By the Book by G.B. Gordon
Contemporary Romance/Thriller/LGBTQ+
Published June 14th by Carina Press
Reviewed by Kate H.
I love books that cross genres, but when genre expectations conflict, not all readers will be happy and I’m afraid that may be the case with this novel. By the Book is a m/m romance and a thriller – the tale of a novice accountant, Ben Coyne, and Nick Marshall, a playboy FBI agent coming up against his 40th birthday. Ben has discovered a massive accounting incongruity in his first job out of college. Upon alerting his superior, the man is found shot through the head in the parking garage. Nick Marshall’s team is sent to investigate. In classic thriller form, Ben is unable to let go of the accounting problem – he recognizes patterns that look like money laundering – and he continues to examine the files in his own time, painting a target on himself as the novel progresses.
There is a delicious frustration that occurs between Ben and Nick. They both resist their feelings of attraction, and at the same time they develop a begrudging respect for one another. Ben is unafraid to speak up for himself, which both drives Nick nuts and impresses him. But the case puts so many restrictions on them – it’s sort of the reverse of the hotel room with one bed: the case keeps them apart. For one, although Ben is not a suspect, he is not altogether in the clear. As the evidence mounts, the watertightness of the case relies on Ben and Nick maintaining a professional distance.
Readers of thrillers will be used to be protagonists being drawn in an almost telegraphic style, but that doesn’t work as well for romance. Both Ben and Nick are sketched out in a way that would work well for a book resting on the intricacies of the investigation into a money laundering enterprise, but at times I thought their development wasn’t sufficient for connecting with them as two romance heroes. This is not to say that they don’t have enough going on under the hood – just that it remains underexplored in the novel. I definitely wanted them to get together, but I also wanted to know more.
Early in the book, Ben breaks it off with Andy, his friend with benefits. He makes the decision shortly after meeting Nick, so we can surmise that is a relationship between the two events, and I kind of like that Ben is oblivious to that but also decisive. However, subsequent scenes with Andy reveal him to be a manipulative grifter. Don’t get me wrong, I was glad to see the opportunistic wanker hit the road, but his presence in Ben’s life is a bit of a mystery, one that Ben’s perspective sheds no light on. Overall, Ben seems sometimes improbably naïve, including about his workplace, sometimes savvy. Certainly, people can be inconsistent: smart in some ways, rube-like in others. But for me Nick seemed like the more believable character, which is saying a lot: the rich commitment-phobe FBI agent who boxes on the wrong side of town and secretly has a heart of gold.
Halfway through By the Book, Ben learns the answer to a question that has plagued him for much of his life regarding his father. It’s pretty significant for Ben and his mother and concerns a cold case that even Nick is aware of. With all of this swirling in the midst of the tensest part of the book, you might think it would come up again, but it is dropped like a hot potato. That, and the partial resolution of the main case in the book make me think a sequel is planned, but it was dissatisfying to have certain tensions strummed on for half the book and then just disappear.
Rating: C+
CW: multiple forms of violence
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