Title: Transposition
Series: Hazard and Somerset Mysteries: Book Two
Author: Gregory Ashe
Publisher: Self-Published
Length: 350 Pages
Category: Murder Mystery
At a Glance: In spite of some issues, Transposition is another strong entry in the Hazard and Somerset series, blending a healthy dose of And Then There Were None with a rousing game of Clue.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: Emery Hazard and his partner, John-Henry Somerset, have solved their first case together. The brutal murders that rocked the quiet town of Wahredua have been put to rest. Hazard, however, finds his life has only grown more complicated as he adjusts to his new home. Living with Somers, whom he has been drawn to since high school, makes ‘complicated’ the understatement of the year.
The turmoil of living together spills over when Hazard and Somers find themselves trapped by the weather in an old mansion and, against Hazard’s better judgment, sharing a bed. Strictly as friends, of course. Just when things can’t get any more confusing, the next morning brings a worsening storm–and a murder.
Cut off from the outside world, Hazard and Somers must face a clever, determined killer who is hiding among the mansion’s guests. Without backup, they can only rely on their wits–and on each other–to survive. And as the snow falls and the mansion’s guests continue to die one by one, solving the string of murders becomes secondary. First, Hazard and Somers have to survive.
Review: Gregory Ashe’s Transposition is book two in the Hazard and Somerset Mysteries series and begins just nineteen days after Pretty Pretty Boys ends. While Transposition is a brand new mystery for Hazard and Somers, I do want to caution that if you’re a stickler for exposition and want to know a character from their origins, I don’t recommend being introduced to Emery and John-Henry in this book. There was a lot of backstory offered up in Pretty Pretty Boys that I feel is necessary to get who they were, who they are now, and in order to make heads or tails of why Hazard is such a prickly bastard and why Somers is such a ginormous cocktease. To say that their relationship is complicated is an understatement on multiple levels, and it’s their history, their working relationship, Somers’ failing marriage, Emery’s failed relationships, Emery’s new boyfriend, and Somers not knowing whether he wants to win his wife back or to jump Emery’s bones every time he gets drunk that’s all rolled into a massive dose of perpetual sexual tension between them-the fact that Somers drinks and then makes questionable choices doesn’t help with the all that unresolved sexual tension at all.
If you’re a fan of the forced proximity trope, that’s what this novel offers up when the detectives (well, John-Henry) take a call from Batsy Ferrell on Thanksgiving Eve to respond to a shooting complaint. Somers has a way of charming everyone he comes into contact with—apart from his partner—which is why he handles the peopling while Emery gets to play Bad Cop, a role he accomplishes with ease. After confirming a bullet has indeed done some damage to the elderly woman’s house, Hazard and Somers make off for the neighboring Windsor Estate, where the shooter was most likely positioned, and with a more than passing nod to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, they walk into a mystery-themed dinner/role playing game/corporate team building exercise that wasn’t at all what the detectives expected to find. Nor did they expect to stumble upon an actual murder and then get trapped by a blizzard—with a dead body, a killer in their midst and nothing more than their wits and ingenuity to conduct the investigation.
A heaping dose of in-fighting and intrigue complicates the investigation of Thomas Strong’s murder, and added to it is that literally everyone is a suspect with both motive and opportunity, making this read like a fictional-real-life game of Clue. As the body count rises, including threats to both Emery’s and Somers’ lives, it appears that someone unaccounted for may be lurking on the property while Mother Nature’s fury rages on, endangering them further and escalating the urgency to secure the situation before no one is left standing but the killer. Ashe conducts a careful orchestration of the investigation while also complicating things between Emery and Somers to the nth degree in this novel. These two men say so little of significance to each other outside of their work conversation that their avoidance of naming what’s between them yawns like an unnavigable abyss. While their actions speak for them at times, at some point they’re going to have to use their words or risk losing each other as partners.
One of the things I like so much about these books is that the timelines are compact. This novel takes place over the course of five days, and a lot happens during that time, which keeps everything moving at such a brisk pace within the storyline that it gives the reading that same sense of briskness. There were a couple of times I was required to suspend disbelief, especially when folks so easily navigated the great outdoors during what is described as a fierce blizzard. I also feel like I’d be overlooking a real-for-me issue of the transgender representation in this novel, if I didn’t mention it. A central figure in the murder investigation is a transwoman who’s treated abysmally and is reminded on more than one occasion that she isn’t a ‘real woman.’ It sucked and was sad and I don’t know if she was meant to be a fully sympathetic character, but I ended up feeling a mass amount of sympathy for her anyway because of the way she was treated. So, if you’re looking for positive and affirming trans* representation, don’t expect it here. And, I also hate to keep harping on this author for the copious editing issues with his books, but seriously, poor editing can make or break a reader’s experience.
Transposition ends on a supremely ‘oh hell no’ note that’s got me so hooked, HOOKED, for book three and promises yet more obfuscating and avoidance between our two detectives. There’s way more drama between Hazard and Somers to get through, more murders too, as it seems there’s always something afoot in Wahredua, Missouri, and I’m looking forward to seeing where the next dead body turns up.
You can buy Transposition here:
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