Tag: child abuse

Review of Ruffskin (Dance With The Devil #4) by Megan Derr

Rating: 5 stars

It is a typical night at The Bremmer, it’s pouring outside and Johnny is arguing with Grimm inside over an alleged flirtation at a party they just left.  A messenger interrupts them looking for Peyton Blue, the werewolf coowner and bartender of The Bremmer.  The strange courier has a package to deliver, one that has an immediate effect on their beloved barkeep.  When Grimm chases after the courier, he disappears  under a magical spell.

The package is from Peyton’s past, bringing with it bloody memories and a death sentence.  It is up to Johnny and Grimm to find the messenger, and finish the conflict started years ago when Peyton still belonged in the Blue Pack.

Ruffskin is a short story that follows the characters of Dance in the Dark (Dance with the Devil #2), Johnny Goodnight and his boyfriend/guard Grimm,  and their friend Peyton Blue, a werewolf.  Without reading Dance in the Dark, you will miss the backstory on all the characters involved in the case here which would be a mistake and leave you confused as to the elements involved in Ruffskin.  That said, this is a marvelous addition to that universe.  Most of the denizens of The Bremmer, local bar and hangout, have interesting pasts and it’s bartender and owner is no different.

Of course, it is a dark and stormy night that brings Peyton’s past home to him, a past he has tried so very hard to forget and one that could cause his death.  Johnny Goodnight is none other than John Derossiers, son of The Dracula Derossiers who rules the territory they live in. When the mystery and conflict from Peyton’s past intrudes on the bar and his father’s land, Johnny is called in to investigate and solve the problem.  And what a problem it is.  A dreadful dark secret that is at the heart of the chaos in the Blue werewolf pack. This is a very sensitive subject matter that Megan Derr gives a delicate and compassionate treatment, identifying the matter through the use of a poem instead of outright stating the nature of the abuse. Simply and elegantly done.

Ruffskin contains all the usual elements I have come to expect from Megan Derr.  Great characterizations, smart dialog and a storyline that keeps the reader engaged right to the end. Ruffskin is listed as the fourth book in the Dance With The Devil series but the author states at the beginning that this story fits in right after the second book as I have noted above.  While Midnight could almost be read as a stand alone (it figures into the books that follow it), the first three books should be read in the order I have indicated below:

Dance With The Devil (DWTD#1) – see my review here.

Dance In The Dark (DWTD#2) – see my review here.

Ruffskin (DWTD#4)

Midnight (DWTD#3) – see my review here.

Cover:  Again another gorgeous cover by London Burden in keeping with the series and containing a simple graphic of a object center to the storyline.

Review of Lessons in Power (Cambridge Fellows #4) by Charlie Cochrane

Rating: 5 stars

Cambridge 1907

After the tumultuous doings where Orlando lost his memory albeit temporarily, Drs. Coppersmith and Stewart are now happily ensconced in their newly purchased home, Forsythia Cottage.  But it’s not long before mystery and murder find them again.  Matthew Ainslie, friend and acquaintance (depending upon which of the men you talked to, Orlando never quite forgiving Matthew for his actions on Jersey) has a problem.  An old flame of Matthew’s is accused of murder and Matthew doesn’t believe he did it.

As Matthew lays out the details of the case to them, the murder hits much closer to home than either one of them could have imagined.  The murdered man is none other than one of the boys who sexually abused a very young Jonty over the course of a semester at boarding school.  The news brings memories of the abuse back to Jonty with a vengeance, shattering his carefully fabricated acceptance of those events.  As Jonty withdraws from Orlando and their relationship, a second murder is committed and the other abuser from his past is found dead.  As suspicion falls upon his beloved Dr. Stewart, Orlando and Jonty race to find the murderer and help Jonty finally find some measure of peace with his past.

For me this is a tour de force from Charlie Cochrane.  Lessons in Power still contains dialog that delights with the lightness of Gilbert and Sullivan lyrics and the shear witty remarks of Oscar Wilde.  But the reality of rape and the long term trauma, bitterness and sense of violation that rape victims contend with lives in these pages as well.  And that incongruity serves to highlight the horror and damage done not only to Jonty but other victims of the same sexual violence that seems to know no age or continental restraints.

Threads of Jonty’s abuse have been trickling through the storylines of the previous books in this series.  Thunderstorms leave him scared and shaken into silence until Orlando brings him out of it.  And when asked, Jonty has said that he has told no one the names of his attackers lest his father or Orlando go after them.  But here that abuse and the true torment that Jonty has endured is brought to the front and center of the story.  It is with amazing skill and talent, that Charlie Cochrane never loses the flavor of Edwardian England and its settings in her stories, from the Stewart family castle to the hallowed halls of St. Brides.  Here the sun never sets on England even as Orlando and Jonty deal with the realities of murderers and child abusers.   The author treats all with sensitivity and care even as she made me weep with Jonty and his family.

It took me several books before Jonty and Orlando became near and dear to my heart, so I would recommend that all the books be read in sequence.  Otherwise certain references and characters mentioned here can’t be understood in the context they need to be.  I have come to love all the characters here, Mr. and Mrs. Stewart, Miss Peters, Mr. Wilson, all of them and find I cannot go to long before I need to head off to St. Brides and another mystery with my Cambridge Fellows.  This is a wonderful book in a wonderful series.  Don’t let either of them pass you by.

Cover: I think this cover is perfect.  I love the sepia tones and graphics of the haunted looking young man in the classroom.  I just wish the fonts were solid and one type for ease of reading.

Available from Samhain Publishing, Amazon, and ARE.