Matty Fennmore is young, blond, and beautiful, and he’s in danger. When he asks for Shaw and North’s help foiling a blackmail scheme, the detectives are quick to accept.
The conspiracy surrounding Matty runs deeper than Shaw and North expect. As they dig into the identity of Matty’s blackmailer, they are caught in a web that touches politicians, the local LGBT community, and the city’s police.
An attack on Matty drives home the rising stakes of the case, and Shaw and North must race to find the blackmailer before he can silence Matty. But a budding romance lays bare long-buried feelings between Shaw and North, and as their relationship splinters, solving the case may come at the cost of their friendship.
Comment: This is the first book in a trilogy by Gregory Ashe, an author whose work is now familiar to me. I have found most of his books to be good but not great, but considering that I had this trilogy already anyway, I've figured, why not.
North and Shaw are best friends who also have a detective agency together. They are both gay which helped in finding a niche, one that specializes in cases aimed for the LGBT community, whose members are often discriminated. The story starts with Matty Fennmore, who tells him the story of how he's being blackmailed by someone he trusted and who now is demanding money in exchange of keeping a certain video, one Matty didn't know was being recorded. However, the case isn't as simple as finding the blackmailer, something they learn when they meet the police near the guy's apartment. At the same time, things are stressful between North and Shaw, since their friendship is also hiding some more deeper feelings neither assumes...
I confess I was a little apprehensive with starting this trilogy. I have enjoyed some books y the author, but his style is clearly one that aims for a lot of psychological development and his protagonists go through a lot before any HEA is on the horizon. Then, he also has another series (I've tried the first book) which is lighter, but the protagonist was a little OTT. I hoped this one would more balanced.
In this first book we get to know the investigator duo, and what we learn about them in between the lines is as telling as what they share through dialogue. This is probably what the author does best, and I'm saying it after having read about protagonists in three different series. The intensity and the drama and the tension - not always sexual - can be felt constantly. On one hand this is what makes the reading quite captivating, this need to see one scene or detail that proves everything, but on the other it can be a bit exhausting being on the edge.
Shaw and North have quite the history between them, and in their personal lives. I liked learning tidbits about them all the time but it does get a little tiring to keep track of each nuance and hint too. Also, I must say that for people who know each other for so long, their repressed feelings seem to be highlighted a lot and I could not help wonder how could they even go on through their days, considering that every action in the book always had the "weight" of their personal thoughts regarding the other. I suppose this is done so that it can be even more rewarding to see the HEA, but it's obvious it won't be easy.
I guess that, perhaps, this won't take as long as in the other series I've read, since now it's only three books.. besides, North is dealing with a personal issue that cannot be easy to deal with, much less solve. Things now seem to be too difficult to be solved. It also doesn't help, in my opinion, that every character somehow, protagonist included, is almost too complicated, too brainy and complexity of characters seems to be synonym with personality. I don't think this is the best approach as often as it's used.
Regarding the case they are investigating, I won't go into spoilers but the culprit becomes easy to guess once a certain situation takes place. I don't know if the goal was to do something shocking or not, I think the tactic was clever enough and provided interesting interactions and development. As for the reasons of the villain and the method in which the crimes were committed... part of me always felt some detachment from what was going on, but it turned out to be a good element of this book.
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