Nightwork

I had this book on hold at the library for months, patiently waiting for my turn with Roberts’ latest one-off novel. (If you’re new here, I read just about everything she writes.) I was not disappointed.

First off, she gave us a fun morally grey character. Booth is a thief. He has a code he follows and when he explains it, it makes sense how he can make the choices of a generally good person and still steal. The thing I like best about this is Roberts built it solidly into his character and definitely shows you this code way before it ever gets spelled out.

Second, the love story was not his whole story. You get Booth, on and off, from age 9 to his 30s. You get to see clearly how he grew into the man he becomes. You get to see what major events shape him and what people influenced him. The people are wonderfully colorful and I enjoyed seeing people who don’t do the quintessential 9 to 5, picket fence, and 2.5 kids. It’s truly Booth’s story and the love story is a piece of that, just like life.

Lastly, all the characters, even the villain, felt realistic. Recently, I heard someone say that in a lot of books the bad guy is an afterthought to the main characters (MCs), put in just to create something the MCs have to deal with and subsequently their motivation is hard to believe. LaPorte doesn’t feel like he’s a creation to make another hard thing in Booth’s story. He feels like he walked right out of a news article about a super-rich guy whose house was just raided by the FBI and all the crazy stuff they found.

This is definitely one of those books that can cause you to think about your own grey areas. You know the ones that make sense to you but clash with someone else’s view of morally or ethically correct choices. But it can also just be a place to step away from the real world for a little bit. Isn’t that the great thing about books?!

Book summary (per Goodreads):

Harry Booth started stealing at nine to keep a roof over his ailing mother’s head, slipping into luxurious, empty homes at night to find items he could trade for precious cash. When his mother finally succumbed to cancer, he left Chicago—but kept up his nightwork.

Wandering from the Outer Banks to Savannah to New Orleans, he dons new identities and stays careful, observant, distant. He can’t afford to attract attention—or get attached. Still, he can’t help letting his guard down when he meets Miranda Emerson. But the powerful bond between them cannot last—because not all thieves follow Harry’s code of honor. Some pay others to take risks so they can hoard more treasures. Some are driven by a desire to own people the way they own paintings and jewels. And after Harry takes a lucrative job commissioned by Carter LaPorte, LaPorte sees a tool he can use, and decides he wants to own Harry.

The man is a predator more frightening than the alligators that haunt the bayou—and when he strongarms Harry into robbing a Baltimore museum, Harry abandons Miranda—cruelly, with no explanation—and disappears. But no matter what name he uses or where he goes, LaPorte casts a shadow over Harry’s life. To truly free himself, he must face down his enemy once and for all. Only then can he hope to possess something more valuable than anything he has ever stolen…