Reviewed by Vicki

TITLE: Requiem in Leather 

SERIES: Deputy Joe #4

AUTHOR: James Buchanan

PUBLISHER: MLR Press

LENGTH: 220 pages

BLURB:

The wilds of San Francisco are a long way from the rural-Utah beat of Deputy Joe Peterson.

Kabe’s former Dom, the man who protected him in prison, dies and Kabe, along with Jack’s other boys, returns to The City to pay their respects. Joe wonders where he fits in after seeing Kabe at home, with the family and friends he left behind. When he agrees to help track down one of the missing boys he can’t understand Kabe’s aversion to his getting involved.

The emotions dredged up by the search, and Kabe’s slipping back into his old out-of-control life style, pitch them along like the rough surf Kabe has so missed riding. If they can find the balance between love, respect and their lifestyle, they may just be able to discover a place Joe thought was closed to him forever.

REVIEW:

I have seen the name James Buchanan around, and have seen the Deputy Joe books mentioned, but I didn’t pay much attention to them until I met James at GRL last fall. I love that each year I go to GRL, I “discover” a couple of authors. I am so happy I downloaded a sample of the first Deputy Joe book while attending the BDSM panel last year. I read the first three a couple of months ago, and I’ve been happily waiting for this one!

In case you haven’t read any of the Deputy Joe books, they are fabulous. Joe is a Deputy/Detective, living in Panguitch Utah. Mormon down to the core, but also gay down to the soul. He tries so hard to follow the Mormon way of life, he truly believes. He is a good Mormon man, son, brother, and a very good cop. He’s also a rock climber, on his own for fun, but also as part of the local rescue team. He meets Kabe as part of a rescue/recovery mission (book one), and finds his soul mate…. he also loses his church and nearly his job. Kabe is a bad boy, from a suburb of San Francisco, a party boy, and a convict. A surfer, climber, wild-child, and a hard-core submissive. It turns out that Joe is a bit of a Dom, unknown to himself, but he discovers it along with Kabe.

These two have lots of drama, trauma, and adventures over the first three books, each one focusing on an issue for Joe to solve. A murder, a missing person, something like that. So there is a background story that he is working on, plus the unfolding and evolving relationship between the two men. Joe also ends up in a bad situation with his church and job, between his sexuality and Kabe being a convict, he has some issues, to say the least. Oh, and his family. Wow. But it all basically works out.

Then we have the sex. Holy fuck. These two are amazing, and James knows how to write a damn good sex scene. Joe is dominant, Kabe is submissive and a total pain slut. Almost a bit too much of a pain slut, as Joe discovers at one point. He gets carried away and scares himself. Kabe is the experienced man, Joe not so much, at least in the BDSM aspect. But they learn together, and I LOVED reading about it. Damn. Hot, naughty, nasty, and sometimes sweet.

Now we get to Requiem in Leather, the fourth book in this series. It’s at this point that series start to have trouble sometimes. We have an established couple, the internal drama has all been dealt with, the family drama, the job, whatever. Things can get a little boring. But that DID NOT happen with this book at all! The first three books are set in Utah, in Joe’s world, and mostly deal with his issues. With this book we get deeply in to Kabe’s world.

So Kabe’s former Dom, Black Jack, who helped him both in and out of prison, dies. Kabe and Joe go to San Francisco for the memorial service. They make a vacation out of it, visiting Kabe’s grandma, Kabe getting to show Joe where he grew up. Once they get to San Fran, the drama starts. Bill, Black Jack’s lover at the end of his life is planning the memorial gathering and wants to get all of Jack’s former boys together. One is missing, Mike. Bill finds out Joe is a cop and asks if he can track Mike down. Mike is a Marine, may be still serving may be out. This is what provides the plot for this book. Joe takes on this task, and tracks down Mike. We learn about Jack, Mike, and the others, and how they all fit together with Kabe, over the course of this story. We also get a very hard lesson in the pain a veteran faces returning from war with no support.

There is some drama between Kabe and Joe, Kabe acts like a little bitch a few times, Joe a stubborn ass. I don’t think Kabe always gets how deeply Mormon Joe really is. It shows very clearly in his discomfort in this story. He doesn’t drink, doesn’t show his body, doesn’t show affection in public, because he can’t. It isn’t his fault, he just can’t. Kabe doesn’t get it, which leads to some serious issues between them. Kabe also doesn’t get why Joe has to find Mike. It takes Joe’s attention away from Kabe, which Kabe doesn’t like. This causes some tension! Joe’s fish-out-of-water, small town personality, also allows for a bit of humor in this book. His first look at a PA had me giggling.

I loved the sense of community this book shows, these men create a family for themselves. When one needs help, it is provided. Support and love come when needed. I loved seeing that. I cried at Black Jack’s memorial scene, the emotions were just so raw with these men missing one of their own.

I liked the story, I liked the issues it causes between Joe and Kabe, I liked the other characters. I hope Mike gets what he needs. I’m sorry we didn’t get to meet Black Jack. I loved Bill! I loved Kabe’s grandma, and hated his dad. I loved that we got to see Kabe in his own element, both good and bad. My only slight issue, and the reason I gave this 4.5 hearts instead of 5 was that I wish it had a few more sex scenes. James writes such great ones, that I missed that a bit in this book. There is sex, and it’s yummy, including one good ass whipping scene, but it could have used just maybe one more. Some books I find myself skipping the sex scenes, blah blah cock, blah blah asshole, blah blah come, and move on. I DO NOT do that with any of the sex scenes in these books! So yah, I’m greedy. Sorry!

If you have read the other Deputy Joe books this one is just great. Such a different look at these two characters. If you haven’t read them, and are a fan of BDSM, man, you have got to read them. I will warn you, Joe is from the country, and James writes Joe’s dialogue, both internal and in conversation that way. I have no problem with it, but I have seen some reviews that mention the difficulty in accepting the “country” language. Joe moves slow and talks slow, but he is not stupid at all.

This is part of a series and not a stand alone book. If you haven’t read the other books in the series you have to!

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

MLR Press

Amazon

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