I really enjoyed this book. I liked the characters, they felt real. I liked that the police officer is just that and not a detective. The pacing was excellent, the plot was interesting, and there was drama and danger. Although the really great peril scene was too early in the relationship so the reaction wasn't the "I'll die without you" kind of stuff I'm addicted to.The
Pros
The protagonists are very close in age. Yay!!!
Interesting and good observation: "A criminal defense attorney's best advertising: repeat offenders who liked you."
It wasn't instalove. Even when they began to feel it, they were both reticent and fought it because of who the other was.
Doggy! And a cool little doggy at that. A cool, realistic, believable doggie. Love the dog. He's even a small dog that likes water. I've never met one. I liked this part:
The food was downed with beer and a comfortable silence. About a third went under the table for Poncho's benefit. Neither man wanted to admit he was slipping bits to the dog. For his part, Poncho wore a groove between their feet. By the time they finished eating, Poncho had given up and was sprawled on his back sleep. Nate pushed back from the table. "I think we killed him."
"Naw, he's fine." Caesar bumped him with his foot. Phonchito opened one eye then left it drift shut again. "Although I think he ate more than we did."
The protagonists aren't TSTL. One gets brought in for questioning and (very mild spoiler) he brings his lawyer! Smart man. It didn't even occur to me.
Cons
One character is described as having been burned over 95% of his body and surviving. This is rather unlikely. Not impossible, but unlikely. I did a bunch of research on this because I was under the impression that once you hit 80% you had little chance of survival, but that's not true. The Baux score is one way doctors predict survival from burns. It doesn't take into account the deepness of the burns and other factors such as smoke inhalation, so it's only about 85% accurate, but it is a good test. You take the percentage of body area burned (95) and add the age of the person (probably around 40 given the age of the other characters). That's 135. It is very unlikely that someone with a Baux score of 130-140 will survive. I just wish he'd make the percentage lower for believability but then, I'm nit-picky and this probably didn't occur to anyone else.
They feed the dog canned food. Not good for dogs. Only feed canned food if the dog has teeth problems, you can't get he/she to eat (then couple it with dry) or you are told by the vet.
Unsafe sex. They don't talk about it, so I suppose it could be one of those details that seemed unnecessary to describe, but it bothered me.
Typos were rare but I saw "loose" instead of "lose" twice.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but there was too much sex.
Overall, though, I thought it was a great story, a solid four stars for me. I look forward to reading something else by this author.