Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Body Count
SERIES: Hazardverse: Sidetracks
AUTHOR: Gregory Ashe
PUBLISHER: Hodgkin & Blount
LENGTH: 326 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 26, 2025
BLURB:
This isn’t a romance. This isn’t happily-ever-after. This is a mystery. And, like me, it’s pretty messed up.
Detective Gray Dulac is in freefall: a disfiguring injury; a crumbling relationship; a slowly imploding career. But there’s a kind of clarity to it all. A detachment. A way of being in the world when you can’t screw things up any more than you already have.
When he stumbles across a wounded young man outside a party, though, Gray is struck by the similarities between their injuries, and he discovers he might not be as detached as he thought. The case falls under the jurisdiction of the sheriff’s office, but Gray can’t seem to leave it alone, and he continues to investigate even after being told to stop.
The only problem is that everyone, including the victim, is lying to him. And when the young man turns up dead, Gray finds himself at the top of the list of suspects and racing to find the real killer—and the truth. Because better than anyone, Gray knows that truth is a broken mirror.
And the edges are sharp enough to cut.
REVIEW:
Gray Dulac is spiraling. He’s putting himself in dangerous situations, getting high, drinking too much, allowing himself to be used. After he’s been disfigured in a targeted attack. He’s struggled with this as well as the breakdown of his relationship. His boyfriend, Darnell, is trying to help him but Gray keeps doing things to push him away. He’s insisted on an open relationship and boy has he taken that to new heights.
One night while he’s out at a crazy party with a bunch of college age kids, he has an encounter with several guys. The are rough and he’s high/drunk. As he’s leaving the party though, a kid comes out of the woods with his face bashed. Uh oh. He does what any good cop does and calls it in. He’s got a special interest in this case given his own situation. But the kid, his supposed boyfriend and the other roommate are all suspicious and definitely lying. The county sheriff’s guys aren’t doing anything to try to solve the case. So he keeps poking around, showing bad judgement repeatedly.
Then there are the kid’s parents. The father is a homophobic a$$hole. The mother is a stripper/dancer. It’s a mess. But then the kid ends up dead. And Gray is being implicated. He’s not about to let this go. But the closer he gets to finding out what really happened, the more danger he finds himself in. He’s about to be put on suspension for digging into a case he’s been told to stay away from, but that’s the last thing he’s going to do. Also being put on suspension is about the best case scenario given what he finds out and who is involved and what lengths they are willing to go to in order to hide the truth.
Whew! Yet another rough read in the Hazardverse. Longtime readers will be unsurprised at the violence, self-destructiveness, general and specific homophobia and mayhem that ensue in this related story around Gray Dulac – another Wahreda detective. Honestly, why would anyone move to this town???? The number of murders here is just staggering 😉 It’s the Cabot’s Cove of the Midwest except without the cozy and a lot more near death experiences for the cops! This book isn’t a standalone I don’t think. Understanding the dynamics of this town, the police and the relationships are key to understanding Gray and his reaction to his situation.
So as usual this is a very very hard book to read. Gray’s deterioration and the situations he puts himself in are maddening. How can such a smart guy continue to flout danger like this? There were multiple times I just thought, well this guy is definitely going to end up dead and THAT is the case that will be solved in this book. Nope. I can say that he survives but that’s in spite of the situations he kept getting himself into. His self-destructive behavior patterns are deeply ingrained. I’m not going to spoil anything here, but let’s just leave it at a bad childhood and untreated trauma have lasting and sometimes deadly affects. Alternately I felt sorry for and wanted to shake Darnell in this story. He swings between supportive and enabling throughout the story. And truly, Gray is going to need to do a lot of work on himself before he can be in a relationship with anyone. Emery and John Henry do make some very brief cameos in this one. If you’re up for another tale from this very gritty universe that Gregory Ashe has created, you will want to read this story.
RATING: 
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