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A review by bookish_notes
The Hunt by J.M. Dabney, Davidson King
1.0
This is by new-to-me authors, and I just wasn't a fan of this story. There is a certain air of mystery to it, but the plot got lost in the insta-love between the two leads. I assume this is a May-December romance. Ray was kicked out of the police force after many years as a detective and had been framed for something he would never do. He's now a private investigator, and the one thing that still haunts him is the string of unsolved murders that looked like the work of a serial killer.
Andy is a server at a high-end restaurant and lives with his best friend. But one night coming back from work, he discovers Francis being murdered and the killer still in their apartment.
Trigger warnings for homomisia, mentions of torture, mentions of multination, kidnapping, and murders of gay men.
I've seen both of the author's books on KU, but never had the chance to pick them up before. When I saw that Kirt Graves did part of the narration for this book and that the library had it available, I immediately checked it out. While I've listened to quite a few audiobooks from Kirt Graves, Tor Thom is new to me. Kirt voiced Andy, and Tor voiced Ray. At times, the narration for Ray sounded a bit monotonous, or the voices too bland and silly sounding to be taken seriously. I think I'd need to give Tor Thom another try, with a story that wasn't quite so bad.
There is a suspense element to this story in that Andy witnesses a murder and manages to get away. It would be obvious that the murderer would be after him, and Andy conveniently winds up asking Ray for help since the police were less than willing to take his concerns of safety seriously.
There's a lot of cheating and jealous spouses in this book, and none of it was really necessary? We don't even know enough about any of the characters to even care what was happening in their lives. I don't know if it was to throw us off from finding the real killer, or to imply that Ray and Andy are the greatest couple to ever exist. Like they're the one true love and everyone else ends up cheated on or murdered.
The mystery part of this is weak. There's no build up of clues or discoveries by our two leads. Instead, everything is just randomly introduced into the story with no real connection to anything that's going on. Ray and the police force never find out who the killer is through any sort of detective work. They have zero leads. Instead, they plant a trap and the killer shows up, and THAT'S when they realize who has been behind all the murders. Everyone is terrible at their jobs.
Even Andy doesn't go back to work for ages and winds up staying at Ray's place. Does he pay the bills, does he have anything saved up? I guess we'll never know.
The characters simply two-dimensional and have no real depth to them. We're supposed to feel sad for Andy that he lost his best friend, but that's the thing. We never met Francis and then he was just a character who was killed off. There's no emotional impact to what's happening in the story. You might feel bad that gay boys are getting killed off, but everything is really surface level and even the romance can't save this story.
There's books I would have deemed as insta-love before, but this is PEAK insta-love. Andy might feel indebted to Ray for being the one person who is willing to listen to what he has to say and take his concerns about a murder after him seriously, but not even one chapter after they meet, Andy throws himself at Ray and kisses him.
And that's that. Like everything about the mystery aspect of this book, the romance books comes out of nowhere fast and expects the reader to go with it. I don't understand what's so great about Ray and Andy being together. They have nothing in common and the circumstance pushing them together is because there's killer on the loose. After that, it doesn't seem like have any reason to stay together.
The writing is choppy and so, so cringey at times. I don't know if that's because the weak writing is exposed because I'm hearing the words spoken out loud with an audiobook, but there was nothing to save this book - not the writing, the plot, the characters, or the romance.
Andy is a server at a high-end restaurant and lives with his best friend. But one night coming back from work, he discovers Francis being murdered and the killer still in their apartment.
Trigger warnings for homomisia, mentions of torture, mentions of multination, kidnapping, and murders of gay men.
I've seen both of the author's books on KU, but never had the chance to pick them up before. When I saw that Kirt Graves did part of the narration for this book and that the library had it available, I immediately checked it out. While I've listened to quite a few audiobooks from Kirt Graves, Tor Thom is new to me. Kirt voiced Andy, and Tor voiced Ray. At times, the narration for Ray sounded a bit monotonous, or the voices too bland and silly sounding to be taken seriously. I think I'd need to give Tor Thom another try, with a story that wasn't quite so bad.
There is a suspense element to this story in that Andy witnesses a murder and manages to get away. It would be obvious that the murderer would be after him, and Andy conveniently winds up asking Ray for help since the police were less than willing to take his concerns of safety seriously.
There's a lot of cheating and jealous spouses in this book, and none of it was really necessary? We don't even know enough about any of the characters to even care what was happening in their lives. I don't know if it was to throw us off from finding the real killer, or to imply that Ray and Andy are the greatest couple to ever exist. Like they're the one true love and everyone else ends up cheated on or murdered.
The mystery part of this is weak. There's no build up of clues or discoveries by our two leads. Instead, everything is just randomly introduced into the story with no real connection to anything that's going on. Ray and the police force never find out who the killer is through any sort of detective work. They have zero leads. Instead, they plant a trap and the killer shows up, and THAT'S when they realize who has been behind all the murders. Everyone is terrible at their jobs.
Even Andy doesn't go back to work for ages and winds up staying at Ray's place. Does he pay the bills, does he have anything saved up? I guess we'll never know.
The characters simply two-dimensional and have no real depth to them. We're supposed to feel sad for Andy that he lost his best friend, but that's the thing. We never met Francis and then he was just a character who was killed off. There's no emotional impact to what's happening in the story. You might feel bad that gay boys are getting killed off, but everything is really surface level and even the romance can't save this story.
There's books I would have deemed as insta-love before, but this is PEAK insta-love. Andy might feel indebted to Ray for being the one person who is willing to listen to what he has to say and take his concerns about a murder after him seriously, but not even one chapter after they meet, Andy throws himself at Ray and kisses him.
And that's that. Like everything about the mystery aspect of this book, the romance books comes out of nowhere fast and expects the reader to go with it. I don't understand what's so great about Ray and Andy being together. They have nothing in common and the circumstance pushing them together is because there's killer on the loose. After that, it doesn't seem like have any reason to stay together.
The writing is choppy and so, so cringey at times. I don't know if that's because the weak writing is exposed because I'm hearing the words spoken out loud with an audiobook, but there was nothing to save this book - not the writing, the plot, the characters, or the romance.