Review: Maniac (Necessary Evils Book 7) by Onley James

Rating: 4.5 🌈

Maniac brings Onley James’ Necessary Evils to a close as you’d expect from a series about a family of psychopaths and their partners. It’s ends on an assassin’s revenge, death, and a bang on conclusion that brings the entire Mulvaney clan, extended family and friends together for one last murderous investigation and romance.

The Mulvaney storyline and romantic drama features the head of the family, Thomas Mulvaney with an emphasis on his past, and the odd adopted “child” of the Mulvaney brood. That’s Aiden, who came into the family as a young teenager from a well connected family who pressured Thomas to take him.

Here we learn the details of Aiden’s adolescent, the events that led him to Thomas and the Mulvaney family. And what’s been behind the bitterness and sadness that’s kept Aiden and Thomas apart for years.

Unsurprisingly, we’re dealing with a tragic and traumatic childhood. One rife with parental abuse , intentional cruelty, and malicious neglect. All of which have had consequences in the past as well as present a variety of ways.

James brings in several new characters like Lola who works with Aiden as well as familiar ones like Calliope, her son and his partner, Atticus and Jericho’s adopted “kids”, who soon will get their own series.

If there’s one issue, and it can’t be helped, it’s a surfeit of characters. You have all the original Mulvaney children, and now their partners/ fiancées/husbands, plus children/grandchildren, the nanny/baby mother, computer genius Calliope, her son and his lover, and any extra cast we’ve had thrown in along the way. It’s a lot to ask of the reader to remember each couple’s relationship dynamics, their stories, and even how the unique personalities and special groups play out within the family structure.

All that on top of a messy emotional connection that’s in need of resolution and balance between Aiden and Thomas.

I haven’t even begun to touch on the blackmail that the launching point for all the events and emotions (from those that are capable of them) within the family business and structure.

Basically a family of psychopaths go to war! It’s that simple and it’s extremely complicated.

Did I enjoy it and appreciate the nuances that James brought to Thomas and the various perspectives on his upbringing? Absolutely. From Thomas’ viewpoint of himself as the one responsible for certain events, to , even though he was a child without support, his own family’s clear vision of Thomas and his role within the past.

Reminder that this is dark fiction and it’s subject matter, although not necessarily with elements that “happen on page” are full of issues that might be considered triggers for some people. Rape, torture, manipulation, child abuse and neglect are key topics. So be aware.

So as a finale , things are pretty well sorted and done for each couple by book’s end. We know where each couple is as a family and within the Mulvaney’s as a whole unit. It feels complete.

And James assures us that we haven’t seen the last of them as they will continue their secret life as assassins. It won’t surprise anyone to see them appear in the upcoming spinoff series that starts with Jericho’s Boys. They are a group already adopted into the inner circle of The Mulvaney family.

For more information, see below. Until then, for lovers of dark contemporary fiction, I’m recommending this. Read the series in the order that it is written.

Necessary Evils series:

✓ Unhinged #1

✓ Psycho #2

✓ Moonstruck #3

✓ Headcase #4

✓ Mad Man #5

✓ Lunatic #6

✓ Maniac #7 – finale

Two upcoming spinoff series, The Watch and Jericho’s Boys, the first of which Paladin #1, is coming April 30, 2023

Buy Link:

Maniac (Necessary Evils Book 7)

Description:

Thomas Mulvaney was just a child when an error in judgment cost him everything. He vowed then that he would do anything to atone for his mistake. And he did. He never strayed from the right path. Until Aiden.

Aiden Mulvaney doesn’t exist. He’s a lie created by the father who disowned him and by Thomas Mulvaney, the only man Aiden had ever begged to love him. But that was years ago, when he’d still believed in fairytales. Before Thomas rejected him.

Thomas has spent years trying to have Aiden in his life while keeping him at arm’s length, but Aiden’s done with half-measures. He’s done with Thomas the martyr. He’s just done. So, he’s kept his distance. Trouble is, now, someone is threatening to expose a secret that affects them all.

