I've enjoyed Josh Lanyon's work for a while now, so I was excited to dig into this (for now) standalone mystery. All of Josh's usual ingredients are there: intrigue, romance and a certain cozy flair. But there is much more than that: recovery plays an important part, which gives the book a sense of urgency.

We follow along the protagonist's daily life and almost more than with the mystery we are invested as readers to not see his journey of recovery end. By choosing a poet and professor for literature as his protagonist, Lanyon also gives us his own literary insights. And just like his talent for grafting a good mystery, the poetry he cites shows an author who thinks deeply and leaves nothing up for chance.

As always, Josh brings us an interesting mystery and characters that feel real and that as the story progresses, they develop.

oh Swift Swift Swift. my heart hurts so much for you. a recovering addict, surrounded by people disliking and bringing him down, with no support from anyone, and being unsure of the only intimate relationship present with the police chief/fuck-buddy Max, is it love? then thrown into a drama where the student he kindly help might be involved in a murder. just heartache reading this.

and Max oh Max, it's abit hard to like at first, but his bits of actions before the drama and after the argument, made up for it. and him being there and supportive to Swift is just, everything Swift needed. so it works out.

i wish we had more moments of them together, more of them after the drama too.

i love Josh's writing so much, it sucks you in instantly! and this is no different. the mysteries was just nice and keeps you on your toes! (that was unexpected! i wasn't expecting that person! it was so twisted.)

I received this as an ARC but my opinion is my own.

First, I've read this before. I thought it was a new release but it's clearly a reissue. Thankfully it's been enough time that I didn't remember who had dunnit, as they say.

This is classic Josh lanyon. I loved it. I was invested in the main characters and their relationship and it's lovely. I like that you can see both points of view and understand where they're coming from so you end up rooting for both of them. There's a grittiness to this, an acknowledgement of weakness and that we are none of us perfect. The mystery takes a back seat to what we learn about the characters and family relationships and the scenery. I could see this being a movie and I'd watch it.

This was a lot of what I expect from a Josh Lanyon book; a damaged main character, a jerk cop sort of boyfriend and a murder.

I didn’t like how Swift was treated by Max, his cop boyfriend. I thought Max should’ve apologized for how he reacted to Swift even though I understood why he was angry at him.

4* Understated, classy and what I expect from this author. An interesting choice of lead in Swift.

This has a feel of a slightly older Josh Lanyon tale, but saying that, it's not dated because it doesn't rely on passing fads or tropes to hook the reader in. I think the only things that dated it for me was mention of a Blackberry and a lack of mobile phone reception, neither of which is hardly an issue these days.

In terms of the tale, you get a solid murder-mystery which wrong-footed me with some decent red herrings. I did have a moment of cherchez la femme, but the subtle and not-so-subtle hints, plus the element of homophobia and the numerous possibles had me relaxing and just going along for the ride, without me trying to figure things out, assured of something intelligent. Tbh, I was wishing that Defunct Dislikable Dottie might have turned out to be the baddie, because what a snotty-nosed old biddy she was! And how Swift didn't lose it with her is beyond me (and actually, perhaps her personality and her actions dated the tale slightly, now I think about it, as these wouldn't be tolerated in today's world, especially not in academia, right? Hopefully, but who knows in post-#45 small town USA? ☹).

It's kind of a weird tale to describe, as from the outset, it seemed clear that the leads, Swift (he goes by his surname) and Max were not emotional types and from Swift's side, he didn't expect anything lasting or deep or any kind of feelings other than a liking and respect of each other. It made me a bit sad that someone so intelligent, who'd overcome addiction and had managed to get his act together and make it as a uni/college lecturer, would have so few expectations and needs from life. I wouldn't have pegged Swift to have been the addict that he clearly had been; his strength of will and the measures he had in place were strong and rigid and devised to keep him on the straight and narrow. Though he didn't seem to have much of a personality on page - you don't get heart to hearts with either lead, which worked for me - he was a decent type and I liked his beliefs and stance. Max surprised me by turning from a bullish and jumps-to-conclusions type to a closeted romantic (shades of Police Commissioner John Joseph Galbraith from the author’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks series. Maybe Max was an early incarnation of John?) Not that that romanticism was expressed with sappy words and promises and all the usual stuff, but with unadorned things such as:

Swift stared at his hands loosely clasped around his ankle. 'I wouldn't. Deliberately hurt anyone.'
'And my impulse is to hurt anyone who hurts you.' When Swift's gaze lifted to his, Max said, 'See how that works?'
He did, and while it wasn't intended as a compliment, it did warm his heart in a funny way. He managed to joke, 'Why, I think that's the most romantic thing anyone's ever said to me.'

(About people wanting Swift fired):
‘I heard you used iambic pentameter once when you should have used a catalexis.’
‘Huh?’
‘Believe me, whatever the reason is, it will make as much sense.’…
‘Do you really know what a catalexis is?’
‘Not a clue. I heard you mention it once. It stuck in my memory because it sounds like a cross between a Cadillac and a Lexus.’


And I liked the touches of dry humour:

'Just trying to wrap my mind around the idea of Dr. Koltz inspiring a fatal passion in anyone.'
Max choked on his soup and began to cough.

Later when they were upstairs and in bed Swift asked idly, 'When you got that anonymous phone call, did it ever go through your mind that maybe I was using again?'
Max shook his head.
'Never?'
'The only effort you've made to hide anything from me is that stash of Martha Stewart magazines in the back of your closet. Frankly, if anything was going to scare me off it would be those magazines.'

'Too bad I was thinking we could use you after we retire Sparky.'
'Who?'
'Our drug-detection dog.'

This was not a romance, which I‘m glad of, but it was a tale that left me happy that I’d read it, happy to have taken time out to read it (skipping some much needed sleep) and with a feeling that I’d encountered something a lot more intelligent than the masses of churned-out MM tales, that sadly, Josh Lanyon’s superior writing seems to be lumped in with. And yes, I had to look up good old catalexis – which yes, did make my eyes cross 😊

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and JustJoshin Publishing, Inc, for my reading pleasure.