Reviewed by Carissa

TITLE: Pressure Head

SERIES: The Plumber’s Mate #1

AUTHOR: J.L.Merrow

PUBLISHER: Samhain Publishing

LENGTH: 279 pages

BLURB:  

Some secrets are better left hidden.

To most of the world, Tom Paretski is just a plumber with a cheeky attitude and a dodgy hip, souvenir of a schoolboy accident. The local police keep his number on file for a different reason—his sixth sense for finding hidden things.

When he’s called in to help locate the body of a missing woman up on Nomansland Common, he unexpectedly encounters someone who resurrects a host of complicated emotions. Phil Morrison, Tom’s old school crush, now a private investigator working the same case. And the former bully partly responsible for Tom’s injury.

The shocks keep coming. Phil is now openly gay, and shows unmistakable signs of interest. Tom’s attraction to the big, blond investigator hasn’t changed—in fact, he’s even more desirable all grown up. But is Phil’s interest genuine, or does he only want to use Tom’s talent?

As the pile of complicated evidence surrounding the woman’s murder grows higher, so does the heat between Tom and Phil. But opening himself to this degree exposes Tom’s heart in a way he’s not sure he’s ready for…while the murderer’s trigger finger is getting increasingly twitchy.

Warning: Contains a flirtatious plumber with hidden talents, a cashmere-clad private investigator with hidden depths, and an English village chock full of colourful characters with plenty to hide.

REVIEW:  

Tom can find things…but they are usually the kind of things better left secret. Which is probably why Tom became a plumber. People are less likely to punch you if uncover the leak in the piping than if you uncover their kinky porn stash. Unfortunately, one of the things that Tom is really good at finding is dead bodies…and the local constabulary know it. That is how Tom comes across the woman in the park…and brings back Phil Morrison into his life.

Once his teenage lust and bully, Phil is still all that sets Tom off. Except now Phil is a PI, hired by the dead woman’s family to figure out what happened to her. While initially suspicious of Tom’s ‘gift’, Phil thinks it might be a help in uncovering a murderer. Tom just kinda wants to get into Phil’s really nicely fitted pants.

I think this might be the third or fourth time I read this. Maybe fifth. I don’t know…let’s just say it well read by this point and leave it at that. But no matter how many times I read this book (and the two other books in the series) I am still very much in love with the characters, the mystery, and just the sheer bloody Englishness of it all.

This book wears well. Mostly because of Tom. He is a great character with a lot of uniqueness about him. Now I’ve been known to swoon over a great English character, but it isn’t only that that makes me love him so much. He is interesting. I wouldn’t do his job for all the money in the world, but I like seeing characters with not just your normal run-of-the-mill jobs. And yeah, plumbers are everywhere…just not really in the m/m genre. Not exactly a job that lends itself to sexiness (unless you are reading porn, I guess. I don’t know…is that an actual thing?).

And the slow-moving, two-steps-forward-eight-steps-back, romance between Phil and Tom is great. They only start to get their shit together near the end, but I am personally a big fan of the slow-burn, so it was really my kind of book.

And while the relationships (of all types) certainly play a big part in the story of Tom the Semi-Psychic-Plumber, this story definitely revolves around the murder mystery. As well it should have. While by this time I was pretty sure from the onset who the murderer was, it still was a lot of fun to go on the journey of discovery with Tom and Phil. Lots of clues, many twists, and just damn good writing makes this a mystery story worth the time to solve.

So if you haven’t got the clue already: Read this. It is fun and well written, with characters that really start to come into their own as the series progresses. Plus who doesn’t love to read all that British slang?

RATING:

BUY LINKS:

Samhain

Amazon

ARe