Book Review: The Goodnight Agency by Tyler Tork

Tyler Tork is another author I have been blessed to meet through Narrativity. Just based on the amazing cover, I was excited to read The Goodnight Agency, and it did not disappoint. 

Ever since her parents went to prison, Ruby Park has bounced around among her aunts, looking for a place to call home. But Ruby is not interested in being the kind of girl her aunts expect her to be, and finally, she is sent to live with her Uncle Simon.  

Simon Goodnight tells people he is a financial advisor, but in reality, he helps his clients with whatever they need. That in and of itself is not strange. It is his clients who are strange. They include a bat boy and sasquatch among the others who need assistance doing many things in the human world.  

For the first time since her parents were arrested, Ruby is living with someone who accepts her as she is, and who thinks she deserves a fresh start. Armed with Simon’s trust, she feels confident and starts to make friends, and even helps with some of his clients. But then, a man in the same line of business as Simon becomes that latest victim in a string of murders, and Simon is arrested for the crime. 

Ruby must make a choice. She can go back to one of the aunts, or she can break some rules to prove Simon is innocent. It is not a hard choice. With intelligence, ingenuity, and the help of her new friends, Ruby is determined to prove her uncle’s innocence, all while not revealing his clients’ secrets. Because she has finally found a home again, and she is not going to lose it. 

I loved The Goodnight Agency by Tyler Tork. Ruby is dynamic, imperfect, and relatable. Simon is the weird uncle we all wish we had. The adults are mostly useless, but not because they are evil or incompetent, but because they feel bound by the rules that Ruby is happy to ignore.  

My favorite thing about this book was how the relationships between the characters developed. They all felt real and organic. My least favorite was that there was such a deep world that was introduced that it would have been impossible for Tork to put all the lore in there, but I wanted it all.  

I enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone who likes urban fantasy and is up to reading a book this length. I hope very much that Tork continues to write stories in this world and with these characters.