Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: The Merchant of Death
SERIES: Playing the Fool #2
AUTHOR: Lisa Henry & J.A. Rock
NARRATOR: Nick J. Russo
PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing
LENGTH: 5 hours, 29 minutes
RELEASE DATE: March 15, 2016
BLURB:
All’s fair in love and war.
There’s something rotten in the state of Indiana. When con man Henry Page takes it upon himself to investigate the death of an elderly patient at a care facility, he does so in true Shakespearean tradition: dressed as a girl.
FBI Agent Ryan “Mac” McGuinness has more to worry about than Henry’s latest crazy idea. Someone is trying to send him a message—via a corpse with a couple of bullets in it. He needs to figure out who’s trying to set him up before he gets arrested, and he really doesn’t have time for Henry’s shenanigans. Then again, he’d probably be able to focus better if Henry didn’t look so damn distracting in a babydoll dress and a wig.
But when Mac discovers that Henry has been keeping a secret that connects the cases, he has to find a way to live on the right side of the law when he just might be in love with the wrong sort of man.
REVIEW:
The third and final instalment in this series finds Mac of all people on the run. Obviously he’s not on the run alone; both Henry and Viola are with him. And they are running to his family home – Henry is meeting the parents….
Anyway, he’s on the run because someone has been setting him up for murder and if he has any hope to clear his name, he and Henry have to work together –and outside the law. Their partnership is tenuous at best, but seeing that it’s only been three weeks since they met and there has been more than a little mistrust, a lot of lies and many runs it definitely fits for them. Anything else wouldn’t have been believable.
The previous books have building towards this finish, and the mastermind behind it all is revealed. Maybe I should have expected their identity, but I didn’t. It’s a dangerous chase of cat and mouse and they don’t know who to trust, knowing that both sides of the law are hunting them. It’s also the book that’s the most serious of the bunch. There’s still banter and shenanigans, but not to the extent we’ve come to expect from the previous books. It was also more emotional.
I loved Viola and Cory’s friendship, the two of them were great together, and sweet –and hilarious. It was nice to see Viola have some happiness again, she deserved it. Not to mention they made a great team! As for Mac and Cheese, well Mac and Henry, their relationship developed nicely. There were a few missteps, but nothing major or out of character and I liked seeing them working through it.
Again Nick J. Russo captured the essence of this book and characters. He made you feel and experience everything with Henry and Mac – even the (bad) theme song to “Mac and Cheese”. I’m not sure that listening to the themes song versus reading was to its advantage, but it sure did add to the feel of the book – to Henry’s personality.
Listening to this series has been a lot of fun and if you haven’t read or listened to this series yet, you might want to change that.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS: