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The Waiting Hours
When you spend your life saving others...who will be there to save you?
When tragedy erupts on a stifling summer night, three ordinary people, with the extraordinary jobs of rescuing strangers, are connected to one another in ways both explicit and invisible. Each is deeply devoted to what they do, but they are all beginning to crack under the immense pressures of their work.
Tough-as-nails Kate, when she's not working with her beloved search-and-rescue dog, Zeus, is a trauma nurse who spends her off-duty hours trying to forget what she has seen. Estranged from her troubled family, she must confront the fact that resolution may elude her forever. Respected police officer Mike is on the edge of burnout and sets himself on a downward spiral that may be impossible to break, fraying the bonds of love that hold his family together. Tamara, an agoraphobic 911 dispatcher, who is trying her hardest to remain as calm and emotionless as an automated message, is propelled into the middle of a story that she can't avoid and must enter the world to find out how it ends.
With a city prickling under a heat wave and a hurricane threatening to make landfall, these responders will be forced to make fateful choices that will alter lives. A storm is coming and nobody is prepared.
When tragedy erupts on a stifling summer night, three ordinary people, with the extraordinary jobs of rescuing strangers, are connected to one another in ways both explicit and invisible. Each is deeply devoted to what they do, but they are all beginning to crack under the immense pressures of their work.
Tough-as-nails Kate, when she's not working with her beloved search-and-rescue dog, Zeus, is a trauma nurse who spends her off-duty hours trying to forget what she has seen. Estranged from her troubled family, she must confront the fact that resolution may elude her forever. Respected police officer Mike is on the edge of burnout and sets himself on a downward spiral that may be impossible to break, fraying the bonds of love that hold his family together. Tamara, an agoraphobic 911 dispatcher, who is trying her hardest to remain as calm and emotionless as an automated message, is propelled into the middle of a story that she can't avoid and must enter the world to find out how it ends.
With a city prickling under a heat wave and a hurricane threatening to make landfall, these responders will be forced to make fateful choices that will alter lives. A storm is coming and nobody is prepared.
400 pages, Paperback
First published April 30, 2019
10 people are currently reading
1047 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 112 reviews
May 16, 2021
I always enjoy reading books by Canadian authors and I'm always so proud when it's such a great one! This was an emotional and pretty fast-paced story.
The story focuses on three Emergency Response Workers. Tamara, a 911 Operator, Mike a Police Officer and Kate an Emergency Department Nurse (and part time Search and Rescue Worker.) It tells the story of their day-to-day lives at work and home and how one tragic event sort of links them all together.
This was a well written story. I felt like I was a part of their lives. I could feel their emotional panic at times, along with their frustrations and sadness. It was interesting to see how this one tragic event affected each person individually and how they tried to cope with it. I enjoyed the story a lot and it ended quite dramatically. I think I would have preferred more closure as there are still some lingering questions I needed to be answered.
An emotional book that really makes you think about what our First Responders must go through day in and day out after witnessing some rather distressing events. I'd like to thank NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada Publishers for granting me access to read this Advance Reader Copy.
The story focuses on three Emergency Response Workers. Tamara, a 911 Operator, Mike a Police Officer and Kate an Emergency Department Nurse (and part time Search and Rescue Worker.) It tells the story of their day-to-day lives at work and home and how one tragic event sort of links them all together.
This was a well written story. I felt like I was a part of their lives. I could feel their emotional panic at times, along with their frustrations and sadness. It was interesting to see how this one tragic event affected each person individually and how they tried to cope with it. I enjoyed the story a lot and it ended quite dramatically. I think I would have preferred more closure as there are still some lingering questions I needed to be answered.
An emotional book that really makes you think about what our First Responders must go through day in and day out after witnessing some rather distressing events. I'd like to thank NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada Publishers for granting me access to read this Advance Reader Copy.
August 10, 2020
The Waiting Hours - the time between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. when first responders hope there isn't a call, because that's when something has gone very bad.
In a handful of days, Shandi Mitchell's novel takes us into the lives of three frontline workers: Kate, a trauma nurse who also works with her search-and-rescue dog, Zeus; Mike, a police officer, married with two young children; and Tamara, an agoraphobic 911 operator with OCD, all connected explicitly and inadvertently to tragic events, and all ready to crash and burn. Mitchell's extensive research and observation of human nature in this extremely detailed character-driven story had me so invested with these characters, that I came away with a huge appreciation for what these responders experience, what they witness, and what they have to live with. As for the ending? Well, all I will say is ... life goes on.
Overall, an intense and satisfying read!
In a handful of days, Shandi Mitchell's novel takes us into the lives of three frontline workers: Kate, a trauma nurse who also works with her search-and-rescue dog, Zeus; Mike, a police officer, married with two young children; and Tamara, an agoraphobic 911 operator with OCD, all connected explicitly and inadvertently to tragic events, and all ready to crash and burn. Mitchell's extensive research and observation of human nature in this extremely detailed character-driven story had me so invested with these characters, that I came away with a huge appreciation for what these responders experience, what they witness, and what they have to live with. As for the ending? Well, all I will say is ... life goes on.
Overall, an intense and satisfying read!
August 17, 2020
“The Waiting Hours” captures the fullness of life....with so much heart, character devotion, compassion, grace, love, loss, suffering, sadness, and warmth....
......that I’ve been a watering blubber mess.
THE CHARACTERS ARE SOOOO EASY TO LOVE: we know them, feel them....
....their pain pains us.... their humanity moves us!!
