Title: Reckless Behavior
Series: Bad Behavior: Book Three
Authors: L.A. Witt and Cari Z.
Narrator: Michael Ferraiuolo
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Run Time: 7 hours and 19 minutes
Category: Contemporary, Suspense/Thriller
At a Glance: Witt and Z have written an enjoyable series, with two main characters I have come to adore, in large part due to the audio narrations by Michael Ferraiuolo.
Reviewed By: Jules
Blurb: After too many years of putting his job first, Detective Andreas Ruffner is getting his priorities straight. He’s ready to spend some quality time with his adult kids, not to mention come clean about some things he should’ve told them a long time ago. And introduce them to his partner and boyfriend, Darren Corliss.
But in a heartbeat, a family dinner turns into Andreas’ worst nightmare. When the dust settles, one of his kids is hurt, and the other three have been abducted.
Andreas is going to find his kids, and nothing, not even a broken ankle, is going to stop him. Thank God for his sharp, level-headed partner…who has a crisis of his own pulling him away when Andreas needs him the most. As both men try to support – and lean on – each other, they get no closer to finding the kids. And the longer the children are missing, the less likely it is they’ll ever be found.
Review: Reckless Behavior, the third book in L.A. Witt and Cari Z’s Bad Behavior series, picks up very soon after the events of the previous book. Detectives Andreas Ruffner and Darren Corliss, partners both on and off the job, are looking forward to a little bit of downtime while Andreas recovers from a severely broken ankle, not to mention Darren still being barely recovered from his stabbing just a few months prior. Unfortunately, however, downtime just doesn’t seem to be in the cards for these guys. At the end of a family dinner, during which Andreas finally divulges his HIV status to his sons, and tells everyone about his relationship with Darren, things turn ugly when three of his kids are abducted, and the fourth is left dazed but uninjured at the scene.
The suspect list is potentially long due to how many people have it out for Andreas after he and Darren put a ton of dirty cops and city officials away on their last case, but all hands are on deck as they work tirelessly to try and find Detective Ruffner’s kids. Including Ruffner himself, who of course refuses to be taken off the case, conflict of interest and broken ankle be damned.
Emotions are running high in this book, and not just for Andreas. Darren is dealing with a crisis of his own as his brother Asher’s condition continues to go downhill, seemingly getting worse by the day. Once again narrator Michael Ferraiuolo does an amazing job with the intense, emotional scenes in the book. I love his voices for both Andreas and Darren, with Andreas’s still being far and away my favorite. Ferraiuolo takes great care with giving whatever quality his voice needs to convey the emotion in the scene; whether it’s a little sniffle, or making the voice a little huskier, or even a chuckle or making his voice sound lighter in a light-hearted or funny bit, he nails it every time.
The MCs have good chemistry and obviously care deeply for each other, and that absolutely comes across in the book and the narration—but, as with the previous book in the series, the romance is a very small part of the story. There is definitely more emphasis on the action and suspense portion of the plot, which is perfectly fine. Though, admittedly, I do miss a bit of the heat the guys had in the first book.
As the bits and pieces of the case were coming together, and the bad guy was revealed, I did have to exercise quite a bit of suspension of disbelief, particularly in the final third of the book. There were quite a few elements that came together a bit too tidily, or seemed pretty improbable, BUT such is the case with action/suspense stories sometimes. I enjoyed the narration so much, though, that while I might have rated the ebook slightly lower, the audiobook gets a solid four stars.
Witt and Z have written an enjoyable series, with two main characters I have come to adore, in large part due to the audio narrations by Michael Ferraiuolo. And, I have to say that a few of the side characters really stood out in this book, too! I love me some Detective Paula Morris. And I love, love Darren’s stepdad, Vic. He is such a good guy, with a huge heart.
So, yeah, check this one out, guys. Fun story and a fantastic narration. I’m ready to jump into the fourth and final book now! Where, supposedly, Andreas and Darren are going to finally get some R&R. We’ll see…I’m not gonna hold my breath! 😉
You can buy Reckless Behavior here:
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