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caz963 's review for:
Two Man Station
by Lisa Henry
With two cops as leads, I'd thought this might be more of a mystery/suspense story, but it isn't; rather it's a fish-out-of-water tale as a disgraced big city cop relocates to a small rural community and discovers that policing there is very different to the sort of thing he's used to. Lisa Henry evokes the small town/back of beyond atmosphere really well - although this town isn't at all small really; Jason and Gio's "beat" covers a massive area, but it doesn't boast all that many inhabitants.
Amid the series of vignettes as to the various disputes the pair are called upon to work through is the relationship that gradually grows between them. They get off to a rocky start because of what Jason has heard about Gio's reason for relocating (that he was an informant who got another officer dismissed from his job), but as they work together and get to know each other, Jason starts to wonder if that's the whole story. (Of course, it isn't).
Jason is a widower with a ten-year-old son, and is only just realising that he really needs to make proper childcare arrangements. Before, his two neighbours - a young couple with kids of their own - would always pick up the slack and were happy to help out when Jason had to answer a call at night or worked long shifts - but now they've moved away, he's struggling to reconcile the demands of the job with his job as a father.
The slower pacing works and I enjoyed the book overall, although I would have liked a stronger romance. There's a definite attraction between Jason (who is bi) and Gio, but a few pages before the end, Jason tells Gio he's still in love with his dead wife (and he's still wearing his wedding ring), which was unexpected and seemed a really odd move; and although they're still together six months down the line (shown in the epilogue) it felt to me as though there was more to be said about their relationship. There are no ILYs - which is fine when I feel that the characters are committed to each other - and I don't necessarily need the mushy stuff, but their emotional connection wasn't quite what I'd hoped for by the end.
Even so, I'm giving this four stars because I really did like the story and the characters. I'm going to pick up the next book soon.
Amid the series of vignettes as to the various disputes the pair are called upon to work through is the relationship that gradually grows between them. They get off to a rocky start because of what Jason has heard about Gio's reason for relocating (that he was an informant who got another officer dismissed from his job), but as they work together and get to know each other, Jason starts to wonder if that's the whole story. (Of course, it isn't).
Jason is a widower with a ten-year-old son, and is only just realising that he really needs to make proper childcare arrangements. Before, his two neighbours - a young couple with kids of their own - would always pick up the slack and were happy to help out when Jason had to answer a call at night or worked long shifts - but now they've moved away, he's struggling to reconcile the demands of the job with his job as a father.
The slower pacing works and I enjoyed the book overall, although I would have liked a stronger romance. There's a definite attraction between Jason (who is bi) and Gio, but a few pages before the end, Jason tells Gio he's still in love with his dead wife (and he's still wearing his wedding ring), which was unexpected and seemed a really odd move; and although they're still together six months down the line (shown in the epilogue) it felt to me as though there was more to be said about their relationship. There are no ILYs - which is fine when I feel that the characters are committed to each other - and I don't necessarily need the mushy stuff, but their emotional connection wasn't quite what I'd hoped for by the end.
Even so, I'm giving this four stars because I really did like the story and the characters. I'm going to pick up the next book soon.