I received an ARC of this book via netgalley In exchange for an honest review. I have read the first book in this series and found it confusing with many disparate elements. This one is better in that the main emphasis is a series of art crimes. However it does suffer from too many complications in my view. Nobody is whom they seem whether in the Vatican, the police or the gangs they all seem to be hiding something and this just became too much for me in the end. I found it very difficult to keep track of the whole although there were elements that i enjoyed.

When art, money and power collide…

A Mafia boss addicted to beautiful art. A Catholic priest who knows too much. A modern-day Jay Gatsby. And a woman on the run.

Disgraced London detective Stephen Connor is given an ultimatum: take a transfer to Rome or kiss his career goodbye. With his love life in tatters and his confidence at an all-time low, can Stephen find the world’s most valuable painting before it disappears forever?"


Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!
As a fan of murder mystery thriller books, I enjoy this one just fine. It's pretty fast so please beware. As per usual, full of twists here and there. It can be a bit confusing for someone who's not a fan of thriller but it's worth the try. The cover is also so pretty!

This was a terrific read. I will be doing a full review after my book group reads it but it was amazing. Well plotted, fast paced, memorable, atmospheric, and believable characters. First rate thriller fiction.

This is a thriller all right - fast paced, lots of twists and characters who live life on on the edge. It’s not a book which challenges you too much so just enjoy the ride. The characters present an interesting mix of loveable and those you can hardly stand. Definitely worth taking on your next holiday.

Art, mafia and law enforcement with lots of action. I don't give much thought to stolen art unless it is headline news. So I found this story very interesting. There were twists and turns as the story progresses. McCarthy is one I found most interesting. A crooked priest indebted to the mafia. The book was full of interesting characters with each one having their own twist to the whole story. I liked the book!

I find this book to be very confusing. Ch1 is an introduction, OK, Ch2 I have no idea why we are going to Australia, and then Ch3 is really good and how every book should start. But then the jumping around gets too tedious and I find the book not very entertaining.

An international crime novel set in Rome, Naples and Boston. A London policemen is on secondment to the Italian art crimes unit to investigate stolen art with Mafia and Vatican connections. The plot moved along at a good pace, the outcome was predictable and overall an interesting read. I particularly enjoyed the Italian settings and the theory on the fate of artworks stolen in the real-world robbery of the Boston museum.
One minor story line of a missing woman in Australia/Indonesia seemed out of place and relates to a previous book that I haven’t read. A bit distracting and underdeveloped in this book, so this part may make more sense if you read the first book in the series before this. The main story stands alone well if you just follow the art crime.
Thanks to #netgalley for an early release version for this review.

Art theft, international conspiracies, the Mafia...
I love novels that take me to new places away from the boring same-old. In that sense this book did not disappoint. Much of the action takes place in Italy. Having visited the main tourist cities I was able to see the story unfolding in my mind's eye. I cannot vouch for how accurate the politics etc depicted in the novel were, but it felt authentic.
Reading this made me want to actually Google the artworks mentioned!
It is not a page turner but plods on in true police procedural fashion until the climax at the end where all the loose ends tie up in a neat package.

A mystery thriller featuring art, murder, the mafia, and a disgraced catholic priest.

Detective Stephen Conner is forced to follow an art theft to Rome. He begins to unravel a huge theft ring and ends up coming face to face with more than he bargained for.

This book reminded me very much of Dan Brown/Robert Langdon. It was a great adventure and a real page turner!

*I was provided an arc by Netfalley and the publisher for my honest feedback.

I had high hope for this book after reading all the positive but it just fell... flat.
DNF @25%,

I wholeheartedly thank the publishers and Netgalley for the opportunity but I couldn't go through with this book. It's terribly written.

Good if you love a war story, would be better if the writing was less male minded. Slow paced with intrigue.

