Reviewed by Annika

TITLE: The Wolf at Bay

SERIES: Big Bad Wolf #2

AUTHOR: Charlie Adhara

NARRATOR: Erik Bloomquist

PUBLISHER: Tantor Audio

RELEASE DATE: August 20, 2019

LENGTH: 8 hours, 18 minutes

BLURB:

Going home digs up bad memories, so it’s something Bureau of Special Investigations agent Cooper Dayton tries to avoid. When he’s guilted into a visit, Cooper brings along Oliver Park, his hot new werewolf partner, in the hopes the trip will help clarify their status as a couple…or not.

When Park’s keen shifter nose uncovers a body in the yard and Cooper’s father is the prime suspect, Cooper knows they’re on their own. Familial involvement means no sanctioned investigation. They’ll need to go rogue and solve the mystery quietly or risk seeing Cooper’s dad put behind bars.

The case may be cold, but Park and Cooper’s relationship heats up as they work. And yet if Cooper can’t figure out what’s going on between them outside of the bedroom, he’ll lose someone he… Well, he can’t quite put into words how he feels about Park. He knows one thing for sure: He’s not ready to say goodbye, though with the real killer inching ever closer…he may not have a choice.

REVIEW:

Some secrets are buried for a reason…. And some don’t stay buried.

The Wolf at Bay was a great follow-up from the first book. Cooper and Park are still partners and are hard at work investigating crimes involving wolves. After wrapping up their current case they are invited to Cooper’s old hometown and his brother’s engagement party. There are many secrets and old hurts within the Dayton family and Cooper rarely goes home because of them. When a body is discovered in his father’s yard he is forced to stop running and hiding and face the past. What he learns turns his memories and childhood upside down and forces him to look at everything in a new light. When his father becomes the prime suspect in the murder, Cooper and Park starts investigating – especially since the local law enforcement refuses to look at other possibilities.

I love spending time in this world, it’s interesting and engaging. One of the things I enjoy the most is finding out bits and pieces over time. Trying all the while to make the pieces fit. There are no easy answers and the listener or reader aren’t in on the secrets and just waiting for the main characters to find out, to get where you have been all along. No, we are right there with them digging and searching – and I love it! I mean it’s a great way to keep interest in the plot – because you have these unanswered questions you just need the answers to. So you keep listening and searching for the next clue.

And it doesn’t hurt that I find both Cooper and Park really interesting and great characters. Both as individuals but also together. Sure they might need some major communicating instead of dancing around some of the issues, but so far it works, so far it’s not overdone and it’s something that you believe in.

Erik Bloomquist is a great choice of narrator for this series and I’m really enjoying listening to him. And I can’t even begin to tell you how much I appreciate a new voice. His pacing is on point and he captures the characters just right. Not only that, he adds feeling to his narration, varies his intensity after the situation. This makes the listener sit up and take notice, feel the suspense, exasperation and just any other feeling the characters are experiencing. It’s my kind of narration for sure.

I loved the time I spent with Cooper and Park, and I can’t seem to get enough to him. Luckily for me, I have the next book lined up and their next chapter of their story is just a tap of the finger away.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

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