Title: Lock Nut
Series: The Plumber’s Mate Mysteries: Book Five
Author: JL Merrow
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Length: 346 Pages
Category: Contemporary, Mystery
At a Glance: With a dash of romance, a touch of tenderness and heaps of fun, Lock Nut is sure to resonate with fans.
Reviewed By: Sammy
Blurb: Tom Paretski, plumber with a talent for finding hidden things, and his private investigator fiancé Phil Morrison have been hired to locate a runaway husband, Jonathan Parrot. The job seems simple enough—until their quarry turns up dead in a canal, and a photofit of Tom’s face is splashed all over the news, making him chief suspect.
The widow, petite ex–porn star Lilah Lovett, is convinced her husband was killed by his gay lover, but Tom and Phil aren’t so sure. Worried they may have precipitated Jonathan’s death, they’re determined to find the real killer. But with a web of incestuous ties linking the suspects, it’s hard to know who to trust. Especially when a second victim dies a gruesome death.
Meanwhile, with their wedding looming and them sharing a house now, Tom’s worried it may all be too much, too fast. The last thing he needs are the mixed messages Phil seems to be sending out. They’ll need to get back on the same track if they want to make it to their honeymoon together—and alive.
Review: JL Merrow’s Plumber Mate series has been a favorite of mine since the initial book released. Now the fifth installment, Lock Nut, continues the story of plumber Tom Paretski and his fiancé, Phil Morrison, with the same wit and fast paced action one who follows the series will recognize. Phil, a private investigator, has finally moved in with Tom, something that should have little angst and a honeymoon sort of effect attached to it. Unfortunately it’s anything but, as it quickly turns into a veritable minefield of careless and unintended hurtful remarks. Besides trying to avoid conflict with Phil, Tom is still recovering from the hip injury from his last life-threatening job solving crime.
If you follow this series then you know that nothing is easy with Tom, and trouble tends to find him and usually tries to kill him or Phil or both. This time it’s Darren who brings round a friend of his from his former days in the porn industry to ask a favor of Tom and Phil—finding her current husband and delivering a package to him. Tom will use his psychic abilities to ferret out the runaway lover and hand over the goods. Unhappily for Tom, shortly after doing so the man in question is found dead in the canal, and Tom’s face is plastered all over the nightly news as the alleged murderer. As the job heats up, so does the body count, and it’s obvious someone is killing anyone who knows anything about the initial murder. But this case has Tom and Phil stumped, and they race against the mounting body count as they try to catch a murderer before they strike again.
There are two striking elements in a JL Merrow novel that I absolutely love. The first is that her characters speak in the vernacular in which they were raised and live. While I might not always catch every reference Tom utters, or am always able to translate it to American versus English slang, I catch most of it and it lends the story real charm and appeal. I feel fully immersed in the English state of mind when I read one of this author’s works and that makes it all the more fun for me as a reader. The second element has to be the dry wit and bawdy humor employed in these novels. While you shouldn’t be looking for any on-page sex scenes, per se, in most of this author’s works, you can expect heaps of saucy innuendo and rather plain speech when it comes to others asking Tom and Phil about their love life. It makes for some hilarious moments, particularly when Darren and Gary are involved. Quite frankly these stories are so entertaining that the fade-to-black sex scenes are the only kind I could ever see happening. The author has created fully fleshed out characters who are obviously completely in love, so to be honest, the sex just isn’t important—the story stands on its own merits and succeeds without it.
I truly hope the Plumber’s Mate series has a few more installments to come. JL Merrow has created a world of quirky, humorous individuals who take amateur sleuthing to all new heights. With a dash of romance, a touch of tenderness and heaps of fun, Lock Nut is sure to resonate with fans. If you haven’t started this series, I highly recommend it to you.
You can buy Lock Nut here:
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The Novel Approach Reviews 
I enjoyed the book. Tom says and thinks many humorous things, as usual. He often referred to the first murder victim as “old Jonny-boy,” and that phrasing and its very frequent repetition grated a little for me. Otherwise, though, I liked a lot of the dialogue and description. Many of the characters Tom and Phil interacted with in this book were unpleasant people, but I liked the glimpses of their family and friends. Tom’s parents were a bit much with trying to control some aspects of the wedding plans. I was angry with them for that. Tom seems to like Greg (Cherry’s husband) all right, but still finds him mildly horrifying. Not so much his hobby anymore, but just in general. It’s quite understandable in context. :) Gary and Darren remained in fine form. Lilah was quite a vivid character. I could understand why Tom was out of sorts in parts of the book. He realized that some of it was his own issues, but it eventually all got addressed. I know my online friends who like mysteries and romances with gay protagonists will like this book.
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