Day Shift

This is the 2nd installation in Charlaine Harris' new series set in Midnight, Texas. Almost no one who lives in this tiny crossroads town is what they appear to be, and most of the apparently normal folks seem to have a past they would rather keep hidden (see my post on Midnight Crossroad). This time we learn more about the true natures of Chuy and Joe, the gay owners of the nail salon / antique store and about the ancient and laconic Reverend, who turns out to have some connections with a character from the Sookie Stackhouse series. It won't be a spoiler to say that there is a good reason that a small boy is left in the care of the  Reverend; both are members of a very rare and powerful supernatural species.
When phone psychic Manfred Bernardo goes to Dallas for a weekend of face-to-face readings with clients, he is surprised to see the mysterious Olivia there in the same hotel. He is NOT surprised when the couple she is seen dining with that evening turn up dead of an apparent murder-suicide the next morning. He is further rudely surprised when an elderly woman for whom he is doing a reading suddenly dies. At first he is suspected of her death, and then, when the evidence does not support that, he is suspected of stealing her jewels -- a charge brought by the woman's crazy son. Manfred turns to Olivia to help him find the jewels in a way that won't incriminate him, so he can get back to work.      
Surprising to everyone in town is the fact that some major corporation has bought up the derelict 3-story hotel building and refurbished it to be a residence hotel for long-term travelers working at the nearby Internet company headquarters and as transitional housing for seniors. On further investigation, however, it appears that these seniors have no living relatives and have been brought to Midnight from a rundown retirement home in Las Vegas. This particular apple cart gets upset when (a) a relative of one of the seniors (who forgot he had a grandson) shows up, and (b) when Olivia and Manfred enlist the other seniors in their plan to try and find the jewels. The newly found grandson, Barry Howowitz, really does not want to be anywhere in the state of Texas because of an old disagreement with the vampires in Dallas and is desperately trying to figure out what to do with his grandfather. In the meantime, the small boy--who has now been adopted by the whole town-- is growing at an alarming rate and a crisis is approaching that leaves everyone in Midnight fearfully locked in their homes as the full moon rises.
As always, these fanciful tales are great fun to read as the characters continue to develop and you are left wanting to know more about them and what's going to happen next.