No, not that one. A secret so shameful, Thomas won’t even utter it out loud. Can he and Aiden revisit the past and keep the family name intact, or will they both be buried beneath the weight of their memories as their old feelings resurface?

Review: Head Games (Wages of Sin #3) by Onley James and Neve Wilder

Rating: 4.5🌈

Head Games ends the Wages of Sins trilogy by Onley James and Neve Wilder about a group of professional assassins who end up finding a relationship and a partner to love and kill with.

I’ve enjoyed each book and found they’ve gotten better and more interesting with each couple. From the age gap first story of the first book, to the dueling assassins of Playing Dirty, each couple’s dynamic has gotten more complex and frankly more fascinating.

Madigan and Azrael’s story, Playing Dirty, both assassins were dueling over the same targets on The Red Queen’s kill list. In order to gain access to a specific target, they met Dr. E. Tobias Eastman, and his strangely destructive teacup Yorkie, Mantis. Eastman’s specialty and clientele is psychopaths. The worst of the worst. Including the person on their list.

How it all turns out I’ll leave to that story. Let’s just say the doc and his pet made quite the impression.

So I was very excited to see that he was the other half of the narrative here.

Soren Warner has been a part of this series and odd group of assassins from the beginning. Supposedly “retired’ but he’s always lingering around the edges of each big element and he’s there whenever someone from the group requires assistance.

He’s a world traveler, secure in himself and the fact that he’s a hired assassin . He kills only those that he or his group consider vile criminals unlikely to be caught due to their high positions in society or their connections are unlikely to be given the appropriate sentences , like those on the current Red Queen’s kill list.

Dr. E. Tobias Eastman, with Mantis, his teacup Yorkie as his only companion, has made the worst of the world’s psychopathic killers his clients and his study for fifteen years. He’s famous or infamous for being the Criminal psychologist with a list of clients who killed…often.

Anomalies fascinated him. Tobias had one major question.

What made a killer ?

He thought he’d figured out part of the equation. A management of compulsions .

Then he met Mads and Azrael, a couple who happily kill together with no remorse. Fifteen years of study and thought overturned by watching and listening to their relationship and dynamic.

Onley James and Neve Wilder sets up one of the most fascinating dynamics and romance when they put these two characters together. Each so incredibly different yet each provides an astonishing window into the psychology of the other.

It all starts when two sets of kill lists intersect.

Head Games is part psychological , part action, part romance, and all weirdly entertaining. It is about assassins and people who want to kill after all.

It is dark fiction. There’s plenty of death on the page. So be warned. If this makes you uncomfortable, this series and story probably isn’t for you.

For those of you who enjoy action and dark fiction, I’m highly recommending this book and the trilogy. I actually wish the authors had continued it. It felt as though there were more stories left to tell and three books left The Red Queen’s list and the group unfinished.

Read them in the order they were written for the events and relationships to make sense.

Wages of Sin:

🔹Bad Habits #1

🔹Play Dirty #2

🔹Head Games #3

https://www.goodreads.com › showHead Games (Wages of Sin, #3) by Onley James – Goodreads

Synopsis:

“You’re a vigilante in an argyle sweater.”

Straight-laced psychologist Tobias is an expert in the deviant behavior of others but a novice when it comes to his latest endeavor: serial killer.

After years of high-profile kills and mentoring numerous other assassins, laid-back Soren lives his life in a state of semi-permanent vacation. He comes out of an early retirement to help out a friend, only to set off sparks with the renowned psychologist when they discover they’re hunting the same man.

One shaky truce later, Soren has a new mentee in Tobias.

Soren finds Tobias and his dark impulses fascinating. Tobias finds Soren’s relaxed attitude infuriating. They have nothing in common except their ability to kill and chemistry neither can deny. But a kill list, a rage room, the Irish mob and the ghosts of their past all stand in the way of their happily ever after.

Head Games is a steamy, thrill ride of a romance with a HEA and no cliffhangers. It features an uptight, sweater-loving psychologist with a taste for blood and a soft spot for his murderous yorkie, the most zen contract killer to ever mosey the earth, plenty of dark humor, and true love. Because even bad dudes deserve their soulmates. This is book 3 in the Wages of Sin series. Each book follows a different couple.