It’s deeply intimate, deeply emotional, deeply fascinating....with wonderful delectable storytelling!!!
Three Frontline workers are grappling their fate.
Despite the travails that each of the three responders faces —
Kate, an ER nurse...
Mike, a policeman....
Tamara, a 911 dispatcher....
.....they’re bonded by a shared purpose. Their lives intersect — which carries them through the most difficult times....those hours between 3 and 6am.....when emergency gaieties are usually restful and tranquil.
Setting: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada 🇨🇦
NOTE: The Halifax explosion occurred December 1917. A French cargo ship laden with high explosives, collided with a Norwegian vessel.
A fire on board the French ship ignited the cargo— causing a massive explosion that killed approximately 2,000 people.... and devastated the Richmond district of Halifax.
Shandi Mitchell, Canadian author, is a writer of great wisdom. The atmosphere of love was always felt - her elegant prose is both effective and affecting. She has that uncanny ability to describe her characters in such a finely facsimile manner, that I felt I’d recognize them if they walked into the coffee house I was sitting.
A little about Mike: [married to Lori; their two little boys are Conner and Caleb]....
....Mike deals with excruciating pain in his back, but keeps going, trying to ignore his pain. After all, he’s a cop.
His wife Lori is in bed next to him:
“Spooned against him, Lori listened to her husband’s restless dreams and held the spasms of his legs and the shudders of his body. When his sleep breath arrested, she nudged his shoulder and breathed in with him. She whispered in his ear, ‘tomorrow will be a better day’”.
“She wondered how much longer she could keep telling herself that”.
Mike:
“How many of their ‘blue family’ had divorced or been ravaged by booze or worse? How many funerals had he attended for self-inflicted wounds? Too many. He knew how rarely she truly laughed, and then only with the children”.
“He had promised himself that he would never bring the ugliness of out there into their homes. But he had, he had brought it home, cut it open, and let it bleed all over his family. He would do better. He kissed his fingers and softly touched her cheek. Lori groaned and rolled away”.
A little about Kate:
Besides being an ER nurse, she was also working with her beloved ‘search and rescue’ dog, Zeus.
Kate didn’t have a supportive stable family — and had unresolved issues that she would rather avoid —but eventually she has no choice but to face her troubles.
About Zeus ( a very lovable dog)
“If he were trailing an animal, he would know the species, gender, and social order, alpha or follower. He’d be able to discern what paths it travelled, the food it ate, and whether it was friend, so, or prey. Presumedly, with a human he could smell the cheapness and their shoes, the sourness of their pants, the soap used, the scraper a knee, nicotine on fingers, alcohol in pores, and the cancer in their bones. He could smell fear. And death. And weakness. He could smell narrative. She often wondered if he knew the outcome before he reached the ending”.
About Tamara: (911 dispatcher)
A piano player - gets her groceries delivered ( not due to COVID-19)....she is an agoraphobia....works from home...
but after a considerable amount of time —she walks out her door.
“The music led her back into the blues. Into the blues. Her hands slammed the keys and the gospel triad chord sang out. She played. Grunting and puffing. She played until her arms and fingers were stumbling. Pedal foot stuttering. Breast clammy. The small of her back and her forehead slick. The final notes coursed through her body and she laid her hands on the piano and held on as the vibration emptied the room”.
The rhythm of the characters lives were constantly shattered by emergencies, and trauma.....but they were brave - did work that protected us - our community - risking their lives everyday ...
I cried with them for them - thanked them....
And my God....this book makes me appreciate all our frontline essential workers right now.
Storytelling at its best...
Fiction at its best.... feels so real...
A FANTASTIC NOVEL!!!
......that I’ve been a watering blubber mess.
THE CHARACTERS ARE SOOOO EASY TO LOVE: we know them, feel them....
....their pain pains us.... their humanity moves us!!
It’s deeply intimate, deeply emotional, deeply fascinating....with wonderful delectable storytelling!!!
Three Frontline workers are grappling their fate.
Despite the travails that each of the three responders faces —
Kate, an ER nurse...
Mike, a policeman....
Tamara, a 911 dispatcher....
.....they’re bonded by a shared purpose. Their lives intersect — which carries them through the most difficult times....those hours between 3 and 6am.....when emergency gaieties are usually restful and tranquil.
Setting: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada 🇨🇦
NOTE: The Halifax explosion occurred December 1917. A French cargo ship laden with high explosives, collided with a Norwegian vessel.
A fire on board the French ship ignited the cargo— causing a massive explosion that killed approximately 2,000 people.... and devastated the Richmond district of Halifax.
Shandi Mitchell, Canadian author, is a writer of great wisdom. The atmosphere of love was always felt - her elegant prose is both effective and affecting. She has that uncanny ability to describe her characters in such a finely facsimile manner, that I felt I’d recognize them if they walked into the coffee house I was sitting.
A little about Mike: [married to Lori; their two little boys are Conner and Caleb]....
....Mike deals with excruciating pain in his back, but keeps going, trying to ignore his pain. After all, he’s a cop.
His wife Lori is in bed next to him:
“Spooned against him, Lori listened to her husband’s restless dreams and held the spasms of his legs and the shudders of his body. When his sleep breath arrested, she nudged his shoulder and breathed in with him. She whispered in his ear, ‘tomorrow will be a better day’”.
“She wondered how much longer she could keep telling herself that”.
Mike:
“How many of their ‘blue family’ had divorced or been ravaged by booze or worse? How many funerals had he attended for self-inflicted wounds? Too many. He knew how rarely she truly laughed, and then only with the children”.
