Reviewed by Jay V.
TITLE: Cut & Run
SERIES: Cut & Run #1
AUTHORS: Abigail Roux
PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing
LENGTH: 493 Pages
RELEASE DATE: June 10, 2024, Re-Release
BLURB:
When by-the-book meets off-the-record, the story’s just starting . . .
Special Agent Ty Grady is pretty sure he’s about to get fired. His last perp skipped town before he could make an arrest, leaving him with a lot of means and precious few ends. When he’s called into the boss’s office, he expects the worst. And he isn’t exactly wrong.
Chained to a desk in cybercrimes, Special Agent Zane Garrett dots his i’s and crosses his t’s. He doesn’t have much of a choice in the matter—his record can’t handle another black mark. When he learns he’s getting reassigned, he doesn’t miss the ironic pronunciation on “promotion.” Wherever he’s going, it’s nowhere good.
When they’re partnered to solve a series of murders, their chances of success look low. They’re fantastic agents, but the case seems more like a punishment than an assignment. They can’t stop driving each other crazy. . . and not just in a bad way. This killer already took out the previous agents assigned to the case, and it’s not long before he’s on Ty and Zane’s trail, as well. They’ll have to set their frustrations aside, before it’s too late.
*This is a limited re-release of the original series, without changes. Some aspects of the story are now dated, and an updated version will be published at a later date.*
REVIEW:
The long favored series is now available again. The series has long been heralded as a must-read in the genre of MM. It’s been several years since I read the series and I’d love to say I started reading them when the first book came out in 2008, but I got into MM later but was advised early on to start reading them. I will give this credit for being one of the books that really got me hooked. I was slightly concerned that after years of reading MM books this would not hold up. I was very wrong. It’s still as good as I remember it.
Ty Grady & Zane Garrett are both agents at the end of their rope in the FBI. They’re really on their last chance to succeed at the Bureau. They begrudgingly get put together to solve a string of murders by a serial killer. They instantly loathe each other & the sparks fly as they try to find a rhythm with each other. Doesn’t help that they’re both stubborn & almost keep getting themselves killed. The chemistry is palpable but they have a lot to work through to get to even be friends, let alone more. And they need to do it fast in order to solve the crime but are thwarted so many times. They need to get their man before he kills more.
I really tried to read this with fresh eyes and honesty could not remember a lot of the details. I feel like this gave me a helpful perspective on reviewing it so many years after initially reading it. It’s still a very good book with fully-formed characters with their good & bad traits. This does have a more epic feel in spanning over a fairly long period of time in their lives. There’s a lot of bumps along the road, helping them get some individual growth along with trying to navigate whatever is happening between them. This is a fun ride and the humor still holds up.
As the end of the blurb says, this is a re-release of the book. I have the original and it checks out to be the same, but with some better graphics for chapters and a better flow of the text. If you do not have this in your collection, I would highly recommend you grab this soon. The first five books, which have been difficult to acquire lately, are being released one every week by Riptide. Roux has had plans over the years to revise and re-release the books, so it will be interesting to contrast them when that happens, but I still enjoy the original. It still catches all the emotions it needs and is a great book kicking off a wonderful series.
RATING: 
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