Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: A Friend in the Fire 
SERIES: An Auden & O’Callaghan Mystery
AUTHORS: Gregory Ashe and C.S. Poe
PUBLISHER: Emporium Press
LENGTH: 270 pages
RELEASE DATE: April 29, 2021
BLURB:
After solving the mystery behind the death of his former friend in July, ex-Army Sam Auden has been aimlessly wandering the country. Everything had gone sideways in New York City, so when his phone rings three months later, the caller is the last person Sam expected to be asking for help.
Confidential informant Rufus O’Callaghan has been struggling. His NYPD contact was murdered over the summer, and the man Rufus is head over heels for was driven away by his own undiagnosed trauma. But when he receives an anonymous letter that promises information on his mother, life goes from dark to dangerous in the blink of an eye.
Sam and Rufus must dig into Rufus’s rough and turbulent past in order to solve a series of contemporary murders connected to his mother. And if the two can’t expose who the killer is in time, they will most certainly become his next targets.
REVIEW:
Three months after the dirty cops have been caught and the child trafficking visitors have been Rufus is back in his walkup tenement in trying to keep things together. He’s got a new NYPD “handler” for his CI gig, but he’s depressed almost worse than he’s ever been. He missed Sam, but he hasn’t called him. But after he receives a mysterious note mentioning his long ago murdered mother and is attacked by someone who should have in prison for some time, he realizes that maybe he isn’t going to be able to handle everything on his own and so he breaks down and called Sam.
After leaving Rufus once they have solved the mysterious murder of Jake, Sam’s friend and Rufus’s handler, Sam has been hitchhiking around the country. He’s doing better with this PTSD and anxiety, but he’s not really found a purpose. When Rufus calls him, Sam makes his way back to the last place he thought he’d ever want to return to – New York City. And he finds Rufus in pretty bad shape. He hasn’t been eating or sleeping and he’s pretty much a wreck. But when Sam arrives, he seems to perk up a bit. He’s having trouble figuring out how and why his attacker would have mentioned his mother because he can’t be connected with her in any way. Rufus’s mother was a “working girl” who got murdered in the Ramble 17 years earlier. Rufus had asked a cold case guy to look into it for him, but he has never heard anything back. But it’s their only clue, so Sam and Rufus start poking around.
Rufus decides to try to get in touch with others who worked the Ramble and knew his mother. However, nobody really wants to talk to him. And when another working girl is murdered, thing get even more dicey. But Rufus and Sam are not to be deterred. They continue to investigate with help from one of the officers who has helped them over the summer and grudgingly by Rufus’s handler. But it seems like they aren’t really getting anywhere – until the follow up on a lead for another former working girl. She’s long ago left that life behind and it’s a lot of help, but it does start the turning point in the investigation. And between trying to figure out who is trying to kill them and who has restarted the murders again, Rufus and Sam try to figure out what their relationship is as well. Since neither has ever been in a relationship before, some things don’t go that smoothly. But thankfully they seem to have developed some patience with each other and have figured out some truths about themselves that help them take some good steps forward together.
I don’t know why exactly, but I liked this book more than the first. Maybe because Sam and Rufus already have a rapport in this one. The writing in this one is smoother and really plays to the strengths of each of these authors. I loved the little crossover moment with other series. Rufus and Sam really do act like two guys who have lived through trauma and are still struggling with processing everything. They do better this time with cutting each other a little slack and are more open – even if Sam can’t help but push sometimes. Rufus can’t help himself either, so they are kind of even 🙂 I really loved Ophelia and I hope she’s going to be a permanent secondary character in this series. NYC is truly a supporting character of this series as well. The sense of place that comes across so viscerally in this series. The pacing and the mystery and suspense were spot on in this story and I didn’t feel like anything lagged. I cannot wait to see what happens next with these two now that they seem to be on better footing. Even though they are both really messed up men, they seem to have found a safe space with each other. Well done! highly recommended especially for fans of a more gritty urban story that will keep you hooked from the first to the last page.
RATING: 
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