#Review - The Graveyard Shift by Maria Lewis

The Graveyard Shift

Maria Lewis 
Datura Books, 12 September 2023 
Available as: PB, 400pp, e   
Source: Advance copy
ISBN(PB): 9781915523068

I'm grateful to the publisher for sending me an advance e-copy of The Graveyard Shift to consider for review.

I always look forward to Maria Lewis's books. Her recently completed urban fantasy series, Supernatural Sisters, was thoroughly good from beginning to end, introducing many vivid and relatable characters and more, taking the time and trouble to develop those characters over several books as well as to engage with real-word issues.

The Graveyard Shift seems to be more standalone, and is firmly in the crime genre rather than the supernatural, but in Tinsel Monroe, Lewis has created another unforgettable woman lead. Monroe is the presenter of The Graveyard Shift, a late night/ early morning radio show in Melbourne, Australia, playing music drawn from the horror genre, especially horror/ slasher films. She's proud of what she has achieved, and seems to be respected by her peers and popular with the audience, but after three years at the studio is getting no nearer primetime. Tinsel's boyfriend is clearly a louse, as we see when, after the worst night of her life, he throws a childish tantrum because she's home a bit late. So she's under a lot of stress here, a theme throughout the book.

The reason Tinsel is late is because a caller-in to the show has been murdered while she was on the line. Was the victim targeted because of The Graveyard Shift? Or is there a serial killer out there who resents the horror genre? The police seem to be making no progress,  so it's up to Tinsel and her redoubtable sister Pandora, to move things forward. (Perhaps I shouldn't write the police off utterly - things between Tinsel and the handsome Detective James do seem to be moving forward quite fast, giving this book a definite spin of romance - and some rather steamy scenes at times). 

I loved the way that Lewis has the action in this story emerge from the characters, not just happen to them. Tinsel is a well drawn, if complex, person, and she'll soon gain the reader's sympathy and support. We see her make some misjudgements but she's always ready to get up after them and push on. Tinsel's sister Pandora is if anything even  more of a face of nature, a mother with a toddler to wrangle and, therefore, no time to waste on anything, she is no respecter of persons but offers total support to her sister. The relationship between the two is perfect - it is complex, clearly has depth, and above all, they are absolutely there for each other.

They will need to be. There is plenty of danger in this story as the killer's rampage proceeds, and while Pandora and Detective James do their best to protect Tinsel, she has a way of walking into it. When James is suddenly pulled from the case and goes dark, she realises that she needs to sort things, now, before anyone else is hurt. That leads up to a nailbiting and twisty climax which I absolutely had to finish, late through the hour was.

Filled with the lore and delicious geekiness of the horror subculture, this is an absorbing and assured novel with an unforgettable heroine. Lewis's writing is engaging and witty and absolutely on point (she describes a regretful Tinsel as having been 'dicknotised and stuck with this man [her controlling ex] for three years'. The story is I think in large part about Tinsel breaking free from this toxic relationship, but also from others, and finding her true voice, even surrounded by tragic events - and, as it turns out, in the midst of true danger as the shadowy killer comes and goes. 

A great read.

For more information about The Graveyard Shift, see the publisher's website here