Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Shiftless
SERIES: Night Shift
AUTHOR: T.A. Moore
PUBLISHER: Rogue Firebird Press
LENGTH: 117 pages
RELEASE DATE: June 19, 2021
BLURB:
Night Shift is the city’s thin, silver line- and some nights it’s thinner than others.
It isn’t the fact he almost died last night that’s thrown Night Shift officer Kit Marlow. He’s used to that. It’s the fact that instead of a werewolf trying to rip his throat out, it was his friend and colleague who tried to put him in the ground.
Well, ‘friend.’
Now Marlow’s been framed for a murder he didn’t commit by a man who’s committed more than his fair share. Half the cops in San Diego want to see Marlow behind bars for what he’s supposedly done, and the other half want him dead before he can tell his side of the story. The problem is that he can’t tell them apart.
There’s only one person in town that Marlow can trust, even though he knows he shouldn’t drag Cade Deacon into his problems. The sharp-tongued CEO of a private security firm might have gotten close to Marlow over the last few weeks, but taking on the SDPD is a lot to ask.
Marlow doesn’t have much choice, though. If he can’t clear his name before the last full moon of the month sets, he might not see another one. That’d be a shame since Marlow would really like to spend the night with Cade without needing protective gear.
REVIEW:
Note: This is the third book in this series and does not work as a standalone. This series is more of a serial and thus builds on the previous installment and contains huge spoilers for the previous books.
Book 3 picks up right where we left Cade and Marlow in Book 2. Marlow has been set up. He knows who is behind the continued corruption and who Piper left in charge of the not so legal goings on with the Night Shift. But the problems is he still doesn’t know who else is involved. There is no one at the Night Shift he can trust and when he’s now public enemy number one, there is only one person he can trust. Cade Deacon has proved that he doesn’t take things at face value and he’s had Kit’s back – well when he’s not a wolf 😉
Cade comes through and helps Marlow stay out of sight, but there is a lot more to this than meets the eye. Yes, he’s been framed for murder, but that is honestly the least of his problems. If he’s captured, it’s pretty certain that he’ll never live to tell the tale or solve the mystery of the dead wolf and how a colleague has been able to run the Night Shift without raising any other alarms. Who is he protecting? Who is protecting him? Or is it her? Marlow has his suspicions. But with another full moon, he’s only got so many hours he can even try to figure out how to build the guess and get the evidence.
When Cade’s connections pull through for them, it looks like if they can get through one more night of the full moon, they might be able to exonerate Kit and finally point the finger at the culprit who has taken over Piper’s operation and gone one step further into cold-blooded murder. Because there are two murderers on the loose – not just one. And just when all seems lost, Cade and Kit manage to get the jump on the bad guy in a totally unexpected way. And it’s worth every moment of the series to get him 😀
Finally! I really liked this last installment of this serial, although to be honest, I probably would have liked it more if it had just been one book. I’m not a huge fan of cliffhanger endings, but now that the story is complete, I enjoyed it much more 🙂 Cade really grew on me over the course of the series. There are still some unanswered questions – about his past, his friends, his brother – but we get enough to know that despite his badass snarky veneer, he’s actually a decent guy. Kit is definitely weary in this one – he’s just been on the losing end of things – but despite that, he retains his humanity, does the right thing over and over. He saves the day, his reputation and lives repeatedly in this one without any support from anyone except Cade. I loved seeing him stick it to those who stupidly underestimated him. He solves multiple cases without any police help and I was cheering for him. The secondary characters – whether friend or foe (mostly the latter) – were well written and believable in the context of this story and universe. Bennett, Lem, Jason, O’Hara and others lent an authentic tone to the book that made me want Cade and Kit to come out on top. The heat between Cade and Kit is also turned up in this one – which I’m sure we all had been waiting for. There were some fresh and interesting twists to their interactions that added to the overall tension. And the epilogue was so completely on point 😀
For those who haven’t picked this up yet, I recommend reading all three straight through. Anyone who doesn’t like cliffhangers will be satisfied that the story arc is complete in these three books. Recommended especially for fans of gritty romance, bad guys getting their due and tarnished good guys getting their HEA.
RATING: 
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