Title: Pretty Pretty Boys
Series: Hazard and Somerset: Book One
Author: Gregory Ashe
Publisher: Self-Published
Length: 541 Pages
Category: Mystery/Suspense
At a Glance: Gregory Ashe is a nimble storyteller, his voice engaging as he leads readers through each potentially combustible element and event in the pursuit of a killer.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: After Emery Hazard loses his job as a detective in Saint Louis, he heads back to his hometown–and to the local police force there. Home, though, brings no happy memories, and the ghosts of old pain are very much alive in Wahredua. Hazard’s new partner, John-Henry Somerset, had been one of the worst tormentors, and Hazard still wonders what Somerset’s role was in the death of Jeff Langham, Hazard’s first boyfriend.
When a severely burned body is discovered, Hazard finds himself drawn deeper into the case than he expects. Determining the identity of the dead man proves impossible, and solving the murder grows more and more unlikely. But as the city’s only gay police officer, Hazard is placed at the center of a growing battle between powerful political forces. To his surprise, Hazard finds an unlikely ally in his partner, the former bully. And as they spend more time together, something starts to happen between them, something that Hazard can’t–and doesn’t want–to explain.
The discovery of a second mutilated corpse, though, reveals clues that the two murders are linked, and as Hazard gets closer to answers, he uncovers a conspiracy of murder and betrayal that goes deeper–and closer to home–than he could ever expect.
Review: Wow… I’m not sure where to begin my review of this book other than to say I’m so impressed by it that it will no doubt take a place among my favorite reads of 2018.
Emery Hazard is returning to his hometown of Wahredua, Missouri, after a fifteen-year absence—but that homecoming is far from a happy one. Emery hasn’t left the St. Louis PD because he wanted to, he has left because he had no choice. He’s left behind both his career and a boyfriend to return to the place where his memories of the bullies who tormented him for being the gay kid at school are etched on him both emotionally and physically. This is a right-time opportunity for him, though, as Wahredua’s LGBT community is being targeted with hate crimes, and Emery’s hiring is a good political and PR maneuver for a city in the heart of the Ozarks, with the added benefit of him being an excellent detective.
The momentum of a murder investigation steeped in radicalized hatred and no small amount of tub-thumping is paired with a hefty side of relationship conflict in the story. Wahredua has gone through some significant positive changes since Emery hit the road and never looked back. Its booming college campus has influenced the town’s economic growth as well as perpetuated a new—and, for some, unwelcome—diversity. The landscape of the small town is now almost unrecognizable as the same place he’d left a decade and half before, but there are some things that haven’t changed. There are still bullies in Wahredua. And Emery has just been partnered with one of his.
John-Henry Somerset was one of the guys who made Emery’s life a fresh hell back in high school. Not only does Somers carry a massive amount of guilt for that but he’s now determined to try and make amends to Emery, to show his new partner that he isn’t the same narrow-minded douchebag now that he was back then. Somers has a long and difficult road ahead of him, however, because Emery is carrying a hurt that is so much bigger than what happened to him personally, and Emery is determined to learn the truth about the events that led to that heartbreaking tragedy. But it’s not as easy as it sounds.
Author Gregory Ashe’s challenge in Pretty Pretty Boys was to prove that Somers is redeemed and is worthy of not only Emery’s forgiveness but our own as well. I had to buy into the belief that Somers was more than his past, and I did—in spite of him still being more than a bit broken. Whether Ashe accomplishes that wholesale is up to each reader to determine for themselves; for Emery it’s an uphill battle the entire way. There’s a wealth of complications in their history that goes beyond the bullying, a tangle of feelings and events that Ashe sheds a light on in a piecemeal and effective approach throughout the story. Somers is straight… allegedly… and has myriad issues of his own, which include an estranged wife, a young daughter, and a drinking problem.
The procedural is drawn out to incite the perfect level of suspense amidst the twists and turns and mis-directions in the investigation. At the same time, the deep turmoil roiling between Hazard and Somerset is underscored by a confusion of unresolved sexual tension. Emery can’t help that he’s attracted to the person he also hates and has no interest in knowing better. Ashe has penned a solid tale of murder and indemnity in the heartland of America, and the ah-ha moment was a satisfying payoff. The mystery and subsequent investigation is rife with as much antagonism between the hate groups, each having the motive and potential to commit murder, as there is between Emery and Somerset, no thanks to John-Henry trying his damndest to show Emery he’s changed, and Emery’s disinterest in making nice with his old enemy.
This story takes place over the course of eight days and some change, and a lot happens in that short timeframe, enough that I questioned whether it was humanly possible and thought the editing perhaps could have been a bit tighter, but it does add a break-neck pace to the investigation. Ashe is a nimble storyteller who is obviously and unapologetically enamored of his detectives, and his voice is engaging as he leads readers through each potentially combustible element and event—both the professional and the personal—in the pursuit of a killer, the natural peaks and valleys of the procedural corresponding with the highs and lows of Hazard and Somerset’s fragile partnership.
As the blurbs for the next three books in the series are already out there, I’m not spoiling anything by warning that there’s a long, long relationship arc ahead between these two detectives as they continue to solve crimes together, so don’t go into this novel expecting a romance. The friction and sexual tension add to the engagement in the reading and has ensured I’m along for the ride as they untangle their complex partnership.
You can buy Pretty Pretty Boys here:
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