“He had promised himself that he would never bring the ugliness of out there into their homes. But he had, he had brought it home, cut it open, and let it bleed all over his family. He would do better. He kissed his fingers and softly touched her cheek. Lori groaned and rolled away”.
A little about Kate:
Besides being an ER nurse, she was also working with her beloved ‘search and rescue’ dog, Zeus.
Kate didn’t have a supportive stable family — and had unresolved issues that she would rather avoid —but eventually she has no choice but to face her troubles.
About Zeus ( a very lovable dog)
“If he were trailing an animal, he would know the species, gender, and social order, alpha or follower. He’d be able to discern what paths it travelled, the food it ate, and whether it was friend, so, or prey. Presumedly, with a human he could smell the cheapness and their shoes, the sourness of their pants, the soap used, the scraper a knee, nicotine on fingers, alcohol in pores, and the cancer in their bones. He could smell fear. And death. And weakness. He could smell narrative. She often wondered if he knew the outcome before he reached the ending”.
About Tamara: (911 dispatcher)
A piano player - gets her groceries delivered ( not due to COVID-19)....she is an agoraphobia....works from home...
but after a considerable amount of time —she walks out her door.
“The music led her back into the blues. Into the blues. Her hands slammed the keys and the gospel triad chord sang out. She played. Grunting and puffing. She played until her arms and fingers were stumbling. Pedal foot stuttering. Breast clammy. The small of her back and her forehead slick. The final notes coursed through her body and she laid her hands on the piano and held on as the vibration emptied the room”.
The rhythm of the characters lives were constantly shattered by emergencies, and trauma.....but they were brave - did work that protected us - our community - risking their lives everyday ...
I cried with them for them - thanked them....
And my God....this book makes me appreciate all our frontline essential workers right now.
Storytelling at its best...
Fiction at its best.... feels so real...
A FANTASTIC NOVEL!!!
September 25, 2021
A new Canadian author for me!
What a great concept.
This was a surprisingly good read.
I loved the writing and I felt engaged from the beginning.
I listened to the audiobook while simultaneously reading the book. I found the narrator’s voice too soothing, so I stopped listening, but later I decided to increase the speed, and that helped to break that sweet voice.
This is a novel about the first responders (a nurse, a cop and a 911 dispatcher who is an agoraphobic).
It’s not a story about casualties or victims, but how those occurrences affects each professional’s personal life.
There is not a plot, just vignettes of casualties. One of those casualties will link the 3 responders.
Some events are heartbreaking.
What I loved about this book is how naturally human, how authentic it felt.
The story do drag on in some parts, perhaps because it is very descriptive and detailed, but it did not bother me because I really enjoyed the writing style.
The conclusion did not please me, as I thought that it was too abrupt
What a great concept.
This was a surprisingly good read.
I loved the writing and I felt engaged from the beginning.
I listened to the audiobook while simultaneously reading the book. I found the narrator’s voice too soothing, so I stopped listening, but later I decided to increase the speed, and that helped to break that sweet voice.
This is a novel about the first responders (a nurse, a cop and a 911 dispatcher who is an agoraphobic).
It’s not a story about casualties or victims, but how those occurrences affects each professional’s personal life.
There is not a plot, just vignettes of casualties. One of those casualties will link the 3 responders.
Some events are heartbreaking.
What I loved about this book is how naturally human, how authentic it felt.
The story do drag on in some parts, perhaps because it is very descriptive and detailed, but it did not bother me because I really enjoyed the writing style.
The conclusion did not please me, as I thought that it was too abrupt
June 10, 2019
The Waiting Hours by Shandi Mitchell was published April 30, 2019. Shandi Mitchell was born in New Brunswick, raised in Alberta, and now makes her home in Nova Scotia. She is a Canadian author and film maker. She won many awards for her debut novel, UNDER THIS UNBROKEN SKY, which I hope to read in the near future.
I chose this book because there is a picture of a broken china plate on the front cover. For my bookclub it met the requirement Off The Shelf: Something broken on the cover. This novel kept me turning pages and when I was not reading, I was thinking about Tamara, Mike and Katie the three main characters. Tamara is an outstanding 911 dispatcher, Mike is a good police officer and Katie works with her search-and-rescue dog, Zeus, and is also a trauma nurse.
The book is well written with good character development, especially the three first responders. The plot is believable, intriguing, and there are various degrees of suspense.
"A propulsive and invigorating book. The strange, difficult work of frontline workers will be fascinating and unfamiliar territory to most readers, but the rich inner lives and emotional fractures of Mitchell's characters are painfully - beautifully - recognizable."
Quote from Katrina Onstad, author of Everybody has Everything
Between the twilight of three and six, came the Waiting Hours.
4+ responding stars ⭐️️⭐️️⭐️️⭐️️
I chose this book because there is a picture of a broken china plate on the front cover. For my bookclub it met the requirement Off The Shelf: Something broken on the cover. This novel kept me turning pages and when I was not reading, I was thinking about Tamara, Mike and Katie the three main characters. Tamara is an outstanding 911 dispatcher, Mike is a good police officer and Katie works with her search-and-rescue dog, Zeus, and is also a trauma nurse.
The book is well written with good character development, especially the three first responders. The plot is believable, intriguing, and there are various degrees of suspense.
"A propulsive and invigorating book. The strange, difficult work of frontline workers will be fascinating and unfamiliar territory to most readers, but the rich inner lives and emotional fractures of Mitchell's characters are painfully - beautifully - recognizable."
Quote from Katrina Onstad, author of Everybody has Everything
Between the twilight of three and six, came the Waiting Hours.
