Cole McGinnis Series (#3 - #5) by Rhys Ford
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#M_M, #Contemporary, #Romance, #Mystery
For ex-cop turned private investigator Cole McGinnis, each day brings a new challenge. Too bad most of them involve pain and death. Claudia, his office manager and surrogate mother, is still recovering from a gunshot, and Cole’s closeted boyfriend, Kim Jae-Min, suddenly finds his teenaged sister dumped in his lap. Meanwhile, Cole has his own sibling problems—most notably, a mysterious half brother from Japan whom his older brother, Mike, is determined they welcome with open arms. As if his own personal dramas weren’t enough, Cole is approached by Madame Sun, a fortune-teller whose clients have been dying at an alarming rate. Convinced someone is after her customers, she wants the matter investigated, but the police think she’s imagining things. Hoping to put Sun’s mind at ease, Cole takes the case and finds himself plunged into a Gordian knot of lies and betrayal where no one is who they are supposed to be and Death seems to be the only card in Madame Sun’s deck.
5 out of 5 (exceptional)
Independent Reviewer for Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Cole is facing the aftermath of Claudia's shooting, the finding out he has a brother from the mother he though died when he was born, and he is still waiting for Jae-Min to say what Cole longs to hear. But trouble cannot leave Cole alone, and he is tasked with finding who is killing Madame Sun's clients, and finding a little girl's stolen dog.
I adore Rhys Ford, I really do. And I love Cole McGinnis and Jae-Min just as much as I loved the Sinners guys. But this one made me cry!*insert wailing sound*
I really really felt for Cole in this one, when he accidentally outs Jae to his sister, and all that follows. When he meets Ichi for the first time, just when he was not expecting it. When he gets some of Claudia's grand kids to man the phones in his office, and when Claudia arrives back.
The plot of the fortune teller's murdered clients kept me on my toes, and I couldn't see whodunnit til the book told me so. Always a good thing. The little girl's missing dog?? Well, only Cole can end up rescuing a dog and landing himself in the middle of a drugs bust!
I have this in audio to listen to, when I catch up, and I look forward to that with immense pleasure. I know I'm not hearing the voices correctly, and I can't wait to see what Greg Tremblay does with Ichi's voice. The difference between the Korean and Japanese accents are described here, and I can't wait to hear how that comes over.
5 full and shiny stars. **same worded review will appear elsewhere**
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and my comments here are my honest opinion. *
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#M_M, #Contemporary, #Romance, #Mystery
Sheila Pinelli needed to be taken out. Former cop turned private investigator Cole McGinnis never considered committing murder. But six months ago, when Jae-Min’s blood filled his hands and death came knocking at his lover’s door, killing Sheila Pinelli became a definite possibility. While Sheila lurks in some hidden corner of Los Angeles, Jae and Cole share a bed, a home, and most of all, happiness. They’d survived Jae’s traditional Korean family disowning him and plan on building a new life—preferably one without the threat of Sheila’s return hanging over them. Thanks to the Santa Monica police mistakenly releasing Sheila following a loitering arrest, Cole finally gets a lead on Sheila’s whereabouts. That is, until the trail goes crazy and he’s thrown into a tangle of drugs, exotic women, and more death. Regardless of the case going sideways, Cole is determined to find the woman he once loved as a sister and get her out of their lives once and for all.
