I loved The Night Watchman by Mark Mynheir!  It’s a great mystery/suspense story that takes place in and around Orlando, FL, and deals with corruption in government as well as the local police department.  It’s an extremely well-written story, with an ending that’s almost impossible to figure out ahead of time.

The Night Watchman is former detective Ray Quinn, who has a new life as a security guard/P.I. (and part-time alcoholic)–a life he certainly didn’t choose voluntarily, but was forced into after a mysterious shooting that crippled him and killed his partner.

After the murder/suicide of an exotic dancer and pastor that occurred at the condo on Ray’s new beat, he gets sucked back into police work, trying to discover who the real killer is, and how this attack might relate to his accident, as well as the death of another exotic dancer he interviewed. He learns secrets about the people he used to work with, breaks several laws, is beaten, and even had an attempt made on his own life while trying to untangle the mystery of the killings, and how they relate to several powerful men in the Orlando area, and the local nightclub scene.

Along the way, he befriends a young man with whom he works–Crevis, a somewhat bumbling red-head who dreams to one day become a police officer himself. It’s an unlikely friendship, and one that Ray avoided for as long as possible.  Ray also allows himself to become closer to Pam, the sister of the pastor found dead in the condo.  Only time will tell if that will become a romantic relationship in future books.

This book kept me furiously turning the pages until I had it finished.  I wasn’t  sure who Ray could really trust until the very end, when all of the truth finally came out. Until that point, I had a trust no one attitude, which seemed to be shared by Ray, as he discovered just how deeply the investigation ran.

I can’t wait to see what kind of cases The Night Watchman Detective Agency tackles next!