4+ responding stars ⭐️️⭐️️⭐️️⭐️️
October 28, 2021
I had this eBook on a waitlist at the library for a long, long time. So glad I finally got to read it.
This is my kind of book! So real to life! It has all the depth and struggle of real life. No whitewashing it.
The opening line in this book is from Margaret Atwood’s book, Surfacing, “Fear has a smell as does love.”
The waiting hours are between 3 and 6 AM. These the longest hours when first responders hope there won’t be a call. Because as the author writes, a call during these hours means something has gone very bad.
As she later describes: the hours of smouldering cigarettes, forgotten cooking oil and candles.
I love the characters in this book and their diversity.
There is a black 911 operator, a trauma nurse who also does search and rescue, along with her dog, Zeus. there’s her personal life. Her brother. Mental illness.
A police officer and his family. And the most realistic dialogue of a child! So real. So well done!
A young black boy. A gunshot. Death.
I also loved the Iraqi cab driver, Hassan.
And the words: 911. What is your emergency?
On page 379, words spoken to someone in crisis. Words to remember:
“This is just one bad day. You can have a thousand good ones once you get past this one.”
This book is the second novel by this author. I read her debut novel in “Under This Unbroken Sky” back when first released in 2009. I remember I liked it, but I really loved this one!
This book held my interest, and I felt the tension that I’m sure is part of all emergency workers, that feeling of waiting for something to happen.
The story is told from various viewpoints. It’s done extremely well. There is never any confusion, and I love the way their lives interconnected.
Congratulations to Shandi Mitchell for a job so well done.
I look forward to Shandi Mitchell’s next book.
This is my kind of book! So real to life! It has all the depth and struggle of real life. No whitewashing it.
The opening line in this book is from Margaret Atwood’s book, Surfacing, “Fear has a smell as does love.”
The waiting hours are between 3 and 6 AM. These the longest hours when first responders hope there won’t be a call. Because as the author writes, a call during these hours means something has gone very bad.
As she later describes: the hours of smouldering cigarettes, forgotten cooking oil and candles.
I love the characters in this book and their diversity.
There is a black 911 operator, a trauma nurse who also does search and rescue, along with her dog, Zeus. there’s her personal life. Her brother. Mental illness.
A police officer and his family. And the most realistic dialogue of a child! So real. So well done!
A young black boy. A gunshot. Death.
I also loved the Iraqi cab driver, Hassan.
And the words: 911. What is your emergency?
On page 379, words spoken to someone in crisis. Words to remember:
“This is just one bad day. You can have a thousand good ones once you get past this one.”
This book is the second novel by this author. I read her debut novel in “Under This Unbroken Sky” back when first released in 2009. I remember I liked it, but I really loved this one!
This book held my interest, and I felt the tension that I’m sure is part of all emergency workers, that feeling of waiting for something to happen.
The story is told from various viewpoints. It’s done extremely well. There is never any confusion, and I love the way their lives interconnected.
Congratulations to Shandi Mitchell for a job so well done.
I look forward to Shandi Mitchell’s next book.
June 1, 2019
The Waiting Hours: that time from 3-6 a.m. on the night shift, when police, ER staff and 911 operators know that really bad things can happen, and you just have to wait for them. Mike, Kate and Tamara are all too familiar with this. They are also people who have their own terrors to deal with. Policeman Mike is slipping into opioid addiction because he's afraid to tell his superiors that his back pain is killing him. Kate, the ER nurse and SARS dog handler, has a comatose mother and a mentally ill brother who won't accept help. Tamara, who is the 911 clerk, is agoraphobic and obsessive-compulsive. Their paths cross both professionally and personally in the days building up to an approaching hurricane.
I thought this book was a terrific read. The characters were so real; their stories mattered to me, and I wanted the best for them all the way. There were tentative slivers of hope for all of them and I finished the book feeling hopeful. This one definitely lived up to its advance reviews.
I thought this book was a terrific read. The characters were so real; their stories mattered to me, and I wanted the best for them all the way. There were tentative slivers of hope for all of them and I finished the book feeling hopeful. This one definitely lived up to its advance reviews.
December 16, 2019
The writing is visual and precise and the research is spot-on, but the threads didn't intertwine as well as I had hoped. An immersive read nonetheless.
May 30, 2019
Loved Shandi's new book - so evocative, so Scotian! I gained new insight into the trauma that must impact the lives of first responders. Loved the images of words and the threads that bind us all together. Brava, Shandi! No spoilers, so will just say - read it! My prediction - Thomas Raddall winner for 2020.....
June 7, 2019
This was a struggle to get through... not sure why I continued?? Maybe in hopes that an actual story would come together, but it didn't.
It read more like a document than a story... yes it makes you see what our EMS, police and other various rescue workers lives look like... And I do appreciate them.
But the monotony of this book was painful. There was nothing to hook you or make you feel much of anything except bored.
Sorry, I really wanted to rate this better because I am grateful for the frontline workers who put their lives at risk everyday....maybe this book should've been classified as a documentary type genre.
It read more like a document than a story... yes it makes you see what our EMS, police and other various rescue workers lives look like... And I do appreciate them.
But the monotony of this book was painful. There was nothing to hook you or make you feel much of anything except bored.
Sorry, I really wanted to rate this better because I am grateful for the frontline workers who put their lives at risk everyday....maybe this book should've been classified as a documentary type genre.
