48 Followers
18 Following
sirius

Romance and other things

Fair Play

Fair Play - Josh Lanyon

 

Fifty years ago, Roland Mills belonged to a violent activist group. Now, someone is willing to kill to prevent him from publishing his memoirs.

When ex-FBI agent Elliot Mills is called out to examine the charred ruins of his childhood home, he quickly identifies the fire for what it is—arson. A knee injury may have forced Elliot out of the Bureau, but it's not going to stop him from bringing the man who wants his father dead to justice.

Agent Tucker Lance is still working to find the serial killer who's obsessed with Elliot and can't bear the thought of his lover putting himself in additional danger. Straightlaced Tucker has never agreed with radical Roland on much—"opposing political viewpoints" is an understatement—but they're united on this: Elliot needs to leave the case alone. Now.

Tucker would do nearly anything for the man he loves, but he won't be used to gain Elliot access to the FBI's resources. When the past comes back to play and everything both men had known to be true is questioned, their fragile relationship is left hanging in the balance.

See how Tucker and Elliot's relationship began in Fair Game

68,000 words

 

Review:

I liked several Lanyon's post sabbatical books, but also there was always something in one way or another that bugged me and it stopped me from enjoying them completely. I think "Haunting heart" was the only one that made me sigh happily without reservations.

 

This one was almost wonderful and almost the one that I liked the best amongst his recent works.

 

So the mystery is mostly about who wants Elliott's father dead and I thought it was great. Several red herrings and I absolutely did not guess the real villain, kudos and well done.

I *was* interested in historical stuff a lot - simply because I  want to know US history better and while I know the general convo, I hope Lanyon researched it well enough that human faces he gave to anti Vietnam protests were at least similar to some real people, to what was really happened, etc.

 

Loved the developments of the relationship between Elliott and his father - as we know Rolland did not like when Elliott initially joined FBI and this was touched upon in book one and definitely this story is given more depth in this book. I loved that I did not doubt how much these two love each other even when they were at odds with each other.

 

And that brings me to Elliott and Tucker. I think the book achieved almost perfect balance between the mystery and them feeling out their relationship, moving forward amongst all the action. I loved, loved that both men acted as adults and did not run away at the first sight of trouble and tried to work out things. They just felt real to me, their actions made sense.

 

Elliott suddenly being into submissiveness? Eh, I thought scene was fine, except felt like retconning of the character's tastes. I told myself that they discovered kink between book one and two lol, I only wish as a friend of mine said that Lanyon would have let reader in on a secret in book one.

 

Still mostly very happy and satisfied.