Review: Again with Feeling by Gregory Ashe

Title: Again with Feeling

Series: The Last Picks: Book Six

Author: Gregory Ashe

Length: 211 Pages

Category: Cozy Mystery, Romantic Suspense

Rating: 5 Stars

At a Glance: The quips, the banter, the awkwardness, the warmth of the emotional connection within this found family, they’re all an amalgamation that works so splendidly against the fraught nature of the near-death experiences.

Reviewed By: Lisa

Blurb: We might not be doomed to repeat the past. But it’s pretty likely.

When Dashiell Dawson Dane receives a phone call from his nemesis Vivienne Carver (okay, one of his nemeses), he’s caught off guard—to say the least—by her request: help solve the murder of her brother, who disappeared almost thirty years ago. His gut tells him to say no. But with Bobby preparing to move out of Hemlock House, Dash sees the perfect opportunity for them to spend more time together, whether Bobby likes it or not.

The local police seem convinced that Vivienne was responsible for her brother’s death—an opinion shared by some of her family. But the more Dash investigates, the more convinced he becomes that Vivienne is being set up. Secrets have been accumulating for decades, and the most dangerous lies, Dash knows, are the ones we want to believe the most. After all these years, answers might finally be within reach—and someone is willing to kill to keep the truth from coming out.

Review: Finally. I feel like I think that a lot about Gregory Ashe’s work. He pens a superb murder mystery—as far as I’m concerned, that’s not even up for debate—but the romantic suspense he weaves into his stories . . . that’s the real killer. Dash and Bobby have been dancing around their feelings for each other for six books now, and I’m exhausted. In a good way. I may be a glutton for agony. All their missteps and miscues have led them here, though, and it turns out the long haul through the emotional grinder was worth it.

Again with Feeling sees Dash amateur sleuthing his way through a decades-old mystery, thanks to his ex-boss, Vivienne Carver—the woman who’s in prison for trying to kill him. As it happens, it’s her brother Richard’s body that’s been unearthed in a bog on his former property, where his ex-wife and ex-brother-in-law now live (trust me, it gets even more complicated), and now the cops think Vivienne is guilty of Richard’s murder thirty years ago. But let’s face it, nothing is ever that easy where family is involved.

As Dash becomes embroiled in the investigation, Bobby suffers. Why do anything easy—like discuss your feelings, for example—when you can suffer silently? That’s the only way to put it. No talking. But someone is trying to kill Dash before he gets to the truth, and that’s the tipping point. The police’s prime suspect is already behind bars, Dash is in grave danger, and Bobby? Bobby is not okay.

The quips, the banter, the awkwardness, the warmth of the emotional connection within this found family, they’re all an amalgamation that works so splendidly against the fraught nature of the near-death experiences Dash encounters with every investigation he takes on. I love how meta this installment of the Last Picks series is, as well. Authors can’t force themselves to tell a story they don’t feel, Dash makes that abundantly clear, which is why Gregory Ashe allowing Dash to tell these stories in particular makes them feel all the more earnest.