July 13, 2019
This was a great book to ponder during my commute. It shared the intertwined lives of emergency personal - a nurse, a police officer and a 911 operator. They shared involvement in emergency situations yet all struggled with their own issues in their personal lives. This was gritty and felt real. The author did a great job of creating believable characters that the reader (or listener in my case) got to know and identify with.
I look forward to meeting Shandi Mitchell at the Grimsby Author series in the fall!
I look forward to meeting Shandi Mitchell at the Grimsby Author series in the fall!
May 18, 2019
This novel is full of sadness. But the words are exquisite. I was about 1/3 into the book and I realized I was on the edge of a most beautifully written story. I said to myself slow down, let the words come to you, let the story come to you. Savour it.
Mitchell has a way with words:
P 154. “He looked away, according to grief the respect it deserves. Don’t worry about the eyes with tears, his mama used to say. Worry about the eyes without. He wondered why this one boy had garnered so much attention.”
P 221. “ The scab on her hand had split and peeled. Soon it would be just another scar tattooing her with stories.”
This was a different kind of story. I jumped right in and was totally immersed with the three characters and I went along for the ride. It ended abruptly with many unanswered questions, but Mitchell told us that these three people usually only heard the beginnings of the stories and were not to follow them to their conclusions.
Mitchell has a way with words:
P 154. “He looked away, according to grief the respect it deserves. Don’t worry about the eyes with tears, his mama used to say. Worry about the eyes without. He wondered why this one boy had garnered so much attention.”
P 221. “ The scab on her hand had split and peeled. Soon it would be just another scar tattooing her with stories.”
This was a different kind of story. I jumped right in and was totally immersed with the three characters and I went along for the ride. It ended abruptly with many unanswered questions, but Mitchell told us that these three people usually only heard the beginnings of the stories and were not to follow them to their conclusions.
September 19, 2021
Each character had depth and I came to care about each of them. I wish it was more complete and let us know what happened to some of them.
November 28, 2022
This novel introduces readers to three people who work in Emergency Services, the kind of people we all rely on when we run into trouble. Few ever think about the lives these people lead working in such high stressful environments or appreciate the fact they need others when they themselves run into difficult times.
Kate is an emergency room nurse with eight years of experience, who works double duty with roles at the hospital and with search and rescue. Kate has trained her dog Zeus to search and find both the living and the dead when they are called upon and Kate loves him dearly, but her personal life is in chaos. She avoids confronting the problems that stem from her difficult childhood, with a mother who never recovered when Kate’s father abandoned the family and a brother who has serious mental health problems and refuses help. She buries herself in her work, avoiding the challenges she knows she must face and have recently come to a head. Her mother had a bad fall and was admitted to the same hospital where Kate works. She is in a coma with an uncertain future so she is not at home to take care of Kate’s older brother Matthew, who is off his medication, roaming the streets at all hours, spiraling out of control and refusing any help offered to him. Kate buries her worries about her family by drinking heavily and engaging in a hopeless affair with a married man, the leader of her search and recuse team.
In her job Kate sees horrific deaths, horrible wounds and brutal beatings as well as the regulars the staff call “frequent flyers”, who arrive a couple of times a month begging for anti-psychotics and pain meds that bring in good money on the streets. Kate hates her days off, they give her too much time to think and worry about her family’s derelict home, her sick brother and her mother’s uncertain future.
Mike is a thirty-eight-year-old police constable, a man who is well liked, respected and after years of experience, knows his job well. He has good insight into the situations that confront him and compassion for the many lost souls he deals with, often seeing people on their worst days. He likes his job but hates the endless paperwork. He and his wife Lori have two young boys, Caleb and Connor and Lori tries to support her husband despite the stresses of raising two young boys.
Lately Mike has experienced difficulty managing the terrible pain in his back, made worse by all the equipment he must carry and weighed down by his holstered gun, his taser and his handcuffs. His young boys constantly jump on him and beg to be carried, which only adds to his pain. Lately Mike has been having difficulty trying to meet all his families’ needs with the boys’ constant demands for attention and Lori wanting him to spend more time with his family. She becomes upset when he cannot “turn off” during his days off, always alert to what goes on around him as if he was on duty. As the demands on him mount, he feels himself on the edge, has difficulty sleeping and the constant pain he suffers is making his life untenable. Mike has always prided himself on his ability to cope and pay attention to both his work and his family, but lately he has been finding it hard to control his feelings, becoming increasingly paranoid and experiencing outbursts of aggression he struggles to control. He feels Lori does not understand what he goes through in a normal days’ work, the ugliness and brutality he must cope with every day to make a living, but he dares not share it with her, wanting to protect her from that harsh reality.
Tamara works in the offices that house the 911 staff, who rotate between the roles of call taker, dispatcher and fire. After extensive training, she has learned to be detached and efficient, skilled in multi-tasking, crisis management, problem solving, communication and risk assessment. She has fourteen years of experience behind her and enjoys her job which requires her to defuse a situation, think quickly, listen carefully, collect information and remain calm and emotionless as someone on the phone usually in distress, calls in for help.
Tamara is a black woman, acutely aware of her skin color and the fact she lives in a white neighborhood and works with mostly white co-workers. She is agoraphobic, so just the thought of going outside makes her tense and every trip outside is a challenge. She manages by living a regimented life, separating herself from the rest of the world and obsessively protecting her privacy, using several strategies to handle her stress. She has her groceries delivered, spends a period of quiet time before she begins her shifts and uses the same taxi to get to work. She has a breathing pattern that helps her stay calm when the noise, smells and possibilities of the outside world overwhelm her. When she begins to panic, she resorts to a mantra to get through it, stilling her mind by diverting her attention and directing her thoughts to five things she can see, four things she can touch, three things she can hear, two she can smell and one she can taste. It helps calms her.
