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A review by cspoe
Reasonable Doubt by Gregory Ashe
5.0
Hazard and Somers just keep getting better. Every book, somehow, tops the one before it. I don't know what Gregory Ashe is sacrificing to the creative Gods, but man, don't stop. Don't ever stop. Because this writing is beautiful and profound and wicked and wild and it's just about the craziest mystery series I've ever read.
Following the hard-won victory of Book 4, Hazard and Somers are dating in Reasonable Doubt. They're head over heels in love and it's so sweet and exciting and, of course, absolutely riddled with anxiety, doubt, and copious amounts of self-loathing. Because if any author can deliver the full gamut of the human condition, it's Ashe. Hazard and Somers have a good relationship—not great—but good. One that promises they're moving in the right direction. But that element of uncertainty is poked and prodded relentlessly. It's like a bruise that just gets bigger, and it eventually encompasses their entire private existence to such a degree that as the reader, I felt all of it. The excitement, the rush, the desire, the heartbreak, the letdown, the doubt. Incredible writing. I cannot stress that enough. These books are the only ones I actually stop to highlight passages, because I just want to re-live Ashe's poetry again and again.
This mystery is particularly rough. It once again handles some very heavy subject matter, this being religion, cults, conversion camps, and how that is experienced through Hazard and Somers, members of the LGBT community as well as officers of the law. A leader of a local group, who was believed to be Jesus Christ, has been viciously murdered and the case falls into the laps of our two favorite detectives. But nothing in Wahredua is easy. And the situation soon spirals out of control when a teenage boy, who has clearly been abused by the cult, is found in a compromising situation with the leader's wife, a teenage girl is missing, on and on and on until the bodies start to pile up and the city streets are overrun with 'believers.'
And without touching on the end, because no way would I spoil this whirlwind for anyone, there is a chapter where I literally gasped, cried, forgot to breathe, and definitely muttered, "No, no. Don't like that at all." What an awesome twist and epic conclusion!
Honestly, if you've read my reviews of this series so far and haven't picked up Pretty Pretty Boys to give it a try, what are you waiting for?
Following the hard-won victory of Book 4, Hazard and Somers are dating in Reasonable Doubt. They're head over heels in love and it's so sweet and exciting and, of course, absolutely riddled with anxiety, doubt, and copious amounts of self-loathing. Because if any author can deliver the full gamut of the human condition, it's Ashe. Hazard and Somers have a good relationship—not great—but good. One that promises they're moving in the right direction. But that element of uncertainty is poked and prodded relentlessly. It's like a bruise that just gets bigger, and it eventually encompasses their entire private existence to such a degree that as the reader, I felt all of it. The excitement, the rush, the desire, the heartbreak, the letdown, the doubt. Incredible writing. I cannot stress that enough. These books are the only ones I actually stop to highlight passages, because I just want to re-live Ashe's poetry again and again.
This mystery is particularly rough. It once again handles some very heavy subject matter, this being religion, cults, conversion camps, and how that is experienced through Hazard and Somers, members of the LGBT community as well as officers of the law. A leader of a local group, who was believed to be Jesus Christ, has been viciously murdered and the case falls into the laps of our two favorite detectives. But nothing in Wahredua is easy. And the situation soon spirals out of control when a teenage boy, who has clearly been abused by the cult, is found in a compromising situation with the leader's wife, a teenage girl is missing, on and on and on until the bodies start to pile up and the city streets are overrun with 'believers.'
And without touching on the end, because no way would I spoil this whirlwind for anyone, there is a chapter where I literally gasped, cried, forgot to breathe, and definitely muttered, "No, no. Don't like that at all." What an awesome twist and epic conclusion!
Honestly, if you've read my reviews of this series so far and haven't picked up Pretty Pretty Boys to give it a try, what are you waiting for?