Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: Orientation
SERIES: Borealis Investigations #1
AUTHOR: Gregory Ashe
NARRATOR: Charlie David
PUBLISHER: Hodgkin and Blount
RELEASE DATE: October 15, 2019
LENGTH: 11 hours, 26 minutes
BLURB:
Shaw and North are best friends, private detectives, and in danger of losing their agency. A single bad case, followed by crippling lawsuits, has put them on the brink of closing shop. Until, that is, a client walks into their Benton Park office.
Matty Fennmore is young, blond, and beautiful, and he’s in danger. When he asks for Shaw and North’s help foiling a blackmail scheme, the detectives are quick to accept.
The conspiracy surrounding Matty runs deeper than Shaw and North expect. As they dig into the identity of Matty’s blackmailer, they are caught in a web that touches politicians, the local LGBT community, and the city’s police.
An attack on Matty drives home the rising stakes of the case, and Shaw and North must race to find the blackmailer before he can silence Matty. But a budding romance lays bare long-buried feelings between Shaw and North, and as their relationship splinters, solving the case may come at the cost of their friendship.
REVIEW:
When I saw this book being released I hoped it wouldn’t be too long before it made its way to audio. Luckily the wait hasn’t been all that long and it was well worth it.
Shaw and North have been best friends forever. They have also been in love with each other almost as long. Both keeping it secret. Hiding their longing and want. Together they are running a private detectives agency, an agency that’s currently having some issues due to a case gone bad a while back. So when the young and very beautiful Matty shows up on their doorstep begging them for help they eagerly take the case. A case that might have sounded straight forward when they started out, but becomes more and more dangerous the more they investigate and none of the players are quite what they seem or expect.
Once again Gregory Ashe has created a complex story and flawed characters. I loved that feeling of history and backstory. We haven’t been there for the beginning of any of it. We get bits and pieces of the past as we go along. We know that everyone had a past, but also when the book ended we also know that the story of Shaw and North didn’t end there. Their story or stories whichever the case might be is far from complete.
There were similarities between the relationships between Shaw and North and Somerset and Hazard (another series by Ashe). The push and pull, hurting each other, other boyfriends/husbands and the secret longing. The brutal attack that still echoes today. The dance so far is kind of similar, but I’m guessing that will change as we go further into this series.
Shaw and North are no heroes or white lilies. They bend boundaries, rules and laws as they see fit. Mostly for each other though. I’m not sure that I like some of their actions, when they really went too far. I definitely don’t agree with them. Then again, I think that’s also one of the reasons why I like Ashe’s books. They are not cuddly or sweet, none of the characters are perfect or even attempts to be. You never quite know where they will go next, what decision they’ll make or where they’ll stand in any given moment. I love that. I love to be surprised, when books aren’t predictable from the start. That there is a level of uncertainty and wondering of guessing.
It’s been a while since I listened to a book narrated by Charlie David, so it was time to find my way back to him. I’m glad that he was the narrator of this book. He’s never only reading the words in front of him, he adds that little extra, a sniffle here and there and maybe a giggle or stutter (if there was one) suffice to say, he adds some flare to his narration that works well with the story. I also love how his intensity changes with the rising tension and suspense in the book. It makes the listener sit up and pay attention that much more than a simple reading would have done. David effortlessly juggles the different characters and distinguishes them with different voices, some might be similar, but you are never left in doubt who the narrator or speaker is.
This book deals with a lot, some subject matters heavier than others. Ashe though managed to find a good balance between them all. It never felt rushed or too much, but rather a well-rounded story that will continue on developing as the series does. This has been my favourite story by Ashe to date. I’m really looking forward to see where Shaw and North will go next – and to get more answers to Shaw’s past. Not the least because of that ending….
RATING: 
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