About the Book
Title: Tabula Rasa (Gray Fisher #2)
Author: Debbie McGowan
Publisher: Beaten Track Publishing
Publication Date: June 21, 2018
Word Count: 105,000 words (366 pages)
Publisher webpage: Tabula Rasa
Category: Fiction
Genre: Crime, Thrillers and Mystery, LGBT, Romance and Relationships, Contemporary Fiction
Series: Gray Fisher, Hiding Behind The Couch
Purchase Links
Ebook Edition: £2.99 (€3.41 / $3.95) | Paperback Edition: £10.99 (€12.53 / $14.51) | Amazon [Kindle] | Smashwords | Barnes and Noble | Kobo | iBooks
Synopsis
After years of working for the police – both as a beat bobby and undercover – Rob Simpson-Stone is moving on with no regrets. It may be too late to rescue his marriage, but his relationship with his seven-year-old son, Lucas, is back on track. Rob’s grown-up nieces might be a taller order, but he’s prepared to do whatever it takes to prove they no longer need to worry that one day he won’t come home.
Fate, however, has different ideas.
When Rob fails to arrive at his leaving do, his former boss/new PI business partner Gray Fisher can’t understand why nobody else is worried Rob is MIA, never mind that Gray is pointlessly missing out on a night in with Will.
As the reasons behind the night’s events unfold, Gray’s past recklessness threatens to catch up with him, putting those he holds close in danger and forcing both Rob and Gray to forge reluctant alliances.
Review
If’ you’ve been around my website, and my reviews, for a while, then I won’t have to tell you how much I love anything in this setting with these characters. While the Gray Fisher books aren’t part of the main series, they are a spin-off from Hiding Behind the Couch. That means we occasionally get a little peek into what the others are doing while also being treated to a series that stands on its own.
It’s helpful to have read the previous Gray Fisher novel, but it’s not entirely necessary. This one stands fine on its own. It has an entirely different suspense storyline while continuing the glimpses into Rob’s and Gray’s personal lives on the side.
For readers who prefer their books stick strictly to genre lines, they might be a bit disappointed. This is what I consider the best of both worlds. It’s a mystery/crime story, but it’s also literary fiction, and it blends the two very well. But it doesn’t play entirely by the rules of either genre. Go into it with an open mind.
Now for the good stuff. I love Rob. He’s had his share of trouble, and it’s cost him quite a bit. But he’s a good man, and his tenderheartedness shows even when he’s trying really, really hard not to like someone (say, his ex-wife’s current husband). It’s pretty clear that if you need someone to have your back, Rob’s the guy. I can’t say more without spoilers, but I was delighted that he seems to be on his way to his own bit of happiness. I am looking forward to seeing where that goes. All I will say is that it’s an excellent exploration of, and commentary on, gender and sexuality. Once again, approach this with an open mind.
As for Gray…well, he’s very much the typical non-communicative man sometimes found in gay lit. And yet, he’s also not quite. I still feel, after two books, like I haven’t quite figured him out. Which is fine, seeing as his boyfriend hasn’t either. Both Gray and Will would drive me bananas. Gray would make me want to push every last button until I got a real response. Will is one of those types whose strong values and activism permeate his entire life. Which is fine but slightly scary. What’s nice is that these two are perfect for each other, and I hope they figure that out sooner rather than later. Anyone who thinks women come with drama hasn’t met these two. I found it fun to yell at them while I read in hopes they’d hear me through the page and have an adult conversation at some point. They did come real close, mercifully, but they have a ways to go.
This is obviously a heavily character-driven story, but I promise, there’s a really good plot in here too. Since it’s a suspense/mystery, I won’t spoil it. But I will say it’s well-crafted, and if you follow the clues, you’ll be able to figure it out at roughly the same pace as Rob and Gray. There are some great surprises, but I’m the type who likes to feel like I might be as smart as the characters. I appreciated that this wasn’t so convoluted I couldn’t make sense of it. Along the way, there are plenty of heart-stopping moments where you think someone’s about to be in big, big trouble. Make sure you leave yourself time to sit and read, because it’ll be hard to put it down.
For more of my favorite characters, some excellent social commentary, and a well-drawn mystery, this gets 10/10 fountain pens.
Excerpt
As Rob had predicted, Travis—Gray assumed from the description ‘a stocky Rio Ferdinand’, although he’d had to look up who that was online first—left the house a few minutes after three. He was in running gear, which may or may not have been unusual, but Gray was taking no chances; as soon as Travis cleared the corner, Gray was out of his unremarkable hired hatchback—not his kind of car, but he was aiming for inconspicuous. The cordless drill dug into his chest as he strolled across the street, hi-viz vest over his jacket, defunct seven-inch touchscreen tablet in his hand. A man in a hi-viz jacket and carrying a tablet rarely roused neighbours’ suspicions, and it gave Gray a buzz to find he still had the knack.
The house next door had a real junction box to the left of the window, with cables running up to the first floor. Next to it would have been perfect, rendered invisible by its symmetry, except the angle wasn’t wide enough to take in the front door. Gray weighed up the space next to the gas meter under the bay window; it would be too low down to capture the face of anyone taller than about five and a half feet, but the rest of the front wall was a clear expanse of well-pointed brickwork. If the motion detection was sensitive, it might pick up visitors before they reached the house. That was the best Gray could do, because there was nowhere else for it to go. Checking he was still clear, he opened the gate and walked up to the house.
DIY had never been his forte, but he knew his way around a drill and it was only one hole. He positioned the end of the bit against a horizontal line of mortar, gave the trigger a gentle press to get a key, and then went full throttle. The bit cut straight into the mortar with virtually no resistance. Gray eased it out and affixed the back box, giving it a gentle tug to make sure it was secure before he attached the battery, switched on the camera and situated the front cover.
A quick check of the monitor app on his phone showed all was as well as he’d expected; he was five foot ten and appeared headless if he stood at the front door while all of him was visible at the gate but not clear enough for accurate identification of an unknown visitor. However, Rob had sent Gray photos of their targets, both of whom had obvious distinguishing features, and for one of them—the guy missing half an arm—didn’t rely on a clear shot of his face.
Next, the sound recorder: there was a small gap between the top of the junction box and the bottom of the bay window casing, but as he took the recorder from his pocket, he caught movement in his peripheral vision. Travis was back, and alone. Gray stuffed the recorder and drill inside his jacket and blew the mortar dust on the ground to disperse it. He pushed against the front of the gas meter and turned towards the street.
“Afternoon, sir,” he said with a nod, stepping past Travis. “Just taking a reading. All done.”
“Again? It was only read a couple of weeks back.”
Gray stopped at the gate. “Was it? I bet I’ve misread my jobs sheet again.” He pressed the power button on his tablet and frowned. “Damn. Battery’s dead. I’ll check when I get back to the office. Sorry to bother you, sir.”
“No problem.” Travis jogged the rest of the way up the path and unlocked the front door without a second glance.
Given he’d returned without Lucas and he seemed to be in a rush, Gray predicted he’d be back out again in a couple of minutes, so he continued his meter-reader performance—checking house numbers, stopping at any with no cars outside and no visible signs of activity within. He was peeved he’d partly blown his cover, if not a little exhilarated by the near miss, but Travis didn’t strike him as the suspicious sort. If it had been Rob, he’d have been demanding ID and making phone calls. Even so, Gray thought it best to steer clear of the car until he was confident Travis wouldn’t see him getting into it.
Sure enough, Travis came out again a few minutes later, still in running gear, but this time with a gym bag over his shoulder. He set off in the same direction as last time and didn’t even look Gray’s way. Travis cleared the corner a second time, and Gray went back to the house. He pushed the voice recorder into the space above the junction box and checked it was out of sight but didn’t hang around to test it; he’d used the same brand many times before, and it was highly reliable.
Back in the car, he stowed the drill and his hi-viz vest in the passenger foot well, sent Rob a text to confirm surveillance was in place, and started the engine.
He got the seat belt halfway across his chest before the realisation hit him of what he’d done. He’d been out of the police for almost a year, yet it had come so naturally to him, as if he’d never been away, and it was more than his actions. It was the mindset—the easy lies, the thrill of hiding in plain sight, and the mix of fear and excitement at being discovered. In less than fifteen minutes, he’d scrubbed out everything he’d achieved since leaving the SIU.
He stared across the street at the house he’d rigged. Zoë and Travis’s house. He was spying on Rob’s ex-wife with only Rob’s say-so it was for Lucas’s and her safety. No warrant, no consent. As for the information he’d planned to tap Dom for: once again, he was abusing his former position as Dom’s superior, and worse, abusing their friendship.
He should’ve said no when Rob asked, and not only to spying on Zoë. No to the partnership. No to undercover work. He wasn’t a detective anymore; he was a postgraduate student and an actor—precisely because living in the shadows had almost destroyed him once. He was a fool to have ever believed he could do it all over again with no fallout.
About the Author
Debbie McGowan is an award-winning author of contemporary fiction that celebrates life, love and relationships in all their diversity. Since the publication in 2004 of her debut novel, Champagne—based on a stage show co-written and co-produced with her husband—she has published many further works—novels, short stories and novellas—including two ongoing series: Hiding Behind The Couch (a literary ‘soap opera’ centring on the lives of nine long-term friends) and Checking Him Out (LGBTQ romance). Debbie has been a finalist in both the Rainbow Awards and the Bisexual Book Awards, and in 2016, she won the Lambda Literary Award (Lammy) for her novel, When Skies Have Fallen: a British historical romance spanning twenty-three years, from the end of WWII to the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967. Through her independent publishing company, Debbie gives voices to other authors whose work would be deemed unprofitable by mainstream publishing houses.
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