Night Shift by Robin Triggs
Flame Tree Press (November 2018)
240 pages; $22.46 hardcover; $13.09 paperback; $6.29 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington
Let me start by saying I wanted Night Shift to be something other than what it turned out to be. Let’s face it—a mining base in the Antarctic at the start of a six-month-long night shift, doesn’t your mind immediately turn to The Thing? So, I’m expecting a monster. Oh, I got one, it just happened to be of the human variety.
Anton Nordvelt is a last-minute replacement for head of security at Australis:
There’s no crime here, none at all. No crime, no drugs, no alcohol, only thirteen people, including you. But because it says in some Company rulebook that we must have a commander, a doctor and a chief of security, here you are…Welcome to Australis, Mr. Nordvelt. Good to have you aboard.
Just a few days later there’s a death, with more mayhem to follow.
Although Night Shift was not what I expected, that’s not to say this debut novel from author Robin Triggs wasn’t a story well told, because it certainly was. It’s a joy to read the words of a writer you’ve not read before and immediately feel you’re in good hands.
There is sufficient action start-to-finish in Night Shift, with an avalanche taking out the base’s Comm Center and, later, an explosion at the refinery. Is one of the thirteen members of the crew responsible or is there an outside entity responsible for all of the death and destruction?
Not my favorite read of the last year, but not the worst by a long stretch.
