The Night Thief by Joy Ellis

When a creepy burglar strikes the Fens stealing pictures of little boy Jackman and Evans are more the a little concerned although things take a sinister turn when an elderly lady ends up dead. Keep reading to hear my thought on the latest book in the Jackman and Evans Series.

When everyone is sleeping, he comes into their houses.

He takes one thing. A photo of their child.

A sinister thief on a power trip or something even darker and more sinister?

Detectives Jackman and Evans find themselves on the hunt for a highly unusual burglar who seemingly only steals photographs. But then, late one night, an elderly woman falls to her death after seeing someone in her home.

Did she really fall, or was she murdered?

And just how many mysterious intruders are there on the Fens?

With the body count rising, Jackman and Evans have their work cut out for them to track down the night thief - before it’s too late.

Series: Jackman & Evans #8 | Publisher: Audible  | Narrator: Richard Armitage  | Length: 11 hrs 10 min | Genre: Mystery/Thriller  | Source: Publisher  | Rating: 3 Cups

Someone’s been breaking into people’s houses, stealing pictures of young boys. Is a thief trying to spook people or something more dangerous? Jackman and Evans have been searching down every avenue looking for answers but coming up empty then an elderly woman falls to her death during a break-in leaving the detectives to wonder if it’s the same person and if they have now added murder to their list of crimes. Is there a connection between the missing pictures and the woman? Jackman and Evans must race to find a connection before the night thief strikes again.

I’m a bit on the fence about this one. It was good yet it was rather boring in some spots, I’m sorry to say. When this one was good, it was really good and had me eager to find out more but the boring bits nearly had me asleep.

Character-wise, I liked seeing more into the personal lives of Rowan Jackman and Ruth Evans—this one dealt with a lot of relationship type things—and we do get to see a decent amount of actual detective work. The villain in this one wasn’t as strong or as creepy as the previous ones, they just came off more unhinged than anything. So I was never really pulled into any twists or turns trying to figure out their thought process.

In this one, we have a thief breaking into people’s houses and stealing pictures of young boys. It seems like it’s random bits of weirdness then an elderly lady catches someone in her house and dies after falling down the steps. We also have Laura (she’s Jackman’s psychologist girlfriend) who is a little creeped out by her sleepwalking, sometimes blood covered patient. There’s a lot of are they are they not connected going on. A lot of time spent running around with the sleepwalker, some creepy bits with the thief but there’s not a lot actually happening. We’re going through the motions yet going back to the beginning.

This one is a little over 11 hours and, honestly, I think it was just a little too long. I really wish she would have stuck with the main aspect of the story—it would have held my attention better—rather than throwing in the red herrings that really didn’t make a lot of sense or go with the story. It seemed like it was just a hastily thrown together distraction rather than something that was plausible. The mystery itself was decent but it was too drawn out.

Overall, it was just okay. I do wish that this had been condensed; the mystery was intriguing and had me eager to see how it unfolded but I don’t think it had enough legs to stand on as a full-length novel—and the second longest in the series. This would have been so much more enjoyable as a novella.

Jackman & Evans Series (recommended listening order)

 

Their Lost Daughters

The Murderer's Son

The Fourth Friend

The Guilty Ones

The Stolen Boys

The Patient Man

They Disappeared

The Night Thief