The narrative also includes Hassan, a taxi driver. A small man in his mid-fifties, he is an immigrant from Bagdad who experienced a terrible past in Iraq. He has been taking Tamara to work regularly and she appreciates the care he takes managing her fears, avoiding left turns, staying silent during the trip and carefully driving across the city’s bridge, a part of Tamara’s route to work that terrifies her.
As the story begins in a city never identified, readers easily recognize it as Halifax Nova Scotia by references to various landmarks such as Africville, the South End, the basin and Union Square. During this time there is a heat wave, with the temperature hovering around forty degrees and a hurricane, currently reported as a depression, sitting out in the Atlantic and threatening to make landfall.
The shooting of a black teenage boy in an inner-city park becomes the focal point of the story after he dies in the emergency room despite the efforts of many people. It affects everyone in this story, and although they never work together, they know one another from a distance. Their lives intersect at various points as each tries to recover from this shocking murder of an innocent twelve-year-old child.
Mitchell takes readers to the action behind the scenes, not only during the actual emergency but how it affects those who tried to help save this young boy after the action is over. She describes the trauma and how they are affected, shaped and hurt by the work they do. Readers learn what happens as they return home with each of those details feeling realistic and honest. It leads readers to appreciate the work emergency workers do and the toll it takes on their personal lives.
This is a strong, compelling narrative, one that reminds readers that those working in such intense, stressful and often dangerous jobs each have their own stories of childhood trauma, marriages that are strained and home lives that may be unhappy. Yet each is expected to do their job, do it well and not become involved. They are simply to go home, resume their own lives and shut out their days’ experience. One wonders how that is even possible given what their life is like interacting with lippy prostitutes, carrying out drug busts, stopping drunk drivers and potential suicides, interrupting assaults, intervening in domestic violence disputes and dealing with the erratic behavior of the mentally unstable. It is very unpredictable and dangerous work that requires clear thinking, quick action and a calm stable demeanor.
Each of these workers recognizes the “regulars”, the repeat customers that use their services, the ones they call the “Lonelies”. But the most difficult part of the night is between 3 AM and 6 AM, what they call the “waiting hours”, the time when a call means something has gone very bad and can quickly become catastrophic. It is the time when everyone hopes there will be no calls, as they live through those long uneasy hours anticipating disaster.
Mitchell’s novel brings readers into the often dramatic life of these people who must face tragedy every day yet are expected to lead a normal life. Unlike the television shows with similar nervous energy and quick action, what this narrative gives the reader that cannot be viewed on a TV screen, is the inner lives of these characters, what is in their thoughts as they witness the tragedy that is part of their every day work. It also points out that emergency workers rarely know what ultimately happens to those with whom they interact. They are only a short stop on a person’s life journey and then their contact ends. This lack of closure can prove difficult and adds to the stress of their work. It makes clear that working in emergency services is not suited to everyone and is definitely not for the feint of heart.
Kate is an emergency room nurse with eight years of experience, who works double duty with roles at the hospital and with search and rescue. Kate has trained her dog Zeus to search and find both the living and the dead when they are called upon and Kate loves him dearly, but her personal life is in chaos. She avoids confronting the problems that stem from her difficult childhood, with a mother who never recovered when Kate’s father abandoned the family and a brother who has serious mental health problems and refuses help. She buries herself in her work, avoiding the challenges she knows she must face and have recently come to a head. Her mother had a bad fall and was admitted to the same hospital where Kate works. She is in a coma with an uncertain future so she is not at home to take care of Kate’s older brother Matthew, who is off his medication, roaming the streets at all hours, spiraling out of control and refusing any help offered to him. Kate buries her worries about her family by drinking heavily and engaging in a hopeless affair with a married man, the leader of her search and recuse team.
In her job Kate sees horrific deaths, horrible wounds and brutal beatings as well as the regulars the staff call “frequent flyers”, who arrive a couple of times a month begging for anti-psychotics and pain meds that bring in good money on the streets. Kate hates her days off, they give her too much time to think and worry about her family’s derelict home, her sick brother and her mother’s uncertain future.
Mike is a thirty-eight-year-old police constable, a man who is well liked, respected and after years of experience, knows his job well. He has good insight into the situations that confront him and compassion for the many lost souls he deals with, often seeing people on their worst days. He likes his job but hates the endless paperwork. He and his wife Lori have two young boys, Caleb and Connor and Lori tries to support her husband despite the stresses of raising two young boys.
Lately Mike has experienced difficulty managing the terrible pain in his back, made worse by all the equipment he must carry and weighed down by his holstered gun, his taser and his handcuffs. His young boys constantly jump on him and beg to be carried, which only adds to his pain. Lately Mike has been having difficulty trying to meet all his families’ needs with the boys’ constant demands for attention and Lori wanting him to spend more time with his family. She becomes upset when he cannot “turn off” during his days off, always alert to what goes on around him as if he was on duty. As the demands on him mount, he feels himself on the edge, has difficulty sleeping and the constant pain he suffers is making his life untenable. Mike has always prided himself on his ability to cope and pay attention to both his work and his family, but lately he has been finding it hard to control his feelings, becoming increasingly paranoid and experiencing outbursts of aggression he struggles to control. He feels Lori does not understand what he goes through in a normal days’ work, the ugliness and brutality he must cope with every day to make a living, but he dares not share it with her, wanting to protect her from that harsh reality.
