Review: The Spoil of Beasts by Gregory Ashe

Title: The Spoil of Beasts

Series: Iron on Iron: Book Three

Author: Gregory Ashe

Length: 328 Pages

Category: Mystery

Rating: 5 Stars

At a Glance: Gregory Ashe doesn’t write low hanging fruit in his mysteries; he shakes all the trees and sees what kind of foul spoils fall out.

Reviewed By: Lisa

Blurb: A jailhouse slaughter. A relentless killer. And way too much jackassing around.

When word comes that two key witnesses in an investigation are dead, North and Shaw are surprised—and pleased—to learn that their friend, John-Henry Somerset, is interested in hiring them as freelance contractors for the Wahredua police department. The department is stretched thin, and the investigation into the Cottonmouth Club (and the criminal organization operating there) is collapsing. Not to mention—in North and Shaw’s opinion, anyway—they’re the best detectives around.

Tracking down the killer won’t be easy, though. The trail ends at the doors of a megachurch, where the close-knit family of the pastor is keeping more than one secret. Worse, a local politician seems to be involved, and he’s got secrets of his own. On top of that, a sheriff’s deputy has gone missing, and North and Shaw are convinced he knows who is orchestrating events.

Pressing the investigation takes North and Shaw into the crosshairs—literally. And when their friends become targets as well, North and Shaw must hurry to learn the truth before the killer can strike at the people they care for most.

Because when it comes to his friends, the only one who gets to mess with them is North McKinney.

Review: I’ve read the blurb for the next book in the Iron on Iron series, The Evening Wolves. I was compelled to for no other reason than the way Gregory Ashe chose to end The Spoil of Beasts. When I say it didn’t make me feel any better, or even marginally less angst-ridden, I’m not lying in the least. Ashe doesn’t write low hanging fruit in his mysteries; he shakes all the trees and sees what kind of foul spoils fall out. One of the many things I’ve always loved about his storytelling is that no one is above suspicion or contempt—not politicians, not the clergy, not cops. Everyone is fair game in an investigation, and it’s often true that those who many assign gratuitous reverence to are those who are the most repugnant.

This third novel in the Iron on Iron series belongs to North McKinney and Shaw Aldritch, and they run with it by virtue of John-Henry bringing them on as contractors with the Wahredua PD. There is, of course, murder afoot—it wouldn’t be a Gregory Ashe book, after all, if several someones weren’t being violently unalived in the telling of a story—and North and Shaw have been hired to hunt down an escaped killer. A killer with some ultimately interesting ties to the greater case these guys have been working on across three books now. Unfortunately, though, all their strongest leads keep ending up dead. And, in fact, North and Shaw don’t stray far from that fate themselves, thanks in no small part to North’s tendency to resist being told what to do and how to do it.

The Spoil of Beasts takes another dive into North and Shaw and what makes them tick, what makes them glitch (so much glitching), what drives and motivates them, and this delivers them to the next stage of their relationship, which means accepting that they’ve grown and shifted. Adaptability isn’t always among their assets, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t trying. A lot of that is thanks to the new group of friends North is begrudgingly accumulating. Seeing these guys cut loose together when, otherwise, they’re so high-strung—murder investigations will do that to a guy—was such a joy to witness before they rushed headlong back into the danger and mayhem.

If I’m not mistaken, this is the closest Gregory Ashe has come to writing an unsolved mystery. North and Shaw don’t deliver this case and the criminals to John-Henry tied up in a tidy little bow at the end. And I can’t think of a better way to have suited the mood to the couple to the case than this. Given what’s coming, though? Time to prepare doesn’t equal being prepared in the slightest.

You can buy The Spoil of Beasts here:
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