Fatal Shadows / A Dangerous Thing (The Adrien English Mysteries, #1-2) in Q&A with Josh Lanyon

Feb 09, 2011 Sharon rated it it was amazing

I love Adrien (with an E) English . These are intelligent and witty mysteries. I couldn't predict who dunnit in either book. Adrien is a gay bookstore owner with a bad heart (caught Rheumatic fever as a teen). He is suppose to avoid stressful situations...you can pretty much guess that is never going to happen . The mystery is the main focus of the stories, but there is some romance too. Jake the homicide detective (makes me think of a young Dolph Lundgren) has a problem with his attraction to m ...more

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May 31, 2010 Tara rated it really liked it

Shelves: romance-contemporary, m-m, september-mmgb-challenge, qgbc, read-in-2011

Technically, this is the book I read, but I reviewed it in 2 parts as I read it.

FATAL SHADOWS
This is the first book in the Adrien English series. It was an actual mystery with not that much romance but so good.

I like Adrien English. He's smart and likable and smart. He is a mystery writer and he loves mystery novels. In this book his best friend turns up dead and he is the prime suspect. Homicide detective Jake Riordan is stern, but continues to show a bit of sympathy for Adrien. Despite knowin Technically, this is the book I read, but I reviewed it in 2 parts as I read it.

FATAL SHADOWS
This is the first book in the Adrien English series. It was an actual mystery with not that much romance but so good.

I like Adrien English. He's smart and likable and smart. He is a mystery writer and he loves mystery novels. In this book his best friend turns up dead and he is the prime suspect. Homicide detective Jake Riordan is stern, but continues to show a bit of sympathy for Adrien. Despite knowing it's a bad idea, Adrien manages to stumble his way through figuring out who the murderer is and clear his name.

This book is a great mystery, but the romance is pretty nonexistent. The last few lines made me hopeful however and I immediately started reading the next book.

A DANGEROUS THING

This is the second book in the Adrien English mystery. Again, another great mystery. A true mystery, one that I didn't figure out until the end.

In this book Adrien runs away from his ambiguous non-relationship with Jake. He decides to go visit the house left to him by his grandmother. When he arrives there is a dead body in his driveway. Of course by the time he drives to safety and calls the police, the body is gone. He spends so time looking for the body and trying to figure out what is going on on his grandmother's land. Then he is attacked and Jake shows up at the hospital and decides to stay for the duration.

This again is a strong mystery, with a little more romance than the previous book, but still unsatisfying. There is a lot left unsaid. (view spoiler) There is closeted and then there is denial and I'm not sure where Jake falls. I am having a hard time rooting for this couple, since I really like Adrien and I want to see him happy. (Plus, I'm just coming off another story of a closeted California Police Detective and I have a low threshold of tolerance for them being crappy to our out heroes).

All things considered I'm enjoying them, and I'm committed to reading through the series right now, but I'm just not seeing the obsessive quality people show about these books. There's nothing so compelling that I feel like I have to pick up the next book. I'm simply enjoying the well crafted stories and I am hoping for good things for Adrien. ...more

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