Two Man Station, Lisa Henry
Jun. 7th, 2019 09:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cyphomandraFirst in her Emergency Services series, m/m contemporary romance featuring two police officers who share a 60 000 km beat in Queensland, Australia. Gio is new, a big city cop who was on the rise until he turned his boyfriend and fellow officer in for abusing steroids; unfortunately the boyfriend has put a spin on the story that means Gio is now seen as a dog, which is apparently what Queensland police call a traitor and they are bullying him out of the force. He ends up taking a job in Richmond, where his sergeant, Jason, is still grieving the death of his wife five years earlier and struggling to look after Taylor, their ten year old son.
As Gio learns how to be a good small town cop, and Jason works out what the real story behind Gio's past is, the two of them start a no-strings-attached sexual relationship (Gio is out, Jason is bi and possibly poly - he met his wife when they were both sleeping with the same guy, with definite overlap), but events and emotions make things more complicated.
The small town policing and the Australianness of this are definite strengths (I read at least one irked review complaining that they had no idea what Vegemite was; also Gio's first call out in Richmond is to get a deadly snake out of someone's wardrobe) - Henry is a dispatcher for the Queensland police, and it all feels very lived-in. I liked Gio, and I like that Jason, unlike many other single dads in m/m, is doing his best for his son but it is quite definitely not enough; he can't single-handedly mind a ten year old and run a police station, and he can't keep expecting others to look after Taylor, either. I am less convinced by the near total lack of small town homophobia and, while I do really like "no-strings that becomes something more" as a trope, I didn't get enough heat and emotion out of Gio and Jason to really make that work. I've liked previous books by Henry while finding them a bit too fond of the delicate younger easily abused man meets older competent cynical protector to always work for me, so it's interesting to see Henry trying something different; and I'll definitely read the next one.
(I was looking at my past reviews of Henry's books and hit this line from a review of a rather irritating m/m from a totally different author: "Edward – Eddie – is also totally naïve, gay, and an extremely effective black belt in karate, despite being so clumsy that at one stage he gets his hands stuck in his pockets and requires two people to free him." Inexplicably I never read another book by them :D )
As Gio learns how to be a good small town cop, and Jason works out what the real story behind Gio's past is, the two of them start a no-strings-attached sexual relationship (Gio is out, Jason is bi and possibly poly - he met his wife when they were both sleeping with the same guy, with definite overlap), but events and emotions make things more complicated.
The small town policing and the Australianness of this are definite strengths (I read at least one irked review complaining that they had no idea what Vegemite was; also Gio's first call out in Richmond is to get a deadly snake out of someone's wardrobe) - Henry is a dispatcher for the Queensland police, and it all feels very lived-in. I liked Gio, and I like that Jason, unlike many other single dads in m/m, is doing his best for his son but it is quite definitely not enough; he can't single-handedly mind a ten year old and run a police station, and he can't keep expecting others to look after Taylor, either. I am less convinced by the near total lack of small town homophobia and, while I do really like "no-strings that becomes something more" as a trope, I didn't get enough heat and emotion out of Gio and Jason to really make that work. I've liked previous books by Henry while finding them a bit too fond of the delicate younger easily abused man meets older competent cynical protector to always work for me, so it's interesting to see Henry trying something different; and I'll definitely read the next one.
(I was looking at my past reviews of Henry's books and hit this line from a review of a rather irritating m/m from a totally different author: "Edward – Eddie – is also totally naïve, gay, and an extremely effective black belt in karate, despite being so clumsy that at one stage he gets his hands stuck in his pockets and requires two people to free him." Inexplicably I never read another book by them :D )
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Date: 2019-06-07 04:54 pm (UTC)LOLOLOLOL.
This book sounds good, though! I love books with a good sense of place.
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Date: 2019-06-12 04:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-07 06:10 pm (UTC)That's delightful. Also, those sound like really nice people to watch get together.
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Date: 2019-06-12 04:23 am (UTC)