Review: Play Dirty (Wages of Sin #2) by Onley James and Neve Wilder

Rating: 4.5🌈

Play Dirty, the second book in the Wages of Sin series by Onley James and Neve Wilder, is the story I thought I was going to get when I initially dived into this series about a group of contract killers.

In my first review I noted that two strong characters that stood out were Madigan and Sadie. It’s Madigan that’s featured here along with another assassin we previously met, the chemist Azrael, known as the angel of Death.

Unrepentant killers, each with a specialty that makes each a top assassin, Azrael and Mads start a bizarre race to see who can beat the other out of a commission. In the most erotic way.

Told from both man’s perspective it’s fascinating watching each killer’s thoughts on the bizarrely entertaining murderous race their having, the toll it’s beginning to have on themselves and their careers, and then the overall series arc that folds in.

These men are borderline psychopaths, but their past history suggests the potential for something deeper between them. It’s interesting, sexy, and funny. In a very dark manner.

And because it’s got crimes and murders strewn all through the story, it’s also highly suspenseful and full of action.

There’s blood play kink, some cutting, and just wild sex. These are still your assassins working out their relationship issues their own way!

Terrific ending and it’s leading up to the third book Head Case which features one of the main characters in their group and a new interesting character introduced here.

Can’t wait.

I throughly enjoyed Play Dirty. It’s dark contemporary romance with a murderous kink or two thrown in.

If this sounds like something you’d enjoy, I’m highly recommending it.

Wages of Sin:

🔹Bad Habits #1

🔹Play Dirty #2

🔹Head Games #3

https://www.goodreads.com › showPlay Dirty (Wages of Sin, #2) by Onley James | Goodreads

Synopsis:

“When you talk, chaos follows and I forget who I am.”

Madigan has spent his life indulging in the world’s most hedonistic pursuits, his skills as a sharpshooting killer-for-hire paying his way.

Azrael, an assassin referred to as the angel of death, is a chemist and a loner, his poisons as lethal as they are undetectable.

A chance encounter leads to a passionate night and a heated rivalry that spans years, but after they’re both offered a chance at big money by taking out elite targets on a mysterious hitlist, they find themselves once again in each other’s way. And then in each other’s arms.

Trust doesn’t come easily for either of them, but no matter how far they stray, fate always seems to pull them back together. In a profession where your partner is just as likely to kill you as kiss you, maybe trust is as close to love as they get?

Play Dirty is a steamy, action-packed thrill ride of a romance with a HEA and no cliffhangers. It features two stubborn rival assassins who can’t seem to stop tempting each other, a bit of knife play, a Die Hard-style Christmas, plenty of dark humor, and true love. Because even assassins deserve their soulmates. This is book 2 in the Wages of Sin series. Each book will follow a new couple.

Review: Headcase (Necessary Evil #4) by Onley James

Rating: 4.25

““Mirror twins,” Dr. Rice corrected. “Each one the perfect mirror image of the other, right down to their birthmarks.” The two weren’t speaking out loud, but they would smile and laugh in tandem, as if one had told the other a joke. Even though they didn’t look at each other,”

— Headcase (Necessary Evils Book 4) by Onley James
https://a.co/bth15I7

Ah, the Twins! Asa and Avi. I knew they’d present trouble. If for no other reason then the author has created a history and background for them that’s so intriguing and compelling. Mirror twins able to communicate telepathically, that go feral when separated. Twins so much a part of each other that they often talk as one, even though as adults they have careers (one a designer, the other a architect), they are never far apart.

So to deviate from the overall combined character portrait James must weaken those very elements that pulls us to them, and makes us want to know why, what’s it like to be a half of such a unique dynamic.

Plus there’s that other defining factor. They love pain. As children they enjoyed hurting each other. So as killers, it’s sheer bliss.

But this is a series about brothers and relationships. So a decision had to be made. Sacrifice the unique combined character portrait of Asa&Avi for separation and books for Asa and Avi.

