Reviewed by Vicki
TITLE: Conflict of Interest
AUTHOR: Zahra Owens
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 276 pages
BLURB:
When a material witness changes her story during a court interrogation, allowing the man who assaulted her little boy to go free, Senior Crown Prosecutor Finn DeHavilland’s legendary self-control goes out the window. His subsequent suspension from appearing in court leaves Finn with time on his hands. Desperate to continue working, and after regularly attending his mandatory psychiatric sessions, he accepts a delicate case involving a fraudulent Scotland Yard police detective.
Excited to be assigned to the case, DS Tommy Drummond, who has had a soft spot for Finn since Finn defended him during an internal investigation, and his partner, Stevie Fielding, begin uncovering evidence. A series of seemingly random occurrences muddle their investigation. Believing they’re on the right path, the team pushes forward, until Tommy’s apartment goes up in flames. Offering Tommy a guest room in his home turns up the heat on the growing feelings between Finn and Tommy. But Finn’s baggage may be too much to deal with, and paranoia threatens to tear them apart. As the net around the corrupt detective tightens, it becomes clear he must have had help from high places, and Finn and Tommy become pawns in the game.
REVIEW:
Conflict of Interest is set in England, around the legal system, and I have to admit it was a bit hard for American me to follow! Tommy Drummond is a cop, Finn DeHavilland is a prosecutor, they have worked together occasionally, and Tommy has quite the crush on Finn. Finn works on cases mostly involving child abuse, which eventually gets to him and he loses his cool one day in court, and gets put on leave, and is told to get some counseling. Tommy is there to witness his breakdown, and helps him settle down. Tommy’s apartment burns down and Finn offers him a place to stay. This draws them closer on a personal level, but they are also tasked to work together along with Tommy’s partner Stevie, on an internal investigation case.
This is where I had trouble… I couldn’t always follow the investigation. Part of it was all of the departments and their acronyms, but I also just couldn’t figure out what was going on and why these people were all working together to solve this mess. I have no familiarity with the English legal system, so maybe that was it. There is this whole story with a bad cop, who has been mucking up cases for years, Finn, Stevie, and Tommy are working back through the evidence to put together a case against him. Finn’s friend/counselor Ayse is involved, plus a boss or two, I got lost!
While this is all going on, we have the personal story between Finn and Tommy. Finn has some issues in his past and is having a really hard time accepting his sexuality. He’s so damaged he isn’t really attracted to anyone, until Tommy comes along. Then he feels some attraction, but is so scared and untrusting, he can’t act on it. Tommy is patient, then not, they just start to work their shit out when poor Finn freaks out and pulls away. Finn is seeing Ayse for counseling due to his work issues, but his sexuality comes up as well, and she tries to help with his relationship with Tommy. Their relationship and trust does develop, but it takes most of the book. I wish it had gone a bit faster, or focused more on them. The sex between them is very strained and uncomfortable, and didn’t really get better by the end of the story.
I liked this book, but I didn’t love it. I had a hard time with the plot, I wasn’t sure what was going on, and I didn’t really have any interest in the story. I didn’t feel a connection to the characters, I wish I had, because I liked them. I think the story between the two of them was more interesting to me than the main plot, but so much time was taken up by the plot I didn’t bond with them as much as I could have. If that makes sense. I would have liked more time spent on the relationship side of the story, and less on the main plot. There wasn’t a lot of action to the story, really only one scene at the end, and Tommy turns out to be a pretty wussy cop. So I liked the characters, but I didn’t care for the story. I liked the relationship between Tommy and Finn, but I wish it had moved along faster, and had a more satisfying resolution. Overall a good book, I am glad I read it, but it wasn’t great for me.
RATING:
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