Reviewed by Carissa

 

TITLE:  Dirty Deeds

 

SERIES:  Cole McGinnis #4

 

AUTHOR:  Rhys Ford

 

PUBLISHER:  Dreamspinner

 

LENGTH:  228 pages

 

BLURB:  

 

Sheila Pinelli needed to be taken out.

 

Former cop turned private investigator Cole McGinnis never considered committing murder. But six months ago, when Jae-Min’s blood filled his hands and death came knocking at his lover’s door, killing Sheila Pinelli became a definite possibility.

 

While Sheila lurks in some hidden corner of Los Angeles, Jae and Cole share a bed, a home, and most of all, happiness. They’d survived Jae’s traditional Korean family disowning him and plan on building a new life—preferably one without the threat of Sheila’s return hanging over them.

 

Thanks to the Santa Monica police mistakenly releasing Sheila following a loitering arrest, Cole finally gets a lead on Sheila’s whereabouts. That is, until the trail goes crazy and he’s thrown into a tangle of drugs, exotic women, and more death. Regardless of the case going sideways, Cole is determined to find the woman he once loved as a sister and get her out of their lives once and for all.

 

REVIEW:  

 

“Do you promise this is your last white rabbit?” Jae’s thin smile was enough to ease some of my fear.

“It’s a windmill, remember? Quixote, not Alice.” I kissed him quickly, jerking back when his teeth nearly nipped my nose.

“No, I think this time, you are Alice.” Jae broke from my hold, standing in one fluid, liquid movement. “The windmills were real, even if Quixote thought they were giants. The white rabbit—that was all in Alice’s head. This thing you have with Sheila, you can’t leave it alone even if it’s not real. If that’s not a white rabbit, Cole-ah, then I don’t know what is.”

 

Confronting your past can hurt like a bitch.  Especially when that past has shown up toting a gun and shooting the man you love.  And while Jae survived the violent collision of present and past, Cole can’t just let what Sheila did lie.  He might not know how to find her, but that has never stopped him before.  He isn’t losing Jae to anyone or anything, not if he can help it.  Cole and Jae have finally started to see a future for themselves, the past is just going to have to let go.  Right after Cole deals with the crazy chick with one hell of a violent grudge.

 

It must be his lucky day because a chance arrest (and release) of Sheila gives Cole the needed clue to move forward.  But, as this is Cole McGinnis, lady luck comes courting with bullets and rapidly increasing body counts.  Now he is going to have to fight his way through yet another mystery of bloody proportions if he has any hope of finding the woman who could very well end his world…and almost already did.  If he is really lucky, he’ll not lose himself along the way.

 

To get myself ready for this new release from Rhys Ford I have spent the last two days reading non-stop Cole and Jae.  Four books, two shorts, and a whole lot of bullets.  I’m pretty sure Ford went thru an entire gun shop’s worth of bullets in her pursuit of throwing everything and the kitchen sink at Cole and Jae.  I have laughed, I have cried, I have had to battle some serious envy problems because, dear lord, Cole and Jae together makes me want to fall in that kind of love–even if it sounds seriously painful (if not downright dangerous for one’s health).  These two have always been a favorite of mine, from nearly the first moment we met, but I never really expected to find myself falling a second (or a fifth) time.

 

Rhys Ford writes some of my favorite PI-themed stories.  I think it is part Cole, and part the wonderful mystery, but every time I pick up one of these books I am left in a whirlwind of clues and subtle shifts that makes the slow picking thru the knotted threads worth it.  Sheila leads to the group of trans ladies, which leads to a forgotten parts of his past, and right back again to Sheila.  Everything is connected, but it never goes so far as to make it unbelievable.  I think you just start to believe that Cole is just one of those guys cursed with bad luck…and dead bodies.  But then again, it led him to Jae, so it can’t be all that bad.  Cole also is really starting to come alive…or maybe wake up.  He starts to realize that he can’t just react, even when he knows that he must act–if only to keep his sanity.  And Jae.

 

And if there is one thing (and honestly picking one, or eight, is incomprehensible) that really sets these mysteries apart it is how we get an insight in to this society that I have no real connection to.  I love how the Korean culture is woven into these mysteries.  I think part of it is the lure of the unknown…and reading something that finally feels unique.  But it is also how we are challenged to look at the world thru eyes that see their lives as more than just the almighty “I”.  The connection between families, and generations, has had a huge impact on Cole and Jae.  A large portion of both of these guy’s families are right asses, but it never as easy as just walking away from them.  Connections are always harder to sever than we’d want them to be, sometimes.  And sometimes it is about stitching together a family out of the good parts and letting them fill the holes left behind by the others.  It was nice to see that Jae is actually starting to come to life–even if the cost of those smiles was a family that meant everything to him, even when it was killing him.

 

Finally in this book it starts to feel like Cole and Jae are settling into their relationship.  For Jae, the worst has happened, and yet he has found that Cole is there in the end.  As promised.  And Cole…well he is starting to let the past go.  Or maybe just stop letting the past dictate everything that he does.  It still hurts like hell–what Ben did, and what Cole lost–but finding Jae in his bed, and in their home, is something worth fighting to keep.  And god, these two together.  Is it horrible that I am madly jealous of two fictional characters?  Not only is the sex hot…but just the passion they show in everything, for each other, is beautiful.  And now that Cole is no longer waiting for the ax to come down on his already-pulverized heart, it really feels like something worth envying.  If only because it feels real.  All that anger, and yelling, and loving, and soothing…it isn’t just two over-cupididized lovebirds cooing over each other.  It is two men who have a lot of messed up shit in their pasts, and have a lot of personality, but they are damn well going to make a life together…even if it kills them.

 

I can’t figure out what part of this book I liked the best.  Maybe it was the way that Cole is growing up…and moving on.  Maybe it is the way that Jae is finally happy.  Maybe it is the way that I can never figure out just where the mystery is going to take me next.  But no matter what, this book was just a perfect combination of everything I wanted, and some things I never expected–because I do love to be kept on my toes.  And that ending…I can’t tell if the next book is going to open up with Cole digging a shallow grave in his backyard, or not.  But yeah, I totally saw that coming…like a train wreck in slow-motion.  I dearly wish I had book five right now (and am totally willing to offer bribes for it…hint hint).

 

And if all that hasn’t convinced you that you need to read this book, let’s just say you don’t want to miss reading the part where they switch things up in the bedroom.  Your pants will catch on fire and flee for cooler climes.

 

RATING:  

 

BUY LINKS: Dreamspinner Press