“The past is a very determined ghost, haunting every chance it gets.” ― Laura Miller
BLURB: Budget cuts shuffle the decks of the Prince George’s County Police Department. Separated after years as partners, Hank Capstone and Patrick St. James find themselves having to make a new start. Assigned as a training officer, Hank takes on the tough task of showing hot, fit young rookie Jessie Morgan the ropes. Unfortunately, Jessie’s beauty is only skin-deep as he seems to have a habit of spouting homophobic comments to anyone who will listen. Still, Hank watches closely, figuring his rookie hides a deeper secret.
While Hank is distracted by his new partner, secrets from his past resurface. A former Iraqi general with a grudge against Hank arrives in the area seeking revenge. Does his appearance connect to a terrorist threat made against the local mall? Hank and Patrick must reunite to save the day.
REVIEW: I have to admit I have been a John Simpson fan for a while. I started with The Condor series and then found the Murder Most Gay series. This book is the 5th book in the Murder Most Gay series and I have been waiting for what seems like forever to see Pat, Hank, Dean and Shawn again.
In this book we catch up with the guys just as Hank finds out that due to budget cuts he is once again going to be separated from his partner and best friend Pat. Since Hank is one of very few Corporals on the force with the qualifications to train rookies he has been moved back to patrol as a training officer. His new trainee, Jesse, is an enigma to Hank. Hank feels like he is pretty lucky with such a hot trainee until the first time he utters a gay slur. Hank tries to set him on the right track, but over the three months of his training he keeps making comments and finally it comes down to some tough love from Hank to make the kid realize his opinions need to stay out of his professional life. This leads to Jesse revealing some of his own truths. Hank and Jesse end up being very good friends as well as Shawn, Dean and Pat.
While all of this is going on a threat from Hank’s past is putting his plan of mayhem and revenge into full swing. It will take a little help from all of his friends and a lot of luck to get out of this situation alive. First Hank will have to forgive himself for something he did when he was much younger if he wants to stop the man that is trying to kill him.
As with the rest of the books in the series this one has a great mystery, some very funny moments between all the guys and some ultra hot smexy scenes. This book focuses mostly on Hank’s past. There are some great moments involving a new couple that we hadn’t met before and some wonderful moments between the characters we already know. One thing done in this book that wasn’t done before was to make me feel sorry for the villain. I mean, I could completely see where the man was coming from with his anger. Obviously, most of us wouldn’t go to the extremes this man did, but I believe we can all relate to the “why”.
This is one of the more serious books of the series and I loved where the story took us. Mr. Simpson and Mr. Cummings once again brought all of our favorite hunky cops to life and gave us a few more to enjoy along the way. If you haven’t read the previous books I would recommend you do. I don’t feel the later books could be read as stand alone titles. I highly recommend this book and this entire series.
You can buy Rolling Thunder (Murder Most Gay: Book 5) here:
