Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: Hell & High Water
SERIES: THIRDS #1
AUTHOR: Charlie Cochet
NARRATOR: Mark Westfield
LENGTH: 10 hours, 6 minutes
RELEASE DATE: October 3, 2014
BLURB:
Action. Comedy. Romance. And that one weird guy.
When homicide detective Dexter J. Daley’s testimony helps send his partner away for murder, the consequences – and the media frenzy – aren’t far behind. He soon finds himself sans boyfriend, sans friends, and, after an unpleasant encounter in a parking garage after the trial, he’s lucky he doesn’t find himself sans teeth. Dex fears he’ll get transferred from the Human Police Force’s Sixth Precinct, or worse, get dismissed. Instead, his adoptive father – a sergeant at the Therian-Human Intelligence Recon Defense Squadron otherwise known as the THIRDS – pulls a few strings, and Dex gets recruited as a Defense Agent.
Dex is determined to get his life back on track and eager to get started in his new job. But his first meeting with Team Leader Sloane Brodie, who also happens to be his new jaguar Therian partner, turns disastrous. When the team is called to investigate the murders of three HumaniTherian activists, it soon becomes clear to Dex that getting his partner and the rest of the tightknit team to accept him will be a lot harder than catching the killer – and every bit as dangerous.
REVIEW:
Going into this book, or series, expecting serious characters and plot will probably not end very well. That’s not this series, and it’s definitely not these characters – Dex especially. But if you expect over the top and a little bit insane characters you are in for a fun ride.
Dex has had a tough time lately. Having testified against his former partner for murdering a Therian in cold blood caused him to become persona non grata at work, taunts are thrown at him, and he gets jumped by so called colleagues. To add to his misery, he comes home to find his boyfriend breaking up with him and in the middle of moving his stuff out. All in all, it’s not a good week for him. Then his boss informs him that the situation had become unsustainable and he was being moved to THIRDS (Therian-Human Intelligence Recon Defense Squadron), an elite unit dealing with Therian crimes. Only problem is, he’s replacing a team member killed on the job and the team is not done healing. The introduction to the team is rough, theirs is a lot of friction. At the same time, he’s also what they need t get out of their own heads and start living again.
The world building is great I really liked the take on shifters – it’s different and a nice change from many of the similar shifter books out there. Hell & High Water reads a lot like an introduction to this world and the characters in it. A very good introduction, but still this is only the start of a long-ish series, and you will want to have the next book ready to go because you’ll want to know more.
This is the second time I’ve listened to Mark Westfield and this was a much better fit for him (his deep voice doesn’t really fit with a YA novel). From the start it’s clear that he’s a talented narrator, and that he knows what he’s doing. I love the fact that he changes his tone fit the situation character. It makes it easy to follow the dialogues as he gives the characters different voices. Another thing that I really appreciate is that he makes phone calls sound different, kind of distant compared to regular dialogue. It’s something minor that adds a lot to the sense of place and feel of an audiobook. He made this listen fun.
RATING: 
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