Mark Wills ~ Sinfully Sexy Book Reviews

Two MCs, one closet; one on the outside and one on the inside. Tony a high school teacher is out and has no problem with everyone knowing, even the pupils and staff. He becomes involved and witnesses the murder of Mr Westin, a not very popular teacher. Problem is he doesn't see the killer. Case of wrong place wrong time. Enter detective Jared MacLean, this guy could not be more banged up and securely locked in the closet if he tried. However, the hormones will have their own way and the attraction to Tony is undeniable.

As the investigation proceeds there is no denying the attraction these guys have and eventually the unavoidable happens, both sides caving in to their desires. Due to his circumstances Mac has effectively no way to come out without losing everything that is dear to him, career, colleagues, a job he loves due to bigoted attitudes on the force. This unfortunately is very a very real situation for a lot of gay men and women. However, the love that Mac feels for Tony leads him to attempt his first relationship with a man, but can Tony deal with the closet Mac is living in?

What I really liked about these guys was another facet to their characters, the fact of them being father figures. Through circumstances Tony is like a father to Ben who's mother is an alcoholic and no good to him. Mac's daughter through marriage, but not biological, is looked after his bigoted cousin. I like the fact that these guys play the positive role-model to both children and show that even if you are gay you are more than capable of providing a loving, secure and positive role for children. Children never judge they just accept and see the love and good in a person with no questions asked. The author deals with these moments beautifully and seeing Tony and Mac interact with the kids provides some of the more poignant moments of the book making for a nice balance to the murder mystery part.

The murder / mystery part is well thought out. It is a somewhat traditional plot, but keeps you guessing and ends in the classic chase and hostage scene. Here the author builds the suspense skilfully leaving you on the edge of your seat right up to its final conclusion. However packing all the final action into one long chapter gave me the feeling that it was a little rushed. In my opinion it would have been better to have broken down this rather long chapter into two. First the chase and then the hostage scene, but that's only my feeling. I liked the fact that there were not too many sub-plots, characters, evidence and clues to concentrate on and to keep track of. This gave me enough room to also concentrate on the developing relationship too between the two MCs.

All in all a thoroughly enjoyable read. An exciting murder / mystery, great MCs and two adorable kids. Excellently written and thought out with a HFN ending. Lets see where this relationship will go. Will Mac's closet collapse around him? I'm off to the next book.........