Already from the title, A Nick Fallon Investigation 3, reader understands that this is the third adventure of Nick Fallon, P.I. And here probably resides what can be a double blade side of the book: for who like me has not read the previous two books, all the references to the past cases of Nick and his colleague Jeff, all the bickering and jocking between Nick and his partner Eric, and Jeff and his partner Peter, are added bonus to the story. True sometime I felt like the one who was holding the candle, like I was intruding in their personal life, but solving the problem is easy, you can always read the previous two books! On the other side, if you already have, maybe being always reminded of what happened and when and with who, will it can be a little boring maybe, like you are listening for the nth time the same old story from a well known friend, and you can do nothing if faking an interested smile.

Said that, I need all the recap since it gave me the chance to understand better the dynamics between the characters, and above all between Nick and Eric; Nick is very protective of Eric, something that people would find almost oppressive if you didn’t know that Nick risked to loose Eric during one of his past cases gone wrong. Nick tends to not share his professional life with Eric, and again, if you didn’t know of Eric’s kidnapping (and from what I understood, he was also wounded), Nick’s behaviour would seem even uncaring, like he didn’t judge Eric at his same level, like Eric was only a pretty and cute boytoy to warm his bed.

This is probably the other aspect of the book that I really like: mystery novels tend to underestimate the sexy side of the characters; the PIs tend to be strong men always worried for the mystery and seldom “warmed” by the nice men they have by their side. The partner of a PI tend to be an handsome appendage and truth be told, the reader not always notice him, and maybe he is not even interested in noticing him. In J.P. Bowie’s novel, Nick Fallon has a private life, he goes out with his partner and his friends, he makes love, and the reader is made part of this side of his life, he has the chance to see Nick not only like the hot guy with the gun, but also like someone who is trying to have a normal inlive relationship with Eric. Again, even the little snippets of ordinary life, like finding Eric making breakfast, it is something that allows the reader to feel like the characters were more real. And last but not least, also the pretty explicit but never vulgar sex was good ;-)

The mystery than is not really a mystery, and indeed this is called an “investigation” not a mystery, so there is no really brain work for the reader to know who did what; again the story, all in all, was more ordinary than the usual mystery plots, and maybe even a little sad in the ending: like the author, I was a bit upset for the fate of one of the people involved in the investigation; I have the feeling that this one, like the other two books in the series, focuses on the lost chances of life.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608201198/?tag=elimyrevandra-20