The Strangest Forms by Gregory Ashe

Narrated by Greg Tremblay

I’ve been hoping for years that my two favourite Gregs would, someday, collaborate on a project – and at long last, here it is! Greg Tremblay is narrating Gregory Ashe’s latest series, The Adventures of Holloway Holmes – a trilogy of romantic suspense novels featuring a descendent of that Holmes who has, through a series of unfortunate events, wound up being sent to a school for ‘troubled teens’ in remote Utah. (For ‘troubled teens’ read – kids whose parents want to stash them somewhere and forget about them).

First off, I have to say that although the two protagonists in the story are sixteen-going-on-seventeen, this isn’t a Young Adult book. It’s a Gregory Ashe book, complete with all that entails – clever, twisty plotting, some dark themes, characters who are royally messed up, a degree of violence, swearing and sexual situations.

Jack Moreno’s life was upended a year before this story begins, when a car accident killed his mother and left his dad with a TBI (traumatic brain injury) and unable to work. Jack dropped out of school so that he could cover his dad’s custodial shifts at the elite Walker School in the Wasatch Mountains, but the small salary doesn’t go very far and their debts are mounting. Jack very quickly earned himself a name around the school for being able to get stuff – condoms, chewing gum, manga, drugs and whatever else a bunch of highly-strung, hormonal teens might want – and is supplementing the family income by supplying them, but even then, it’s not enough.

The story begins with Jack anxiously waiting for Sarah Watson (yes, a descendant of that Watson) to show up so she can pay him for the five hundred dollars worth of Xanax he’s got for her. When it’s already way past the time they agreed and there’s still no sign of her, Jack really starts to worry; because of the large sum involved, he had to buy the pills on credit and if he can’t pay the dealer back, he’ll be in some serious trouble. His night goes from bad to worse when he finds Watson’s dead body laid out on top of the plastic garbage bags in a dumpster.

Jack knows it’s a really shitty thing to do, but he carefully extracts the money she owes him from her purse – it’s no use to her now, after all, and he’d kind of like to keep breathing – makes sure he leaves no traces and then heads back to the office to call the police. But this may have not been the best idea, because the lead detective assigned to the case seems to have already decided that Jack and his dad are involved somehow, and he’s like a dog with a bone. The only way to prove their innocence is to find the real killer – but Jack isn’t going to be able to do that alone, and the one person who can help him is Supercreep – otherwise known as the icily-aloof, scary-as-hell, gorgeous-as-a-Greek-statue, Holloway Holmes.

As in any Gregory Ashe novel, there are lots of moving parts here, but – also true to form – the central relationship is the glue holding everything together, and it’s utterly compelling. Jack has had very little to do with Holmes, and given the rumours flying around about him, would have been happy to keep it that way, but somehow, the more time Jack spends with the uptight and very literal Holmes, the more fascinated he becomes. Jack’s is the sole PoV in the books, and I love his snarky, cocky narrative voice; he’s a beautifully drawn character, a boy on the cusp of manhood who has had to grow up very quickly and who has still not begun to deal with the weight of grief and loss he keeps at bay through what his therapist terms “high-risk behaviour”. He’s funny, kind, loyal and tough with a well of inner vulnerability he works hard to hide; he does dumb things (he’s sixteen!) and he’s far from perfect, but he’s struggling to make sense of the life he’s suddenly been thrust into, so even though he doesn’t always make the wisest decisions, it’s easy to understand and sympathise with him.

Although we never get Holmes’ perspective here, Mr. Ashe does a fantastic job of presenting him to the listener through Jack’s eyes. He’s an odd mix of confidence, innocence and vulnerability, he struggles with human interactions and clearly has never had much love or affection in his life, hiding behind a wall of stoicism and stand-offishness to hide what he sees as his deficiencies. A lifetime of conditioning – by his father – to be in control at all times and never to show or allow himself to feel emotion has turned him into the “Holmes bot” Jack jokes about, but as Jack gets to know him, he begins to see how much he’s hurting and how lonely and confused he is… and to realise that in some ways, they aren’t all that different. They both need someone to see them, to support them and to love them. Even if neither of them would ever admit it.

Their growing friendship, trust and admiration for one another is underpinned by an awkward attraction neither really knows how to handle. There’s some top-level pining going on on Jack’s part, and their off-the-charts chemistry crackles through so many wonderful moments of connection as they bounce ideas off each other, Jack manages to get a genuine laugh out of Holmes, and Holmes’ dry sense of humour breaks through.

I’m not going to say much about the mystery, which is as gritty, complex and full of misdirection and red herrings as any other Gregory Ashe mystery. Jack and Holmes find themselves delving into secrets left and right, finding more questions than answers and coming up against tech-genius Margaret Moriarty and Holmes’ coldhearted, manipulative father, Blackfriar. The mystery of Watson’s death is solved here, but by the end of the book, we suddenly realise this was never a ‘simple’ matter of murder and that there’s a much bigger picture in the offing.

Greg Tremblay’s excellent performance was well worth the wait! It’s as technically accomplished as I’ve come to expect from him – well-paced, clearly enunciated and strongly characterised – and his vocal acting really hits the spot. He captures Jack’s insouciance and bravado really well, but also adds a level of underlying vulnerability that works to show just how young he is and, at times, how lost. Holmes’ speaks at a slightly higher pitch and his dialogue is stilted and ultra-correct, which fits his repressed personality and reflects the way he’s been conditioned to get everything right. He’s described as being bidialectal (proficient at using two dialects in the same language – in this case, English and American), although (as per the text) he speaks mostly in an American accent, switching to an English one only occasionally, such as when he’s very stressed. Moriarty and Blackfriar both have English accents and Mr. Tremblay’s is pretty good, so the switch is seamless. Jack and Holmes’ interactions have a great rhythm to them and the teasing humour and affection between them come through strongly, and the moments of heightened emotion are superbly realised. The various secondary characters are clearly differentiated – a husky note for Jack’s dad, a bit of vocal swagger for the detective – and the handful of female voices are nicely done.

Angsty, funny, poignant, compelling and clever, featuring engaging characters and a fabulous performance from Greg Tremblay, The Strangest Forms gets The Adventures of Holloway Holmes off to a rollicking start, and I can’t wait for more.

Caz

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