Rating: 4.5🌈

Nicky James is following up the successful Doyle and Valor police investigation romance series with a new series that is heavily intertwined with the one that preceded it while setting off in often newly emotional and psychological directions.

It helps a reader to have knowledge of both the Doyle and Valor stories as well as have read the prequel novella, Invisible Scars, to get a firm sense of the foundation of this new series and the characters that will be inhabiting each story.

Especially as one of the main characters here, Tallus Domingo, is a Toronto Police Department records clerk and runs into the characters during investigations from the preceding series. But he’s also a cousin to Costa,Valor’s best friend within the department . Tallus and Costa have their own complicated story.

The interactions continue with Diem Krause. Diem is ex Toronto police officer, now a PI with a tortured, violent past and equally troubled present. He’s well known and not well respected by many in the department because of his past actions.

Tallus has Protanopia, color blindness, a disease along with poor vision and migraines, that’s kept him from getting the only job he’s ever wanted, being a police detective .

James has created in Tallus and Diem two diametrically opposed characters who are magnetically connected to each other . Tallus, complicated, colorblind yet always elegantly dressed, confident of his abilities and wants (in and out of bed).

Then there is Diem. I believe that the author included trigger warnings about child abuse, DV, DA, and violence here. I’ll repeat them. When it comes to this character and other aspects of his life (and this story), DA is a very real element. Please keep it in mind when reading this story.

Diem is heavily scarred. He’s deeply scarred physically and mentally and emotionally. Skeletons in the Closet just begins to explore his trauma and its origins . James and some horrific scenes give the reader (and Tallus) hints but it’s never explicitly stated. I’m sure this will be a slow process for him to reveal and for Tallus and the readers to understand.

The intense emotions and unstated feelings/relationship that’s starting to emerge between Tallus and Diem is the best thing about this book. It’s damaged, hugely emotional, darkly complex, yet even the smallest steps are so rewarding to watch and read.

The many investigations were well done, felt professionally conducted, and very satisfying at the same time. But it’s hard to frame them up against that fantastic dynamic playing out between Tallus and Diem. Just superb.

I even enjoyed my visits with Doyle, Fox and Costa . But Valor? Sigh. He became an issue that shouldn’t be found in an otherwise extremely well written novel.

A once fine character has again been reduced to a caricature as James simply cannot let Quaid Valor have any expression other than “sneering”. Aslan Doyle, his police partner Fox, Doyle’s husband, Valor, and Costa (all from the previous series ) make strong appearances here. But it’s Valor, who once was a complex figure, now is all but defined by a single annoying facial expression. He sneers. Sneering, sneered. Note to James: pls enlarge Valor’s facial expression.

And it’s become so repetitive and annoying that it has the ability to pull a reader out of the narrative. It did that in their own series and it’s doing it again here.

Outside of Valor, this is a great new series and an intriguing, magnetic new couple. I can’t wait to see what the next book holds for them.

◦ Shadowy Solutions-sequel series:

✓ Invisible Scars , prequel

✓ Skeletons in the Closet #1

◦ Power of the Mind #2 – September 12, 2024

Connected series:

Valor & Doyle Series – same universe, characters and overlapping locations:

🔷Department Rivals (prequel) 🔷Temporary Partner

🔷Elusive Relations

🔷Unstable Connections

🔷Inevitable Disclosure

🔷Defying Logic

🔷Disrupted Engagement

🔷Matrimonial Merriment

Buy link

Skeletons in the Closet (Shadowy Solutions Book 1)

Blurb:

The last thing Diem Krause wanted to do was ask for Tallus’s help.

The too-hot-for-his-own-good records clerk was so far outside Diem’s league that he became tongue-tied in his presence. Six months ago, after an embarrassingly unimpressive exchange in the bedroom that accentuated Diem’s flaws, he swore never to go near the sultry man again.

When a new case lands on Diem’s desk, one involving a dead, allegedly unfaithful husband, Diem exhausts every means of investigation until he has no choice but to seek out the man he swore never to see again.

Tallus has skills Diem doesn’t. In addition to being confident and sociable, Tallus can act and help him get answers.

But inviting Tallus into his case means relinquishing control, and Diem hates not being in control. Not only is the Toronto Police Department’s records clerk fanatical about investigative work, but he also has a thing for making Diem uncomfortable and pushing his boundaries.

When the case takes a dark and dangerous turn, the two spend far too many long nights trying to puzzle things out. Tallus’s flirty, suggestive behavior is going to get them in trouble, and the last thing Diem wants is to end up in bed with him again. It was a disaster the first time, and Diem doesn’t want to revisit the shame.

Will Diem be able to resist Tallus’s charm?

Can the two work together to solve the unusual case without crossing lines?

Diem isn’t so sure. He doesn’t want a partner. He doesn’t need a lover.

But with Tallus Domingo, he somehow ends up with both.

Publication date: May 30, 2024

Language: English

Print length: 367 pages