Tamara works in the offices that house the 911 staff, who rotate between the roles of call taker, dispatcher and fire. After extensive training, she has learned to be detached and efficient, skilled in multi-tasking, crisis management, problem solving, communication and risk assessment. She has fourteen years of experience behind her and enjoys her job which requires her to defuse a situation, think quickly, listen carefully, collect information and remain calm and emotionless as someone on the phone usually in distress, calls in for help.
Tamara is a black woman, acutely aware of her skin color and the fact she lives in a white neighborhood and works with mostly white co-workers. She is agoraphobic, so just the thought of going outside makes her tense and every trip outside is a challenge. She manages by living a regimented life, separating herself from the rest of the world and obsessively protecting her privacy, using several strategies to handle her stress. She has her groceries delivered, spends a period of quiet time before she begins her shifts and uses the same taxi to get to work. She has a breathing pattern that helps her stay calm when the noise, smells and possibilities of the outside world overwhelm her. When she begins to panic, she resorts to a mantra to get through it, stilling her mind by diverting her attention and directing her thoughts to five things she can see, four things she can touch, three things she can hear, two she can smell and one she can taste. It helps calms her.
The narrative also includes Hassan, a taxi driver. A small man in his mid-fifties, he is an immigrant from Bagdad who experienced a terrible past in Iraq. He has been taking Tamara to work regularly and she appreciates the care he takes managing her fears, avoiding left turns, staying silent during the trip and carefully driving across the city’s bridge, a part of Tamara’s route to work that terrifies her.
As the story begins in a city never identified, readers easily recognize it as Halifax Nova Scotia by references to various landmarks such as Africville, the South End, the basin and Union Square. During this time there is a heat wave, with the temperature hovering around forty degrees and a hurricane, currently reported as a depression, sitting out in the Atlantic and threatening to make landfall.
The shooting of a black teenage boy in an inner-city park becomes the focal point of the story after he dies in the emergency room despite the efforts of many people. It affects everyone in this story, and although they never work together, they know one another from a distance. Their lives intersect at various points as each tries to recover from this shocking murder of an innocent twelve-year-old child.
Mitchell takes readers to the action behind the scenes, not only during the actual emergency but how it affects those who tried to help save this young boy after the action is over. She describes the trauma and how they are affected, shaped and hurt by the work they do. Readers learn what happens as they return home with each of those details feeling realistic and honest. It leads readers to appreciate the work emergency workers do and the toll it takes on their personal lives.
This is a strong, compelling narrative, one that reminds readers that those working in such intense, stressful and often dangerous jobs each have their own stories of childhood trauma, marriages that are strained and home lives that may be unhappy. Yet each is expected to do their job, do it well and not become involved. They are simply to go home, resume their own lives and shut out their days’ experience. One wonders how that is even possible given what their life is like interacting with lippy prostitutes, carrying out drug busts, stopping drunk drivers and potential suicides, interrupting assaults, intervening in domestic violence disputes and dealing with the erratic behavior of the mentally unstable. It is very unpredictable and dangerous work that requires clear thinking, quick action and a calm stable demeanor.
Each of these workers recognizes the “regulars”, the repeat customers that use their services, the ones they call the “Lonelies”. But the most difficult part of the night is between 3 AM and 6 AM, what they call the “waiting hours”, the time when a call means something has gone very bad and can quickly become catastrophic. It is the time when everyone hopes there will be no calls, as they live through those long uneasy hours anticipating disaster.
Mitchell’s novel brings readers into the often dramatic life of these people who must face tragedy every day yet are expected to lead a normal life. Unlike the television shows with similar nervous energy and quick action, what this narrative gives the reader that cannot be viewed on a TV screen, is the inner lives of these characters, what is in their thoughts as they witness the tragedy that is part of their every day work. It also points out that emergency workers rarely know what ultimately happens to those with whom they interact. They are only a short stop on a person’s life journey and then their contact ends. This lack of closure can prove difficult and adds to the stress of their work. It makes clear that working in emergency services is not suited to everyone and is definitely not for the feint of heart.
March 10, 2019
I loved the premise of this book — a novel about first responders and how they are effected by their jobs, how they deal with the trauma they see, who takes care of them…
The descriptions and the research that went into this book are great. The author did a terrific job and everything felt authentic, from police procedures to 911 calls.
However, this book just didn’t come together for me. The characters were good and fleshed out but I feel that there was something missing. It seemed like there were a bunch of scenarios from these 3 people’s lives that were strung together. It could have been made more cohesive, but it wasn’t. It’s hard to put my finger on exactly, but I did find the book dragged on.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a review copy of this book.
The descriptions and the research that went into this book are great. The author did a terrific job and everything felt authentic, from police procedures to 911 calls.
However, this book just didn’t come together for me. The characters were good and fleshed out but I feel that there was something missing. It seemed like there were a bunch of scenarios from these 3 people’s lives that were strung together. It could have been made more cohesive, but it wasn’t. It’s hard to put my finger on exactly, but I did find the book dragged on.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a review copy of this book.
December 28, 2019
The Waiting Hours drew me in from the beginning. As a first responder it was refreshing to read a novel that highlighted many of the thoughts, feelings and struggles that other people in my line of work go through on a daily basis. That being said, I felt as if I was waiting the entire novel for something cataclysmic to happen. Mitchell's writing style drew me in to Tamara, Kate, Hussan and Mike's lives from the beginning, but it seemed as if there was going to be a large event that connected them in some way earlier in the novel. I suppose you could count what happened in the conclusion, but I felt extremely unsatisfied with the way that it ended, resulting in a 3 instead of a 4 star rating.