4 out of 5 (very good)
Independent Reviewer for Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Cole wants Sheila Pinelli, wife of the man who shot him and Rick, dead. She shot Jae-Min and for that she needs to be gone. But Sheila gets released, even though there is a warrant out for her arrest and Cole somehow gets sucked into the world of Vietnamese transsexuals, which crosses paths with Sheila and Cole just does his best NOT to get shot, again. Book 4 in the series, I highly recommend you read them all in order, jumping in at this point, and you will miss a lot of the ongoing story line. But for me, the weakest so far. Why?? haven't a bloody clue, but I'm left feeling 4 stars and not the five I gave books one to three. Still a really good read. Things are beginning to come to a head, and clues as to why Ben shot Rick and Cole are beginning to surface. I'm fairly certain that my brain is going all about it wrong, and Ford will totally blow any idea I may have, out the water in book 6, Dirty Heart. For Ford has a knack of surprising me, just when I least expect it. Claudia is back, and I missed her! We also get more of Bobby and Ichiro, Cole's younger brother. Ichi and Bobby have taken over book 5 and I'm curious to see how that's written. Bokks one through four have been single person POV, in the first from Cole's POV. I'm just hoping we get BOTH Bobby and Ichi! 4 stars ps I'm losing Grey Tremblay's voice the more I'm READING and *insert wailing* I don't like it! I have several other audio books I need to get through before I can come back to these books.
**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *
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#M_M, #Contemporary, #Romance, #Mystery
From the moment former LAPD detective Bobby Dawson spots Ichiro Tokugawa, he knows the man is trouble. And not just because the much younger Japanese inker is hot, complicated, and pushes every one of Bobby’s buttons. No, Ichi is trouble because he’s Cole McGinnis’s younger brother and off-limits in every possible way. And Bobby knows that even before Cole threatens to kill him for looking Ichi’s way. But despite his gut telling him Ichi is bad news, Bobby can’t stop looking… or wanting. Ichi was never one to play by the rules. Growing up in Japan as his father’s heir, he’d been bound by every rule imaginable until he had enough and walked away from everything to become his own man. Los Angeles was supposed to be a brief pitstop before he moved on, but after connecting with his American half-brothers, it looks like a good city to call home for a while—if it weren’t for Bobby Dawson. Bobby is definitely a love-them-and-leave-them type, a philosophy Ichi whole-heartedly agrees with. Family was as much of a relationship as Ichi was looking for, but something about the gruff and handsome Bobby Dawson makes Ichi want more. Much, much more.
5 out of 5 (exceptional)
Independent Reviewer for Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
I was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo looking forward to this book, and it did not disappoint! Ichiro is Cole's younger brother, and Bobby, his best friend. All through Dirty Deeds, Cole warned Bobby off Ichi. But the reaction they have to each other cannot be denied. And what I LOVED about this, was the time it took for Ichi and Bobby to finally, finally give in to that reaction, and the knowledge that they were both in such deep trouble. Some other reviewers did not like this book, since it kinda overlaps Dirty Deeds, and that book runs into this one, but I didn't see it like that. Its more of the same story, BUT with Bobby and Ichi as the main players, rather than Cole and Jae-Min. If that makes any sense! And Bobby was just a delight to read! We get deep into his soul, why he is the way he is. Why he is sleeping his way through the town's twink population. And just WHY he is so scared of what he feels for Ichi. We get into Ichi's soul too. Why he left Japan, what he really thinks about his brothers and their way of life, and why he desperately wants to at least TRY to make things work with Bobby. I have this, as well as book 3 and 4, to LISTEN to. I might just skip right ahead to this one. I can't wait to hear what Greg Tremblay does with Bobby and Ichi's voices, and their emotions. Because there are some deep dark emotions that come out here, and I wanna HEAR them now, as well as read about them. 5 full stars
**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Rhys Ford is an award-winning author with several long-running LGBT+ mystery, thriller, paranormal, and urban fantasy series and was a 2016 LAMBDA finalist with her novel, Murder and Mayhem. She is published by Dreamspinner Press and DSP Publications. She’s also quite skeptical about bios without a dash of something personal and really, who doesn’t mention their cats, dog and cars in a bio? She shares the house with Yoshi, a grumpy tuxedo cat and Tam, a diabetic black pygmy panther, as well as a ginger cairn terrorist named Gus. Rhys is also enslaved to the upkeep a 1979 Pontiac Firebird and enjoys murdering make-believe people.
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