Scan barcode
A review by cspoe
The Hell You Say by Josh Lanyon
5.0
The third book in the Adrien English Mysteries really elevates the series from great to amazing, and it’s no surprise the book was a Lambda Literary finalist! Josh Lanyon really hit her momentum and groove with this universe and our star-crossed, sometimes lovers: Adrien English, amateur sleuth extraordinaire, and Jake Riordan, LAPD homicide detective. The plot delivers a chaotic, spooky, deadly web of occult-gone-wrong, blood sacrifices, dangerous red herrings, a closeted boyfriend reaching his limit, a new family, and oh yeah… the holiday season is among us!
Ho, ho, oh no…
It’s Christmastime, and Adrien’s used bookstore, the Cloak and Dagger, is doing pretty fantastic. With the exception of the anonymous threatening phone calls coming in for his assistant, Angus, that is. Adrien convinces the college kid to take a bit of time off and leave town, because demonic phone calls are “bad for business,” but little does Adrien realize how this one small decision becomes a catalyst that sets off a series of unstoppable events in his life—with a visiting author who goes missing, blood-painted Satanic symbols on the doorstep, very real dead bodies posed to incriminate those he cares for, there’s even tangible connections to Adrien’s surprise new stepfather and stepsisters. And to make everything all the more worse, more unbearable, more heartbreaking, the tenuous relationship with Jake is unraveling quicker than Adrien can stitch the seams back together.
I remember really liking the plot of The Hell You Say, but this re-read has given me an even greater respect for the romance angle and how Lanyon is able to frustrate me with both men’s choices, while also breaking my heart and feeling for their individual reasons that the relationship crumbles, despite both so clearly wanting each other physically, mentally, and emotionally. It’s just not the right moment. And that’s simply the hardest pill to swallow for any reader who’s just as dedicated to a romance as they are to solving a mystery, but if Adrien and Jake were to ride off into the sunset now, you know it wouldn’t last. Neither of them are in the right headspace, for completely different reasons, to love and respect what’s been building between them.
God, this really is just a fantastic book. I not only re-read it, but I listened to it immediately afterward another two times. The pacing, the sarcasm, the one-liners, the terror and sorrow and character growth—I could go on and on. Lanyon never delivers anything less than the pinnacle of writing, and if you’ve not begun this series yet, this is my promise that each title just continuously ups the previous!
Ho, ho, oh no…
It’s Christmastime, and Adrien’s used bookstore, the Cloak and Dagger, is doing pretty fantastic. With the exception of the anonymous threatening phone calls coming in for his assistant, Angus, that is. Adrien convinces the college kid to take a bit of time off and leave town, because demonic phone calls are “bad for business,” but little does Adrien realize how this one small decision becomes a catalyst that sets off a series of unstoppable events in his life—with a visiting author who goes missing, blood-painted Satanic symbols on the doorstep, very real dead bodies posed to incriminate those he cares for, there’s even tangible connections to Adrien’s surprise new stepfather and stepsisters. And to make everything all the more worse, more unbearable, more heartbreaking, the tenuous relationship with Jake is unraveling quicker than Adrien can stitch the seams back together.
I remember really liking the plot of The Hell You Say, but this re-read has given me an even greater respect for the romance angle and how Lanyon is able to frustrate me with both men’s choices, while also breaking my heart and feeling for their individual reasons that the relationship crumbles, despite both so clearly wanting each other physically, mentally, and emotionally. It’s just not the right moment. And that’s simply the hardest pill to swallow for any reader who’s just as dedicated to a romance as they are to solving a mystery, but if Adrien and Jake were to ride off into the sunset now, you know it wouldn’t last. Neither of them are in the right headspace, for completely different reasons, to love and respect what’s been building between them.
God, this really is just a fantastic book. I not only re-read it, but I listened to it immediately afterward another two times. The pacing, the sarcasm, the one-liners, the terror and sorrow and character growth—I could go on and on. Lanyon never delivers anything less than the pinnacle of writing, and if you’ve not begun this series yet, this is my promise that each title just continuously ups the previous!