NIGHT SHIFT
A Helping Hands Mystery #2
Annelise Ryan
Kensington Books
July 28, 2020
Social Worker Hildy Schneider has picked up a part-time job after her hours are cut at the hospital. She is riding with the small-town Sorenson WI police department. The department is trying out a new program using Hildy's skills to deal with possibly mentally disturbed people on calls. On her first night, she encounters a person she knows very well. Danny Hillebrand is a schizophrenic who has been doing well on a new course of meds, but tonight he is in bad shape. He says he has seen a murder and a pink and purple dinosaur saw it too. Danny says the ghost of the victim is haunting him. After getting Danny, his sister Allie and live-in boyfriend, Joel, to the hospital to be sorted out. Hildy and her police partner go out on a wellness check. The scene is very much what Danny described. There are nefarious forces in Sorensen, involving both Danny and another of Hildy's patients.
Hildy is sympathetic, a person who cares deeply for her patients and those who she meets on her night shift. She is aided and sometimes impeded by a cast of quirky characters and her trusted therapy dog, Roscoe. She may have bitten off more than she can chew with the two jobs, but there may be a welcome resolution coming, both in her work and personal life.
This series is a spin-off of Ryan's earlier Mattie Winston series, but it could work as a standalone. The first book in the Helping Hands series is Needled to Death if you like to read in order.
Thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Books for an advance copy. The opinions are my own.
RATING- 4 Stars
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