s okay because not all men are for all women, right?

In the end, this book was okay and is a great starting point for readers who want to leap into the series without reading books 1-3. In addition, this makes a great standalone novel with plenty of explanations of Kendra’s history with each characters and an in depth look at Kendra’s experience as a blind woman. Interesting, fun and definitely a great beach read, Night Watch is worth a gander if you are looking for a novel with happy endings and a decent mystery.

This novel will appeal to readers who enjoy crime mysteries mixed with a hint of medical drama, novels with romance between “partners” in police settings, international intrigue and plucky characters. ( )