Review: Between You and Me by Gregory Ashe

Title: Between You and Me

Series: The Last Picks: Book Five

Author: Gregory Ashe

Length: 217 Pages

Category: Cozy Mystery

Rating: 5 Stars

At a Glance: Between You and Me is yet another example of how crafty Ashe is. The romantic suspense in this installment of the Last Picks series came at the expense of my ever-last nerve.

Reviewed By: Lisa

Blurb: Hunting a killer is scary. Talking about your feelings is scarier.

Dashiell Dawson Dane is certain the universe is conspiring against him. After all, things have been good—almost too good—for way too long. He’s got a great group of friends. He’s writing regularly. And things with Bobby seem like they might, maybe, possibly be moving beyond friend territory. It’s all so good, in fact, that it feels like the setup for something truly catastrophic. Not to mention, it’s the weekend before Valentine’s Day.

So, when Dash and his friends visit Shipwreck Shores, a local amusement park, he’s not terribly surprised when he stumbles across a body in the fun house. The surprising part comes when the body disappears before park security—or the sheriff—can see it. And while no one will say it to his face, some people in Hastings Rock seem to suspect Dash is making it up.

No body means no official investigation, so Dash finds himself forced into his own search for answers. But the killer isn’t done yet. And Dash’s sleuthing sets the two of them on a collision course.

Review: My personal definition of insanity is reading Gregory Ashe, over and over again, and expecting different results. Fortunately, he always fixes what he breaks. Unfortunately, he makes readers suffer an abundance of weltschmerz to get there.

Between You and Me is yet another example of how crafty Ashe is. Dash’s narration is brilliant in that he’s a writer telling his own story rather than crafting characters from wholecloth, and in the process becomes so meta as to make me want to do a Cher in Moonstruck and tell to “snap out of it.” He knows what a passive protagonist is, he knows never to write one, and then he goes about being one. Not when it comes to solving a mystery, never that. He’ll put his life at risk to find a killer. No, we’re talking about his feelings for Bobby Mai and how they both keep screwing everything up because they’re letting their feelings for each happen to them rather than making those feelings happen for them. When Dash asks, “Who would want to read about that?” the answer is obviously me. I would. I do. I always will. Even at the expense of my own nerves, for he and Bobby are stomping on the ever last of them.

Like looking in a fun house mirror, this mystery is distorted by appearances. Nothing is what it seems on the surface, including the fact that the dead bodies Dash keeps finding each disappear before anyone else can see them. It makes a case rather difficult to solve when the evidence vanishes, but never let it be said that Dash considers his own safety to get to the bottom of a murder. Also never let it be said that Bobby would clothe Dash in bubble wrap and armor if he thought it’d keep Dash safe. That’s pretty much the dynamic of their current relationship. That and not saying what needs to be said.

The bonds of found family and friendship continue to deepen in this penultimate book in the Last Picks series. Fox’s sidestory and the way they and Dash connected was a great way to show readers that Dash does know how to make himself vulnerable, he simply doesn’t like the idea of opening himself up to the potential hurt and harm it might cause if he does. I also loved Chester Lamb, who could become very much a friend to Dash. I hope he’s around a bit more as the series comes to an end.