I honestly think a argument could be made for two books with each brother helping the other to find or hunt down their obsession. Given that the brothers are apex predators, that would have made more sense then the plot here.

Trial separation even they didn’t believe. Behaviors that didn’t follow the pattern.

Asa is a sadist. Remember his love of pain? Ada loves to live with the power to inflict it. So his obsession will be with someone who’s will be the masochistic opposite to his sadistic nature. That’s will be a reporter with rock bottom self image issues, and a family absolutely determined to insure he knows he never mattered.

Zane Scott, small time crime blogger who’s determined to follow his instincts that say something’s not right with the wealthy Mulvaney family. That’s an investigation bound to go lethally wrong.

Unless the reporter turns out to be not only delicious prey, but one who needs big time help.

There’s a great mystery , a lot of sadomasochistic sex, which concurrently helps to develop the relationship between Asa and Zane from one of being chained to a radiator to one being handcuffed to a bed. There’s rough borderline non – con sex, fisting…you name it.

Perfectly in line with Asa, and in turn, Zane.

What’s always missing? Although he’s constantly mentioned? Avi. There’s a few texts. Some “ thoughts”. But far too few for the scary Mirror Twins we’ve come to know and anticipate. It’s as though we get Asa light.

I’m not sure what the alternative would have been, frankly, but , as the pain loving gorgeous Mirror Twins , they stood apart , even in a galaxy of star psychopaths. Separate? Merely one of a striking family of killers

Maybe Avi’s book can shed some light on why the separation dulled their uniqueness so.

Asa and Zane had a great and horrific mystery to unravel. Plus the historic manner in which they dispatched the final villain was educational and satisfying. That’s was a win!

Their S/m dynamic made perfect sense, given their personalities. You decide how comfortable you are with that sexual relationship. Definitely not a sweet romance in the framework you would think of one.

I’m recommending this as it adds to the overall series arc, family picture, and I found it entertaining and thoughtful.

Necessary Evils series:

🔹Unhinged #1

🔹Psycho #2

🔹Moonstruck #3

🔹Headcase #4

🔹Mad Man #5

🔹Lunatic #6 – TBR Aug 23, 2022

https://www.goodreads.com › showHeadcase (Necessary Evils, #4) by Onley James – Goodreads

Synopsis:

Asa Mulvaney is half of a psychopathic whole. He and his twin brother live together, party together…kill together. In the Mulvaney family, murder is the family business and business is good. So, when an experiment separates Asa and his brother, Asa is forced to navigate the world on his own for the first time in his life.

Zane Scott is a small-time crime blogger, but he dreams of a byline in a major paper and his suspicions surrounding Thomas Mulvaney are about to make that dream a reality. When an invitation to a boring fundraiser lands him not beside Thomas, as he had hoped, but Asa Mulvaney, they share an intensely passionate encounter that leaves Zane trapped in a cage of his own making.

At a nearby college, a cluster of suicides isn’t what it seems. When Asa’s father asks him to look into it, he sees the perfect opportunity to exploit his little crime reporter and make him fall in line. And Asa needs him to fall in line. Zane is suspicious of Asa’s motives and half-convinced he’s dead either way, but he won’t say no to a chance to peek behind the Mulvaney family curtains.

As the two unravel a sinister plot, Asa’s obsession with Zane grows and Zane finds being Asa’s sole focus outweighs almost anything, maybe even his career—which is good for Asa because loving a Mulvaney is a full-time job. Can he convince Zane that he’s worth navigating a family of psychopaths and tolerating an almost too close for comfort twin? Or will Zane learn the hard way that the Mulvaney boys always get what they want? Always.

Headcase is a high heat, intense, lovers-to-frenemies, psychopath romance with an HEA and no cliffhangers. It features an obsessive, calculating psychopath and a wannabe reporter who will stop at nothing to earn himself a major byline. As always, there’s gratuitous violence, very dark humor, enough killers to fill an auditorium, and enough heat to melt your kindle. This is book four in the Necessary Evils series. Each book follows a different couple.

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