Reviewed by Becca
TITLE: A Time for Secrets
SERIES: Boystown #4
AUTHOR: Marshall Thornton
PUBLISHER: Kenmore Books
LENGTH: 238 Pages
RELEASE DATE: January 25, 2015
BLURB:
In the first full-length novel of the Boystown series, it’s late summer 1982 and private detective Nick Nowak is asked to find a retired gentleman’s long lost lover. Instead, he finds himself embroiled in a decades old murder connected to the man who wants to be Chicago’s next mayor. Meanwhile, an ambitious young reporter develops a friendship with Nick’s lover Bert, making Nick wonder exactly where their relationship may be heading.
REVIEW:
If you’ve been keeping up with this series, and I hope you have because it’s awesome, then you know Nick has been through some tough cases. Cases that have eaten at him and just torn him up. This one I think has been the toughest one yet. This one not only drags up some people he would rather not deal with, this one kicks him in the gut. And just when he thinks things with Bert are somewhat ok considering, life comes and jabs him in the balls.
Nick has been asked by an old ‘acquaintance’ to look someone up for them. Doing what he does, he finds the someone only to find the next day, the someone and his client both have been shot execution style. Then he gets a package delivered to him by his client, to be given to Nick if anything happened to them. What Nick didn’t know was that he was about to enter a world he wasn’t sure he wanted to be involved in. But Nick cares, and he couldn’t leave it alone. He finds himself trying to solve an old murder by someone with political clout and finds himself almost in over his head.
Nick cares very much about this case. It is eating at him. The client actually saved his and his ex Daniel’s life when they were attacked years ago. When his client asks him to find someone, he does. But the someone doesn’t want to see his client, which starts bringing up questions in Nick’s mind. He is almost arrested when both men end up murdered, because his card was left at one of the crime scenes. Nick knew something was up. He knows he shouldn’t get involved but he can’t help it. And his life is in jeopardy just by doing it. The politician has his hands in many pies and is doing anything he can to keep this old murder under wraps. Including having Nick arrested for a false charge, to having his own family try and persuade him to let it go and work for him. And for Nick that was the final straw. Knowing he had been ousted by his family just for being gay, and now they want to cozy up and bribe Nick? No, that was it for Nick. I felt so bad for him in this book. That was a final blow and rightly so. Nick wants nothing more to be accepted by his family, but to be bribed into it stung. He is already hurting in his personal life because his lover, Bert, has been diagnosed with GRID. And Nick doesn’t know how to deal with it. Unfortunately he is still sleeping around, but he is not doing it as much. He even stopped himself from having sex with his ex, Daniel. I think he’s finally realized what Harker means to him. The icing on the cake with that was when a young journalist begins cozying up with Bert. He’s super jealous. And I can’t help but think ‘that’s what you get’. But then I have to remember, Nick cares in his way.
This is definitely a gut wrencher. But in a good way. It is a roller coaster of intrigue and mystery and something I can not put down. So far, I couldn’t put down any of them. These books keep you on your toes and wanting to see what happens next. Especially when at the end of each one it’s like a little Cliff hanger. I hope you are enjoying these as much as I am. And if you haven’t picked them up yet, you definitely should!
RATING: 
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