Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: Reasonable Doubt
SERIES: Hazard and Somerset #5
AUTHOR: Gregory Ashe
NARRATOR: Tristan James
PUBLISHER: Hodgkin and Biount
RELEASE DATE: May 13, 2019
LENGTH: 12 hours, 41 minutes
BLURB:
After almost 20 years, Emery Hazard finally has the man he loves. But things with his boyfriend and fellow detective, John-Henry Somerset, are never easy, and they’ve been more complicated lately for two reasons: Somers’s ex-wife and daughter. No matter what Hazard does, he can’t seem to get away from the most important women in his boyfriend’s life.
While Hazard struggles with his new reality (changing dirty diapers, just to start), a bizarre murder offers a distraction. John Oscar Walden, the leader of a local cult, is found dead by the police, and the case falls to Hazard and Somers. The investigation takes the two detectives into the cult’s twisted relationships and the unswerving demands of power and faith.
But the deeper Hazard looks into the cult, the deeper he must look into his own past, where belief and reason have already clashed once. And as Hazard struggles to protect the most vulnerable of Walden’s victims, he uncovers a deeper, more vicious plot behind Walden’s murder, and Hazard finds himself doing what he never expected: racing to save the killer.
Only, that is, if Somers doesn’t need him to babysit.
REVIEW:
I’ve been going round and round with Somers and Hazards for the previous four books. Not knowing what to think of them or their relationship. So this time I figured I’d go into this book with a clean slate and forget that I’ve had issues with them in the past for things that they either did/said or didn’t say or do. For the most part that actually worked. Then again this book brought its own set of issues and this time the mystery wasn’t enough to fully engage me.
This time around Hazard and Somers are investigating a murder in a cult. And investigating cults or within a cult is far from easy as they tend to be tightlipped, unfriendly and not willing to help. However the more they uncover about the people around the victim the stranger it all gets, and in the end they don’t really know who they are supposed to protect and who they’re going to arrest. As you might have guessed, there are many twists and turns in this murder investigation, and it also brings up painful memories of the past for Hazard, things he’d buried a long time ago.
Somers and Hazard are exhausting. They are finally in a relationship – with each other. A relationship they’ve both been longing for since high school. They are open about said relationship – to everyone but each other. What I mean is, we get a lot of internal monologues, and freak outs “what if he doesn’t love me” “Is he still in love with his ex?” “Will he go back to his ex and just haven’t told me” and so on. They haven’t really figured out that talking to each other might be an idea – admitting their feelings to others doesn’t seem to be an issue, but to each other… that’s a whole different story. Some of it was fine and fit, but some just created unnecessary drama and this constant back and forth got old real fast. That might just be me though, so don’t take it as gospel.
There is no doubt that Tristan James is vastly talented when it comes to audio narrations, I mean he almost has it all; different accents, voices and passion. And he’s also able to consistently keep them throughout the length of the book. Well for one exception, there was one (minor) character that when first arriving was talking with a lisp which seconds later magically disappeared. Sure it’s minor and easy to overlook, and personally I do prefer grownup characters to not have a lisp.
I haven’t decided yet if this is the time I part ways with this series or not, but I think it might just be. But then again listening to gay fiction instead of m/m romance is refreshing, so might just cave when the next audio is released and pick up the next one.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS: