“I taught my sons to be men. I don’t care who they love. I care about how they act. The moment they stop having manners or treat someone poorly, then we’ll have words.”
― Rhys Ford, Sinner’s Gin
This is the first book in the series Sinners by Rhys Ford. It was first published back in the 2012 by Dreamspinner press and is a Mystery, MxM Romance. It’s a 260 pages long thriller filled with angst and heavy subjects such as child rapists, serial killers, violence and death. I listened to the audiobook read by Tristan James who seriously tried to shift between Irish, Spanish and African American dialects. He wasn’t very good at it but I do appreciate the attempt.
The plot follows the young Asian Miki St. John. An orphan with a violent past who recently lost his band in a car accident that have left him hurt and broken. He meets an inspector Kane Morgan from an Irish, catholic family who finds himself attracted to Miki only to find a corpse in Miki’s home and being assign to find the murderer. Along the way, we learn of Miki’s past that has come back to haunt him, all while we slowly read how the two of them grow closer.
The author has an amazing vivid way of describing things. It feels alive along with modern, but can become long especially when they do anything sexual. This author adores describing every details of the act and frankly, it far too long sex scene for a thriller. At least for me.
The characters are well developed but a bit stereotypical. Miki is the one I think feels unique while Kane feels like the white, Irish knight. Which seems to be Rhys Fords type since from what I can tell it isn’t the first time the author has written the Irish knight. We also have the flirty Latin American partner of Kane and the large, black lieutenant with a booming voice.
I remember reading a comment that he couldn’t stand this book because the author keeps describing Miki as exotic, but in a neighborhood mostly consisted of Irish and Latin Americans an Asian man would be exotic so… Maybe I just don’t get it since I’m as a white woman are at best described as bland or vanilla. I would love to be described as exotic. (Which is why we white people keep traveling to foreign countries, so that we can be exotic for ones.)
Otherwise, the main complain of this book is that it is unrealistic. Miki has been through far too much and Kane is too perfect. Such as Kane’s family being supportive of Kane and one other of his brothers being gay though they come from a catholic family but frankly, it didn’t bother me since I can only assume that not ALL catholic must be against homosexuality and Kane does mention his church refusing to have him there because of his sexuality.
The same goes with Miki’s background, it makes since that a man growing up in misery continues to live in it when he has never gotten past it. I have known people like that, and the only unrealistic thing about it is that Miki has survived as long as he did. Most would have killed themselves.
One of the things I have to disagree with though is that this is a mystery. To me, a mystery demands that you give hints and most of all make sure that the reader can at least try to guess who the murderer is. That is the point according to me to a mystery. To try solving it before the end when it is revealed. This is more of a thriller, taking you on a ride and giving you chills. I guess it could qualify as a mystery but then it is a pretty bad one as the murderer is… Well, lets just say it doesn’t matter since he first show up at the end and Miki hardly knows the murderer.
I also did not really like the end. The author gives hint to the next book and if it is as he has hinted then it is a ridiculous twist that made me think of all the twists of the tv series Riverdale. It is overly dramatic and far to unrealistic.
This book is otherwise relative good, I had troubles with it as when the sexual descriptions went on and on, I just felt bored and wanted it to be over. I seriously don’t need to know every poetic description of them banging. A far bigger problem though to me was the villain, or lack thereof. The murderer simply comes out of the blue and just falls under the insane category. He has no real attributes other than that which is never good as a mystery often relies on the villain of the story and his/hers plan. This one didn’t have a plan and most of the things just simply seemed to be done because the author needed someone to die to make it interesting.
To conclude, the beautiful writing could not save the poorly made mystery, neither could the interesting main characters as all other’s seemed to be stereotypes of whatever ethnical group they belong to. That along with the ridiculous ending, made me lower the rate to a 4 out of 10. It is a fairly low rate for me as there were parts I actually liked but when I considered it and put all my likes and disliked together, I noticed how many bad things I have found in the book. I just couldn’t give it a higher rating than that with a good conscience. That said, I would recommend it for those who likes cop series and want to read one with LGBT themes. Then this one might be one for you and who knows, this kind of book is not up my alley so maybe it is far better than I give it credit for.
What do you think? Have you read it?
With Kind Regards
Senefer.
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