Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: Pressure Head
SERIES: The Plumber’s Mate Mysteries #1
AUTHOR: JL Merrow
NARRATOR: Phillip Humphries
PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing
LENGTH: 7 hours, 4 minutes
RELEASE DATE: September 15, 2020
BLURB:
Some secrets are better left hidden.
To most of the world, Tom Paretski is just a plumber with a cheeky attitude and a dodgy hip, souvenir of a schoolboy accident. The local police keep his number on file for a different reason—his sixth sense for finding hidden things.
When he’s called in to help locate the body of a missing woman up on Nomansland Common, he unexpectedly encounters someone who resurrects a host of complicated emotions. Phil Morrison, Tom’s old school crush, now a private investigator working the same case. And the former bully partly responsible for Tom’s injury.
The shocks keep coming. Phil is now openly gay, and shows unmistakable signs of interest. Tom’s attraction to the big, blond investigator hasn’t changed—in fact, he’s even more desirable all grown up. But is Phil’s interest genuine, or does he only want to use Tom’s talent?
As the pile of complicated evidence surrounding the woman’s murder grows higher, so does the heat between Tom and Phil. But opening himself to this degree exposes Tom’s heart in a way he’s not sure he’s ready for…while the murderer’s trigger finger is getting increasingly twitchy.
REVIEW:
I’m drawn to, well a lot of things when you actually list them. One of those things are psychics in various forms, they intrigue me. So I did read Pressure Head a few years ago when I first came across it, and now that it’s been released into audio I was stoked and had to revisit this series once more.
I think that this series and Tom Paretski in particular is refreshing in so many ways, but let me give you a few; his family aren’t natives to the country they live in, his psychic ability also isn’t your typical “I talk to dead people” spiel, and my personal favourite; he’s a plumber. It’s arguably one of the lesser “attractive” fields of employment there is. Everything today is all about the surface, the well-paid and high-profile jobs, your status in society, and that’s why I’m over the moon every time I find a book where the MC works with something that out of the norm, that isn’t all shiny.
As far as his psychic ability goes, it fascinates me how he just finds everything that’s been hidden, be it a leaky pipe, a secret stash of porn or dead bodies. But also, depending on what was hidden it caused him physical discomfort and even pain. Seeing that his best friend happens to be a police officer, he does get asked to find more than his share of dead bodies. This body however is a bit different, this time Tom gets involved in solving the murder. But he had to do it with his old nemesis; Phil Morrison, his high school bully. Let the sparks fly!
Phillip Humphries is a new narrator for me and for the most part he did a really good impression on me and I can’t wait to listen to the rest of the series. I love his accent, its genuine UK, the kind that can’t be faked. Don’t get me wrong there are many narrators that does great accent but there is always that something extra with a genuine accent. It really anchors the story and characters to the place. I also loved how he lived in the story, and varied his tone and pacing after the situation. I liked it!
Pressure Head is a great start to a great series and I can only hope more books will make their way to audio.
RATING: 
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