Idyll Fears: A Thomas Lynch Novel - Step...

It’s two weeks before Christmas 1997, and Chief Thomas Lynch faces a crisis when Cody Forrand, a six-year-old with a life-threatening medical condition, goes missing during a blizzard. The confusing case shines a national spotlight on the small, sleepy town of Idyll, Connecticut, where small-time crime is already on the rise and the police seem to be making mistakes left and right. Further complicating matters, Lynch, still new to town, finds himself the target of prank calls and hate speech that he worries is the work of a colleague, someone struggling to accept working with a gay chief of police.  With time ticking away, Lynch is beginning to doubt whether he’ll be able to bring Cody home safely . . . and whether Idyll could ever really be home.

 

I GOT THE ARC PAPERBACK FROM AMAZON VINE.

 

Review.

Dear Stephanie Gayle,

I really enjoyed the first book in this duology/trilogy/series (since I have no idea how many more books will be coming up) and when I saw the second one available on Amazon vine I grabbed it.

I adored the narrator and the main character – police Chief Thomas Lynch who moved from New York to the small town of Idyll in the first book and who also happens to be gay. At the end of the first book Thomas comes out to his police force and to the whole town after leading the first investigation as Chief of Idyll Police.

We meet Thomas again in this book when he had been working in Idyll for almost a year now. As blurb states the main case he has to deal with here was kidnapping of six year old boy Cody. The additional complication is that Cody cannot feel pain in general and in particular he cannot feel when he is freezing.  And it is very cold outside, which puts additional pressure on the police and everybody else since Cody is in danger by simply being outside.

To add more to his plate somebody vandalized his car with homophobic writings and he also received some nasty phone calls.

I adored Thomas Lynch just as much as I did in the first book. I thought the author did a very good job of portraying sympathetic, likeable guy who tried his best to do the right thing in his professional life and his personal life, but of course was not without faults.

The book is still written from the first person POV, we are in Thomas’ head all the time and I mostly really enjoyed his voice. The book is not humorous, in fact due to the nature of the case they investigate I would argue the overall mood was even bleaker than the first one, but at times I did chuckle and I was really pleased with the ending.

I was also very happy with how the investigation unfolded. I am always happy to see fictional law enforcement officers actually doing the investigation on the pages of the book and here we have this in spades, but somehow the author actually managed (IMO) to portray the narrator as intelligent person AND not make him solve the case right away. Too often when I read m/m mysteries I want to yell at the detectives – here is the villain, please arrest him.

In this story the police and FBI (yes, since it is child kidnapping case at some point they call the FBI in. No, the interactions between two are not ridiculous) zero in on the villains slowly but surely. We hear the correct guess (and partially correct guess as well) as to who was responsible for the kidnapping more than once in the last quarter of the book. However they realize that they do not have enough evidence yet and keep digging and digging and eventually their efforts paid off.

“There is no such thing as the perfect crime. No matter how carefully someone plans, no matter how detailed the bank schematics or how trained the sniper, mistakes happen and evidence exists. A loose thread from a jacket, droplets of blood, an unexpected witness, or plain old bad luck. Detectives work hard, but sometimes it’s the little unexpected gift the universe throws at you that breaks a case open. That explodes a perfect crime, leaving bits of plans and better futures scattered like shrapnel.”

In this book we also learn that Thomas started seeing somebody and I am hoping that it may blossom in something romantic. Don’t get me wrong – romantic storyline is pretty brief and I am okay if it stays that way or even if it will disappear completely, but I thought that since we are in Thomas’ head all the time, he did let it slip couple of times that he was pretty lonely and he would not have minded seeing somebody on a more regular basis.

“Time for bed. My sheets were cold. Another person would help them, but what other person would I bring back here? Someone I never planned to see again, that’s for sure. I thumped my pillow, trying to work out the lumps. Someone I never planned to see again. My specialty.”

However the ending was pretty hopeful that things may change for Thomas on the personal front and I can’t help but be happy if it ends up being true.

Grade: B+

 

Sienna had been with Ben eight years and they were engaged. But Ben was married to his job and slowly Sienna seemed to mean less and less to Ben and she broke the engagement three months earlier. Kylie is Sienna’s friend and she mentions Sienna going to the soft opening of the new luxury resort called the Bandicoot Cove. While throwing seashells in the ocean Sienna decides to let go of the past and move on. While at the Cove Sienna runs into her HS crush- who she hasn’t seen in twelve years-Josh who is a tech expert there. Then Sienna discovers she still has a spark for Josh and this time round he was interested in her. Although she does find out most all of Josh’s HS fantasies included Sienna. But then Ben her ex fiance shows up at the island and wants to win Sienna back and become engaged again. But Sienna doesn’t want to just walk away from Josh.

I liked this story. It was a novella so a quick read. But it had a lot of action. I loved Josh  and how carefree he was and Ben for how sorry he was for taken Sienna for granted so much and that he had hurt her. I did like the plot but not too much into menage but understood here. I did wish was longer But I did like the characters and the ins and outs of this story and I recommend.

