His latest mission brings him more than he bargained for: a very-dead actor who is definitely going to stay that way. It’s just Wes’s luck that his ex-boyfriend, Detective Hudson Rojas, is assigned to the case. Hudson broke Wes’s heart years ago—and could again, given he’s rocking a hot silver-fox look that shouldn’t be legal.
As they work together to track down the murderer before anyone else gets hurt, it becomes clear Wes and Hudson have unfinished business. And when a secret Hudson’s been keeping threatens more than just their happiness, it might mean the end of their not-life together—permanently.
Comment: I was recommended this book a couple years ago and I've finally added it to my reading list of this month. I'm glad to say it's one of those that was worth the wait...
In this book we meet protagonist Wes Cooper, whose POV we have throughout the novel, as he narrates his life and the sudden situations going his way. Wes is actually dead but a friend, at the time of his death, did some sort of spell and now Wes is more like a ghost, being able to have a physical body and a ghostly one. He has worked as a thief, not for personal gain, but "recovering" items others hire him to get. He has some friends but his life has been pretty much lonely, something that changes when he reconnects with his ex, who dumped him thirty three years ago. The problem is that while on one assignment he witnesses a murder and since his ex, detective Hudson Rojas, was a cop he feels like trying to contact him, to make it easier to explain. However, investigating this murder isn't as easy as it seemed at first and the longer he is around Hudson, the harder it is to forget what they used to have, even though Hudson seems to be hiding something....
Since this book has the indication the romance would be the second chance type and I usually don't appreciate that trope as much as others, I have simply been delaying reading. Now I see I wouldn't have to worry because the second chance aspect isn't a tedious or sugary one, in fact the guys have some issues to overcome and the focus isn't on them re-imagining every little thing of their past relationship.
The romance is actually a little understated, I'd say, because it takes second stage to the plot which has a lot to it. Wes and Hudson meet again but there is a lot to overcome and the fact this is told only from Wes' POV means we can only infer so much if it pertains to Hudson's side of things. The fact Wes is a ghost and that this was part of the reason why they broke up could mean there would be no hope for them and if they rekindled their connection, it would be doomed again, but of course the author changed things by adding certain elements which weren't obvious right away...
In fact, I was convinced this would be more about the romance than the murder investigation but I was surprised by how much interest I had in what was going on with that and how everything the characters discovered or learned would matter in the big scheme of things. There are some little things which aren't anything new if readers are used to crime/mystery novels, but there are also other things I didn't see coming. Putting aside the paranormal content, this would have been a very decent murder investigation on its own.
Of course, the thing is, the paranormal elements just cannot be ignored and actually color a lot of what happens, including certain details that only make any sense when in the paranormal context. If that didn't exist, I can imagine some parts of the story would not be interesting. I didn't mind the quirky aspects nor the paranormal choices the author uses, but sometimes it felt as if certain things were just a bit too convenient, at least to allow the justification of some character's choices. Perhaps if the world building had been more clear on the whole paranormal existence, perhaps this wouldn't feel as weird to me... Maybe in the next books this can be seen differently.
The investigation is, in reality, quite clever for it mixes up well the personal lives of the characters and what is going on around them. When we learn the identity of the villain, I was surprised by the who and the how everything came up to be. What could have been something simpler - to counterbalance the amount of details we have regarding the romance/personal issues - was a lot more interesting than I expected.
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