March 24, 2019
The Waiting Hours by Shandi Mitchell gives us a bird's eye view of what it's like to be a first responder. A paramedic, a policeman and a 911 operator are all very broken and all are on the edge of breakdown. The three main characters in the book are all tied together because of their jobs and the way Ms. Mitchell weaves their stories towards the end is very well done. This is not a feel good book but rather is book that reminds us that we all have some life challenges and/or secrets and it's okay to ask for help when we need it.
I won this ARC via a giveaway by Penguin but was not expected or asked to provide a review.
I won this ARC via a giveaway by Penguin but was not expected or asked to provide a review.
June 24, 2019
The tension in this book is so thick it's palpable and the threat of danger never lets you relax. I found it suspenseful and haunting, with flawed, interesting and real characters that stayed in my mind long after I'd finished reading it. The premise if gripping and I admired the writing style and pacing. Shandi is clearly an astute researcher and keep observer of human behaviour.
January 12, 2020
A very well-written suspenseful novel that follows the trials and tribulations of three First Responders. I only wish it hadn't ended when it did, which I felt was somewhat abrupt. I would have liked the story to continue.
April 18, 2020
3.5. Always fun to read a book that takes place in your city. Enjoyed the characters and the story, the ending left me hanging and wishing some plot lines were a bit more developed.
June 4, 2022
Although this book was a good read and I found the lives of the character's to be intetesting, I was disappointed. According to the jacket summary, there was a hurricane coming. I was expecting the book to cover the duration or aftermath of a hurricane, but it never happens. I found the ending concerning the characters to be slightly unsatisfactory too. I did enjoy the writing style though, and the awareness it brought of the daily sacrifices first responders make.
November 17, 2023
This book was on a Canadian reading list so I grabbed it when I saw it as I totally support Canadian writers and settings. Sadly the plot, characters, pace all sink under the weight of endless, mostly unnecessary details about everything - how everyone feels, how everything looks. There’s no subtlety to any of it, we’re just told everything and the details go on and on. I gave up about 50% in.
June 24, 2019
I was literally hooked from page 1. Those of you who follow my reviews k ow my love for stories that are told from multiple viewpoints... also I am very critical when this is not done successfully. Every one of these chapters was captivating, and it all wound together in a way I didn't expect. A perfect summer read!!
May 15, 2019
a really interesting story involving many different character povs. happy to have enjoyed this as much as i did, because i didn't think i would like it!
Read
May 27, 2019Ok. Nothing memorable. But I have added this authors first book to TBR. It sounds good.
November 10, 2020
A look inside people having ptsd due to the stress of their jobs on the front lines of society. The inablity to talk to loved ones about it. The external factors that affect them etc.
January 6, 2023
Started slowly, but got really good! Set in Halifax!
July 7, 2024
3.5 stars, rounded up.
I loved these characters and the writing was fantastic.
I loved these characters and the writing was fantastic.
June 12, 2020
The Waiting Hours, Shandi Mitchell’s suspenseful follow-up to her award-winning debut novel, Under This Unbroken Sky, examines the professional and personal lives of people working in crisis response: Mike is a cop, Kate an ER nurse, and Tamara a 911 operator. The action takes place in an unspecified urban centre, though enough cues are present, and sufficient landmarks mentioned, to make the Halifax/Dartmouth setting obvious to anyone familiar with the city. The story begins with the murder of a boy, and through the remainder of the book we witness the fallout from this senseless act of violence affecting each of the main characters. But Mitchell’s novel probes much deeper: into her characters’ personal lives, relationships and traumas. Mike, who is called to the crime scene, and who has always prided himself on his toughness, independence and resilience, subsequently struggles to control feelings of helplessness, paranoia and frightening outbursts of aggression. Kate, who also works in Search and Rescue with her dog Zeus, and who is avoiding the major issue in her life—a mentally ill brother who is off his meds and spiralling out of control—by totally immersing herself in two high-pressure jobs, is eventually forced to address the problem and seek outside help. And Tamara, whose phobias have left her obsessively protective of her privacy and suspicious and fearful of the external world and everyone in it, slowly begins to emerge from a shell of her own making by forging a connection with the family of the murdered boy and witnessing first-hand their grief and their strength in the face of tragedy. The novel is constructed episodically, the third-person perspective shifting from chapter to chapter among the three main characters (as well as a taxi driver named Hassan who enters Tamara’s life and develops feelings for her) as their separate stories unfold. Mitchell’s novel, dramatically urgent, brimming with compassion, reveals the agonizing conundrum of front-line workers who are exposed to the unfiltered tragedy and heartrending unfairness of the human condition on a daily basis, and then, in order to survive, must discover some path to normalcy in their own lives. In The Waiting Hours, Shandi Mitchell has written an emotionally devastating novel that takes us into the trenches where the battle is waged, revealing the enormous challenge these people face, the risks they take, and the steep price of failure.
July 14, 2019
Big disappointment. This is a story about several people who are first responders who had some involvement with a young boy's murder. I 'read' it as an audio book. At the very beginning it seems like the boy was accidentally killed by his friend, and I guess he did, because the book is not a who dunnit. Rather it is a serial/current biography of the police officer, search and rescue officer (and her sick brother and mother), a cab driver and 911 dispatcher. We learn lots of boring detail about how the work is challenging to the cop's marriage, some one else having an affair. A storm is coming. Maybe the storm will add some excitement, but even the storm is underwhelming.
Don't bother with this one.
Don't bother with this one.
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