Reviewed by Chris
TITLE: Lock Nut
SERIES: The Plumber’s Mate Mysteries #5
AUTHOR: J.L. Merrow
PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing
LENGTH: 330 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 14, 2018
BLURB:
Still waters run deadly.
Tom Paretski, plumber with a talent for finding hidden things, and his private investigator fiancé Phil Morrison have been hired to locate a runaway husband, Jonathan Parrot. The job seems simple enough—until their quarry turns up dead in a canal, and a photofit of Tom’s face is splashed all over the news, making him chief suspect.
The widow, petite ex–porn star Lilah Lovett, is convinced her husband was killed by his gay lover, but Tom and Phil aren’t so sure. Worried they may have precipitated Jonathan’s death, they’re determined to find the real killer. But with a web of incestuous ties linking the suspects, it’s hard to know who to trust. Especially when a second victim dies a gruesome death.
Meanwhile, with their wedding looming and them sharing a house now, Tom’s worried it may all be too much, too fast. The last thing he needs are the mixed messages Phil seems to be sending out. They’ll need to get back on the same track if they want to make it to their honeymoon together—and alive.
REVIEW:
Well I have to admit that I kinda thought I’d never actually get to see this book come out. What with all the publishers going under, I was pretty much convinced that this was going to be one of those books that I was left perpetually waiting for. Which was a huge bummer since book five was where Tom and Phil finally tie the knot–most likely over someone’s dead body–and I’ve been waiting forever for that to happen.
But luckily for me, you, the author, and everyone just in general, Lock Nut is finally here and boy was it worth the wait.
(Just, you know, maybe not make me go through that again? Please?! I need to see if ___ finds ___ while they are ___ing on their ___.)
While in the middle of his sister’s wedding–and trying his best not to think too much about his own impending doom wonderful day of matrimony, Tom is asked to help a friend(‘s friend) out by helping locate the woman’s missing husband. Despite the fact that finding missing people (who still have a pulse) is more Phil’s line of work, Tom is persuaded to give it a go. After all, he can just have Phil do the detective bit on the side and the client will hardly care as long as the guy is found. But, as is clearly becoming a worrying trend, things go all kinds of tits up and Tom and Phil are left in the middle of a murder investigation that has Tom’s face plastered all over the TV as a suspect. Perhaps Tom should have just stuck with worrying about where they are going to take their honeymoon and left the dead bodies to someone else this time around?
I think my feelings on this book could all be summed up in the happy sigh I let out when I got to the last page of this book. Tom and Phil were their regular grumpy/snarky/hilarious selves, the mystery was the right balance of twisty and well planned, and I was just a right happy camper with everything else.
I really have a soft spot for this series, and I have never really been able to pick a favorite out of the, now, five stories. Mostly because I have a habit of consuming them like chips whenever I think to dip my toe back in with Tom and Phil (i.e. you can’t just read one. That’s crazy talk!). These books are wonderful mystery novels, but they also have so much character that even on the third/seventh reread they are still just as enjoyable. And while I have only been able to read Lock Nut once, I can tell it is going to much much the same.
Tom is just the right balance of snarky/self-deprecating. While there are certainly times I’d love to read a story set solely from Phil’s pov, I have to say that Tom is a lot of what sells these books. I love a good mystery, but having a pov character who is just as fun to ride along with, while sneaky things are being afoot, really makes a story worth binging. And, seriously, if it wasn’t for the fact I have to actually do shit with my day, I could easily have just sat down and read this book from start to finish. Phil and the secondary characters certainly play a role in this–and Tom wouldn’t be nearly as fun if he didn’t have Phil to play off of–but I really like how Tom has grown over these five books and how he kinda knows (sorta) what he is doing now. Mostly. Well, about 50% of the time.
He’s working on it, ok?
They mystery wasn’t too grandiose, but the story was real good at slowly giving out tidbits so that it takes you awhile to know just what threads to pull on to unravel the knot. And by the end I was completely satisfied with the answers we got. There were a few loose threads that just get dropped, but I can see how they worked to move the plot forward even if by the end they were just left to our imaginations (I want to know what was up with the shit in the storage locker, ok?). I’m not to bothered by not getting those answers, though. I’m a big boy. I can live with not getting everything I want.
Because I got a lot of what I wanted and that is what matters.
This was just such a wonderful, fun, and utterly sigh-worthy addition to this series. And I hope to the gods that it is not the end. I will cry if it is, because I could read another ten books. Even if, I guess, I have to wait a bit for them to come around.
RATING: 
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