amym84 's review for:

He's To Die For by Erin Dunn

4.0

mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Detective Rav Trivedi is assigned to investigate the murder of an influential music mogul the investigation leads Rav to suspect number one: Jack Vale - lead singer of The New Knickerbockers - who had a known disagreement with the victim. Immediately intrigued by Jack, Rav has to keep his attraction sidelined if he wants to prove Jack's innocence. 

For being just shy of" closed door", and as nondescript as possible when it comes to the intimacy, this book was super spicy. That early tension between Rav and Jack is quite delicious. 

I was immediately interested to read this because of its comparison to Brooklyn Nine-Nine as I've recently started watching the show. 

I appreciate that Erin Dunn made a proper mystery out of the story and didn't sideline it in order to only highlight the romance. I was kept guessing until the reveal at the end, although I had my certain roundabout suspicions. 

I do appreciate that Erin Dunn shows the conflict of interest between Rav's feelings for Jack and Jack also being a potential murder suspect. I don't want to say too much in order to avoid spoilers but I felt like it was handled in a very convenient way order to keep up with the romantic aspect of the story. I do wish it was a bit more high stakes though. 

There were moments where there was too much back and forth which, unfortunately, made it feel like it dragged a bit in places. There would seemingly be some break in the case, but then something would change - rinse and repeat. There were moments where the connects between Rav's case and another case were too tenuous but through the repetition Erin Dunn eventually made it work. 

I do wish we had gotten more time with RavV and his co-workers. Honestly, Rav made this book. I Loved the way Rav is presented from his penchant for nice clothes and accessories to hating beer but loving wine and whiskey. We've seen the celebrity Rockstar but not often the intelligent dandy cop. 

All this to say, you never know how things are going to go when you pick up a book by a new author. Overall, I enjoyed this book and I'll be on the lookout for more from Erin Dunn in the future.