Paradise Found by Vivian Arend

 

A vacation on the exotic Bandicoot Cove Island resort will be a fitting end to the erotic fun Paige and her Australian lovers, Trent and Mason, have been enjoying. They’ve fulfilled her every fantasy in this no-strings-attached relationship. But Paige has broken the rules and fallen in love with both of her men. It’s better to leave them both than be forced to choose. Trent and Mason want to take their paradise-perfect arrangement to the next level, and they’re willing to do whatever it takes to convince Paige to stay

Island Idyll by Jess Dee

 

Sienna doesn’t expect to find an old crush at the exotic resort where she’s holidaying, and she certainly doesn’t expect her ex to show up, too. Josh wants Sienna just as much today as he did all those years ago, and there’s nothing to stop them getting together—except her ex. Ben is determined to win Sienna back, but he also sees the way she looks at Josh, so he makes a crazy, erotic offer... Sleeping with both men together in order to decide between them could be a recipe for disaster or the start of something unexpected.

Sunlit Surrender by Jess Dee

 

Bianca Rogers is ready to forget her worries for a while and celebrate her brother’s wedding at the exotic Bandicoot Cove resort. The last thing she expects is to be knocked off her feet—literally—by Brody Evans. The chemistry between Brody and Bianca is undeniable. She’s everything he wants in a woman. She’s sexy, warm, friendly…delicious, and overwhelming attraction quickly grows to full-blown lust. As desire transforms into love, it’s time to see if the past is going to get in the way of any happy-ever-after there could be in their future.

 

Moonlight Mirage by Sami Lee

 

Hayley Bryant’s travelled the world and is a grown woman who knows just how to get what she wants. It’s been two whole years since her boss’s rejection sent her running, so coming face-to-face with him shouldn’t affect her. Except it does. Pushing his young intern away was the right thing for Mitch Wood to do at the time, but he can’t deny the attraction to his little sister’s friend now. This time, he’ll have to come to Hayley, and her plus one might prove to be an obstacle. Fortunately, Mitch isn’t one to shy away from a little competition.

 

Sunset Heat by Lexxie Couper

 

Kennedy never expected to run into Luke, the hot Australian firefighter she had a mind-blowing one-night stand with on the tropical island, nor did she expect to be equally turned on by his hunky British cousin, Addison. Luke hasn’t been able to get the feisty, flirty American he met in a bar out of his head, so why is he now picturing sharing the woman of his dreams with his cousin? Always the player, Addison is at the sinfully hot Bandicoot resort looking for some fun. But how can he tell his cousin they’re interested in the same woman?

 

Tropical Sin by Lexxie Couper

 

Infamous Nick Blackthorn is no stranger to a hedonistic rock-star lifestyle, but he’s surprised to be so drawn to a sexy couple while on holiday. McKenzie Wood convinces her BFF to pose as her partner at the sinfully exotic Bandicoot Cove Resort as part of her cover. Luckily, Aiden is always up to any challenge. Firefighter Aiden hasn’t told his best friend he’s in love with her, but an island vacation with her seems to present the perfect opportunity. The island heat burns away inhibitions, but this threesome is rocked when secrets come out and hearts and truths are exposed.

 

So I was really unsure about this one at the start. For two reasons.

1. John and Chris being married was just weird and it didn't work for me. At all.

2. I get that a big part of this fic was the pack feelz. All the touching and rubbing and snuggling together was fine but Scott and Stiles showering together? What the actual fuck?



Once I got over the halfway mark though I really started to enjoy it. Either I just got used to all the pack stuff or it wasn't as in your face. I'm not sure which.

I adore the fics where Derek and Stiles work as a team and communicate well. I enjoyed all their page time together, even when they were just sitting in the same room doing their own thing. This is a very slow burn but I enjoyed the wait and it never felt dragged out to me.

So I'm just going to pretend like the shower scene never happened because for serious, that shit was just all kinds of wrong.

For a couple decades, starting with Nancy Drew right on through to Elmore Leonard, mysteries were my constant companion. I was sometimes an anxious child and the effect of a whodunit was cathartic. Paradoxically, terror rinsed anxiety.

 

In my early 20s I worked as a volunteer counselor at a rape crisis center. With real life violence so close, I could no longer stomach mysteries. Still, I longed for a good whodunit as I imagine former smokers long for cigarettes. They were the pause that refreshes.

 

So it was with hope and some trepidation that I read Stephanie Gayle’s police procedural Idyll Threats.

 

I am happy to report that it follows the convention of the procedural with details of interviews and forensic evidence but the details are not so grisly as to incite real world fear.

 

But what I liked most about Idyll Threats, was the protagonist, Chief Thomas Lynch. He is sharply observant, sardonic, and underneath it all, tender. He is also an ex-New York cop, drummed out of Gotham after a drug bust went wrong and the perp murdered his coke-addicted partner.

 

Lynch is a fish out of water in Idyll, Connecticut, where murders can be counted on one hand and the Laundromat doubles as the bar, called, wait for it, “Suds.”

 

So when a girl turns up dead on the Idyll golf course, Chief, ex-big-city cop, should solve the crime in five-minutes and thus win the love and trust of the department, the mayor and the whole town, right?

 

But the Chief is also gay and closeted in 1997 when being gay and a police chief were not just oxymoronic but a likely career ender. As it happens he met the murder victim hours before her death, but to exploit that lead he’d have to admit he was gay. And he can’t do that. Chief’s greatest love—his job—is in direct conflict with his core self.

 

As Chief battles inner demons, homophobia and his secretary, the ineffable Mrs. Dunsmore, Gayle grants us rare access to the man and the Chief.

 

Word is that Gayle is nearly finished with the second in the Thomas Lynch series. I can’t wait.