Narrated by Sean Crisden
A Vintage Review – audiobook published in 2012, review from 2018
Divide & Conquer, book four in the Cut & Run series, sees Special Agents Ty Grady and Zane Garrett back on land and at their desks after their not-so-relaxing Christmas cruise – and Baltimore in the middle of utter chaos. A series of riots, lootings, robberies and bombings has the police and FBI baffled and having to deal with an increasingly angry and fearful public. Ty and Zane are quietly spending as much of their free time together as they can but are careful to keep their relationship under the radar given the bureau’s rigid non-fraternization policy. The trouble is, it’s getting more and more difficult to hide what they are to one another and they’re both forever looking over their shoulders and second-guessing their actions whenever they’re around each other. Complicating things still further is Ty’s declaration of love at the end of the last book; he’s all in, but Zane has made no attempt to broach the matter since, and while Ty hadn’t expected a reciprocal declaration and knows that Zane cares for him deeply, the latter’s refusal or inability to say the words is causing a bit of uncertainty between them.
Still, they’re in a committed relationship and are at last able to spend time together just being a couple. Until, that is, the mysterious bomber – who seems to have been targeting law enforcement, firefighters and other public servants – steps things up and Ty and Zane (not at all surprisingly) find themselves in the middle of it and end up making targets of themselves. Being Ty and Zane, they don’t give a fuck, but their boss immediately pulls them in and off active duty as a protective measure, telling them that instead they’re going to be the faces of the bureau’s latest PR drive. Like the other law enforcement agencies and public servants, the FBI been getting a pretty bad press because of their lack of progress in identifying those responsible for the city-wide unrest, and they need to restore the public’s faith somewhat. Because Ty and Zane are competent, personable and pretty (!), they’re going to be giving lectures and talks, doing meet and greets – and in Ty’s case, getting involved with the cross-agency softball league that’s being set up as a way of fostering public goodwill.
Neither is happy about their new roles, especially as these duties mean they have very little free time. As the weeks pass, they barely see each other, often arriving home just in time to crawl into bed and fall asleep – as if these two needed any more reasons not to communicate!
Things change abruptly, however, when Zane sustains a head injury that leaves him temporarily blind and heavily dependent on Ty – and this is where the emotional meat of the story really lies. In many ways, this is Zane’s book, about his coming to terms with his feelings for Ty and finally being able to see love for what it is and admit it. He’s spent so long looking backward, weighed down his past, that it’s taken him a long time to work through it all and let himself hope for a future, any future at all, let alone one in which he can love again and embrace life. He shows great strength and resilience in coping with not being able to see; even though the doctors think his condition won’t last, the spectre of permanence is always lurking, and he deals with it all with dignity and grace, trying hard not to allow himself to think the worst. And Ty is clearly trying to give Zane a sense of normalcy, but alongside his normal snarking shows Zane how much he cares in the smallest of ways, like touching him more than usual, somehow knowing what a comfort it is; and I think that I, along with most other readers/listeners, may have melted just a little bit at the slow dance scene, agreeing with Zane that it’s probably the most romantic thing Ty has ever done for him.
This book is also the one in which we get to meet Ty’s Recon team, or what’s left of it; one of their number, Elias Sanchez, was one of the FBI agents who was murdered before the events of Cut & Run, and Nick, Kelly, Owen and Digger all turn up – literally – on Ty’s doorstep and are introduced to Zane for the first time. It’s clear that all the men are close, but the bond between Ty and Nick is obviously a special one… and it’s not one that Zane is particularly happy about. He knows Ty loves him, but quickly realises that Nick knows far more about Ty than Zane does and can’t help being jealous of that and their shared past, a past which holds secrets Ty is still keeping from him. His insecurities are obviously strengthened by his blindness and dependence, and by the fact that he can sense Nick’s hostility. Zane’s is a natural reaction, one experienced by many I’d guess, to meeting their partner’s long-term friends – and both this and Nick’s obvious antipathy create some tension in the relationship, especially as a heartsick Ty is starting to wonder if Zane is ever going to admit to loving him.
As with the other books in the series, the suspense/mystery plot is pretty daft; I mean, we’re asked to believe that four teenaged crooks could outwit the entire city, the cops and the feds? Their motivations are never really explained (beyond “let’s rob banks for money” and “let’s bomb the pigs”) and I had so many “how on earth..?” moments that I’m not even going to start. I’m just here for the Ty and Zane show and the plotty stuff is incidental.
And the Ty and Zane show is what keeps me coming back to this series. Their relationship is deepening with each subsequent book, and they – and we – are finding out more about what makes them tick. It’s easy to believe in the strength of their feelings for each other, but there are still plenty of things around to trip them up, like Zane’s tendency to shut down his emotions and the fact that Ty is still keeping secrets from his lover. There’s a large dollop of relationship angst in this one and be warned – a cliffhanger ending.
I loved Sean Crisden’s portrayal of both Ty and Zane in Fish & Chips, which was his first outing with this series. The deep, resonant tone he employs for Zane makes it easy to picture him as physically imposing (he’s described as being 6’5” and heavily muscled) and he really captures Ty’s volatility and quirky sense of humour. Emotionally, he’s spot on, too, injecting real warmth and tenderness into the more intimate moments, confident in the sex scenes and timing the banter perfectly. In fact, without the need to sustain any dodgy accents his performance is practically flawless. The introduction of the members of Ty’s recon team (Sidewinder) gives him the opportunity to create a number of new character voices and utilise a few different American accents, which he does far more successfully than the European ones in the last book. In fact, because Zane first meets them while he can’t see, Ty introduces them all by accent: “Zane, this is Nick OFlaherty. Boston accent. Owen Johns, upstate New York. Kelly Abbott, Colorado. And Digger, deep Bayou.” And while I don’t know what an upstate New York or Colorado accent sounds like, I definitely picked up on Nick’s Boston Southie and Digger’s Bayou twang, so I’m assuming that if those were right, so were the others ;)
Divide & Conquer has a silly suspense plot, but I’ve stopped expecting the plots to make sense in these books ;) Just sit back and enjoy all the other things the book has going for it; lots of relationship and character development, plenty of angst, snarky banter, and steamy (and in one case, surely impossibly acrobatic!) sex scenes, all wrapped up in a terrific performance from Sean Crisden. On to book five :)
Note: Cut & Run series Books 1, 2 and 4 (this one) are all in the Audible Romance Package
Caz
Buy Divide & Conquer by Madeleine Urban and Abigail Roux on Amazon
