Tag: mystery (Page 2 of 4)

REVIEW: Unfit to Print by KJ Charles, narrated by Vikas Adam

May 15, 2020 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: One from my own TBL

Content Warning: Some depiction of prostitution for financial reasons.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) When crusading lawyer Vikram Pandey sets out in search of a missing youth, his investigations take him to Holywell Street, London’s most notorious address. He expects to find a disgraceful array of sordid bookshops. He doesn’t expect one of them to be run by the long-lost friend whose disappearance and presumed death he’s been mourning for thirteen years.

Gil Lawless became a Holywell Street bookseller for his own reasons, and he’s damned if he’s going to apologise or listen to moralising from anyone. Not even Vikram; not even if the once-beloved boy has grown into a man who makes his mouth water.

Now the upright lawyer and the illicit bookseller need to work together to track down the missing youth. And on the way, they may even learn if there’s more than just memory and old affection binding them together…

What worked for me (and what didn’t): It’s often easier for a novella-length story to give me a believable HEA when the main characters already know each other. In this second chance romance (is it second chance when the first chance was when they were only 15 or 16? – let’s go with it anyway, shall we?), Vikram and Gil both went to boarding school together. As the only boys of colour in their form, they shared a common bond which quickly grew into a devoted friendship, with some, er, teenage boy benefits. Vikram is the scion of a wealthy and privileged Indian family, Gil is the illegitimate son of a wealthy man and a Black housemaid. Gil was fortunate in that he was acknowledged by his father, who housed him and paid for his education. Vikram is a straight up and down type guy, Gil tends to gravitate to the gray areas and is more “street smart” (my term); the latter used to help Vikram not be constantly beaten up at school (the white students not being happy with the idea that Vikram was at least their equal).

When Gil was 16, his father died and his half-brother Matthew booted him out with only ten pounds. He was forced to leave the school so suddenly, he wasn’t even able to tell Vikram. For the following 13 years, Vikram mourned his friend; after looking for him as best he could, he believed Gil to be dead. Continue reading

Review at Dear Author

November 16, 2019 / Kaetrin

I’m over at Dear Author with Sirius, reviewing Graveyard Shift by Jenn Burke. A bittersweet end to the series. I’m really hoping Ms. Burke writes more in this universe.

Joint Review at Dear Author

June 4, 2019 / Kaetrin

Sirius and I are over at Dear Author with a joint review of Give Up the Ghost by Jenn Burke. Entertaining second installment – I really enjoy the found family aspects of the series.

Review at AudioGals

May 29, 2019 / Kaetrin

I’m over at AudioGals with a review of Peril by Post by Sherri Cobb South, narrated by Joel Froomkin. My first John Pickett mystery – even though it’s not the first in the series, it wasn’t difficult to dive in here.

February Round Up

March 1, 2019 / Kaetrin

Monthly Mini Review

Where Serpents Sleep by CS Harris, narrated by Davina Porter – B+ I’ve been glomming the audiobooks of the Sebastian St. Cyr mysteries since just before Christmas. This is book 4 in the series. When I started listening, being an inveterate romance reader, I read the blurbs ahead and realised that the enduring love interest I needed to support to get my HEA fix was Hero Jarvis. In this book, things happen (at last) but we are still a long way away from any kind of HEA. I’m currently listening to book 6 and it may well be that way at the end of this one actually – but I have faith!!

I have been thoroughly enjoying not just the romantic threads though. The history in the series is rich and the mysteries are engrossing. In this one, eight young women are murdered and Hero asks for Sebastian’s help in first, identifying “Rose” the woman who died in Hero’s arms and then solving the crime. I was aided by my lack of knowledge about that particular period of English political history; I really didn’t know what was going to happen next. I did go and look things up afterwards and then I was impressed about the way the author weaves historical fact into her fiction. Continue reading

Once Upon a Haunted Moor by Harper Fox, narrated by Tim Gilbert

June 25, 2018 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: My friend Caz recommended this series to me.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Gideon Frayne has spent his whole working life as a policeman in the village of Dark on Bodmin Moor. It’s not life in the fast lane, but he takes it very seriously, and his first missing-child case is eating him alive. When his own boss sends in a psychic to help with the case, he’s gutted – he’s a level-headed copper who doesn’t believe in such things, and he can’t help but think that the arrival of clairvoyant Lee Tyack is a comment on his failure to find the little girl.

But Lee is hard to hate, no matter how Gideon tries. At first Lee’s insights into the case make no sense, but he seems to have a window straight into Gideon’s heart. Son of a Methodist minister, raised in a tiny Cornish village, Gideon has hidden his sexuality for years. It’s cost him one lover, and he can’t believe it when this green-eyed newcomer stirs up old feelings and starts to exert a powerful force of attraction.

Gideon and Lee begin to work together on the case. But there are malignant forces at work in the sleepy little village of Dark, and not only human ones – Gideon is starting to wonder, against all common sense, if there might be some truth in the terrifying legend of the Bodmin Beast after all. As a misty Halloween night consumes the moor, Gideon must race against time to save not only the lost child but the man who’s begun to restore his faith in his own heart.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): I enjoyed the story very much. It was a short (novella-length) audio and, considering that the main characters had not met before it began, it managed to sell me on the budding relationship between Gideon and Lee. There is a bit of insta-lust (nothing wrong with that) and perhaps one or two narrative jumps which suprised me just a little in the romantic story but nothing I wasn’t able to go with fairly easily. Gideon’s last relationship broke down because he was closeted. It’s clear that he has enough regret about that and enough time had passed that when Lee bobs up in his life, Gideon wasn’t likely to let that happen again. So it made sense to me. Continue reading