Nighthawks just didn't work for me. It's a very disappointing novel Even my review is disappointing because I accidentally erased it after giving detailed reasons why I didn't like the novel.
Essentially, the Cara scenario was a distraction and a waste of my time. It added nothing to the novel.
Tariq and Ginny were thinly developed and didn't add much either. The story is about art and artifacts and the deceit that goes with them. So why not stick to that?
It was never clear why the protagonist is transferred to Rome from London. Do countries just do that? By the end of the story we know that Stephen Connor did nothing in Rome that a Roman cop couldn't have done. The most interesting part of the book is in Rome with the mob boss and the priest. But that's just a part of the story.
We are relying on Stephen and his colleague in Rome, Elisabetto, but Steven seems to avoid her. He's essentially a one man show and he doesn't produce much.
The author(s) say that they had advanced author accelerator training, because if they hadn't, this book would never have gotten off the ground. I don't think it went far after that. Sorry, it's just my opinion, but I do read a multitude of novels. A final question. Connor hacks his girl friend's phone and uses a false pretense to enter the priest's apartment. Am I supposed to respect or admire that?
Thanks, NetGalley, for the ATC.

Thank you to Lambert Nagle, BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for the ACR in exchange for an honest review.

This book has a very nice, neat storyline with some lovely quirky touches. This book is full of thriller and a very fast moving, as well as dialogue. It is fast paced and action packed crime thriller. It also has great characters to keep you reading on this book. Surely it grasped my heart pounding throughout the whole book, Definitely it will satisfy your thirst for thriller. It was a very enjoyable read and I highly recommend to those people who like crime thrillers.

Nighthawks by Lambert Nagle is the second book in a series but it works well as a standalone as the authors give us enough background to make this easy enough to read, which is a good job as I haven't read the first one yet.
This is an international crime thriller with a Scotland Yard detective Stephen Connor as our main character. Stephen is sent out to Rome to work with the Italian Police investigating illicit art dealing, his fiancée is not best pleased that he is abroad but needs must. Is Stephen going to be any help in recovering the art before it is gone for good, or not?
A book which is an interesting read as well. I loved the art side of it all, with things like art forgery and the black market and the history all being part and parcel, another book in which I felt like I was being educated as well as entertained. This thriller has everything, not just the art, there is a mafia side to it, a corrupt police officer and a dash of romance! An enticing and very addictive story.
I liked Stephen as a character he is as human as they come and a good character to follow in this story. The cast of characters in this book are wide, varied and as you can tell come from plenty of different walks of life...some legal, some not! There is never a dull moment I can tell you. A thriller that is worth the "thriller" label.
Thanks to netgalley for my copy of the book for my review today.

Whoever said crime doesn’t pay can’t have been doing it right.

If you like an action-packed read with lots of location changes, this is the mystery book for you! Lambert Nagle is the penname for Alison Ripley Cubitt and her husband Sean Cubitt, who co-write international thrillers, mystery and crime. Inspired by a trip to Rome where they were victims of two scams, “Nighthawks,” book two of the Detective Stephen Connor series, is a conspiracy thriller that examines what happens when art, money and power collide.

A Mafia boss addicted to beautiful art. A catholic priest who knows too much. A modern-day Jay Gatsby. And a woman on the run.

Detective Stephen Connor is in a bit of a bind. He’s been reassigned to Rome for three months. It doesn’t sound like too much of a hardship, does it? Except, his wedding date falls in the middle of those three months. A wedding planned and paid for and expected to take place in London. Not willing to risk his job, he breaks the news to his fiancée and, dejected, jets off to the eternal city. If only he wasn’t so low on the totem pole.
He’s been assigned to an art looting case and has to find the world’s most valuable painting before it disappears forever. What he discovers, in the process, is that the real villains in ‘to order’ art looting are the middlemen and those at the top. The ones who do the stealing are at the bottom of the theft ring and receive so little in comparison to the organizers and acquirers. Downtrodden and dejected at the beginning of the story, he discovers that he’s exactly where he needs to be, doing what he loves to do and that against all odds, he’s survived.

Sure to have your heart pounding, this book will satisfy your thirst for travel at a time when it’s restricted. An eclectic collection of characters who come to life under the duos pen, quirky Detective Connor will irritate you and you’ll want to scream advice to him. I believe this works to his advantage as a character and creates tension and reader involvement. The answers to his problems may come easy to the reader, but the disgraced detective holds the power. I imagined him as Peter Falk, the ‘one more thing’ detective from the L.A. crime drama, Columbo. The locations and the character development are the stars of this mystery and it’s obvious that the duo poured their heart and soul into this story. This novel has strong potential for screen adaptation. Considering it’s their forte, I won’t be surprised.

Thank you to Lambert Nagle, BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Publishes March 15, 2021.