A Dangerous Thing by Josh Lanyon Series: The Adrien English Mysteries #2
Published by Just Joshin on May 7th 2012
Pages: 236
Goodreads
Suffering from writer's block and frustrated with his tentative relationship with hot but closeted LAPD Homicide Detective Jake Riordan, gay bookseller and mystery writer Adrien English travels to northern California where he finds a body in his front drive.
By the time the sheriffs arrive the body has disappeared, and Adrien once again finds himself playing amateur sleuth. But when the game turns deadly, Adrien turns to Jake. Jake may be confused about some things, but keeping his lover alive is not one of them - no matter what the cost.
A Dangerous Thing was a really strong follow-up to Fatal Shadows. The mystery was clever and involving and I really liked the (slowly) developing relationship between Adrien and Jake.
The beginning of the book kicks off several months after the events in Fatal Shadows. Adrien has been spending a lot of time with Jake Riordan, the closeted cop from the first book who saved his life. They are currently involved in something of a pseudo-relationship but Adrien is beginning to tire of being kept a secret and it doesn’t help that Jake can barely bring himself to touch him let alone anything else.
Adrien is also suffering from a bout of writer’s block so he decides to head out for a small vacation to a ranch left to him by his grandmother to clear his head.
Of course, nothing goes quite to plan (this is Adrien English we are talking about after all). On the road to the ranch he comes across a dead body lying in the middle of the road. Adrien calls it in to the local authorities but when they arrive back to the scene the body has disappeared. The cops write off the incident but Adrien knows something funny is afoot.
Once he discovers that the handyman he hired to keep an eye on his property is also missing and that a team of archaeologists have camped out (without permission) on his land, Adrien decides further investigation is required. However, his endeavours wind up getting him admitted to hospital with a concussion when someone hits him on the back of the head whilst he is undertaking his investigations.
Jake is contacted by the local cops and he immediately comes to Adrien’s rescue. Realising that Adrien is not going to let this go, Jake agrees to help him with his investigation but the truth may be too much even for a homicide cop and mystery writer to handle…
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Adrien English is a wonderful protagonist. He is clever and snarky, without being mean, and has a really great sense of humour which really shines through in this book. He is also a little nerdy which makes him even more endearing. Jake on the other hand is quite another matter.
Filled with self-loathing, he is a harder character to get to know and like. It is clear that he is quite taken with Adrien (hell it was even obvious in the first book) yet he is clearly very uncomfortable having strong feelings for another man despite his other ah…extracurricular activities. Jake is at times a homophobic ass yet I cannot help but still like him as he clearly struggles to reconcile his desire for a normal life with his growing attraction to Adrien.
The mystery aspect of the story kept me engaged and interested but it was really the banter and developing relationship between these two very different characters that kept me glued to A Dangerous Thing. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series even though I have been told it gets very angsty especially in the next book (yikes…don’t know if my heart can take it).
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