Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Stay in Your Lane!
AUTHORS: Cari Z and L.A. Witt
PUBLISHER: GallagherWitt Publishing LLC
LENGTH: 290 pages
RELEASE DATE: March 26, 2025
BLURB:
The tasks are simple. Everett Mulligan is there to collect the body. Kyle Bowman is there to clean up the scene. Easy peasy. Get in, get out, get gone.
But Everett, for all he can be on another planet with fourteen tabs open in his brain, isn’t stupid like the cops think he is. Something about this death scene isn’t sitting right, and he’s going to figure it out. Bonus? He gets to team up with the adorkable crime-scene cleanup guy to solve the mystery.
Kyle, ever the thorough and detail-oriented cleaner, can’t ignore the scene’s irregularities either. He also can’t ignore the seriously attractive himbo from the mortuary who insists they should work together to solve what the cops insist isn’t a crime. Especially when that himbo is also enamored with Kyle’s cats and fiercely determined to make friends with his cranky piranha, Steve.
There’s a reason this death isn’t being treated as a homicide, though, and there are people who are very motivated to keep it that way.
And they’ll do whatever it takes to keep the pair of amateur sleuths from uncovering the truth.
REVIEW:
Brava to Cari and Lori! This is another engaging story with some moral ambiguity, cops in bad positions, dirty cops, coverups, meet not-so-cutes and unusual pets 😉
Everett is completely adorkable! His tangents are truly hilarious. His mind is a mysterious and interesting place and I could totally relate to his multitab openings approach to life. He’s so honest which is also refreshing even if there are a few times that he inadvertently hurts feeling when he certainly doesn’t mean to. His filter is sometimes not operating a full power 😉
Kyle hasn’t had much luck with dating but he is definitely intrigued by Everett. And Everett’s fascination with his pets?? That goes a long way with Kyle. Especially since clearly it’s genuine 🙂 What starts as a rather bizarre partnership that morphs into a friendship (?) when they agree that things seem waaaaaay off with what is clearly NOT a suicide being swept under the rug.
Then things get really outta control when separately Everett and Kyle are threatened at their jobs. Everett’s family gets involved tangentially and things get really dangerous. Kyle’s brother and his father – who are cops – end up involved and despite precautions, Everett and Kyle end up in the crosshairs of whoever is trying to cover up what are now multiple “suicides”. But who are the bad guys? Cops? Drug Dealers? Will Kyle and Everett make it out alive??
Let’s just say this story starts with a bang and doesn’t let up! Removing bodies and cleaning up crime scenes are somewhat unusual professions but both Kyle and Everett like their jobs. Mostly. They don’t like it when they are the targets of whoever the bad guys are covering up murders as suicides. Another shoe keeps dropping (see what I did there?) as time goes on and they refuse to let it go. A man was murdered and he deserves justice. When evidence points to bad cops – and Kyles family are all cops – things look dicey. Everett’s family business is interesting too. His siblings and his dad are a team – but Everett is definitely low man on the totem pole and his ADHD seems to keep being thrown in his face. There is a lot of family support though when the chips are down – thank goodness. I love Kyle’s fish and cats! Talk about personalities 🙂 Everett is a real sweetheart at the end of the day and he and Kyle just click! All’s well that ends well with some very funny and also dangerous twists along the way. Highly recommended for a rollicking good time!
RATING: 
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