Narrated by Sawyer Allerde
A Vintage Review, audiobook released 2010, review 2018
Eighteen months (or so) ago, I listened to and reviewed the third book in Josh Lanyon’s All’s Fair series (Fair Chance), and having enjoyed it, planned to go back and listen to the first two books in the series. Well, it’s taken me a while, but I got there eventually! Because I’d already listened to book three, I knew the identity of the villain in Fair Game, but even so, it took me until I was around half way through until I remembered (!) and I was fully engaged by the story anyway, so that didn’t present a problem.
When FBI agent Elliot Mills sustained a debilitating knee injury, he opted to leave the bureau rather than spend the rest of his time there stuck behind a desk. He now teaches history at Puget Sound University, and enjoys it, but he’s still struggling a little to adjust to his new life, one in which he’s often in pain, can’t do some of the things he used to … and which lacks the sort of excitement he used to experience on a regular basis. Out of the blue, his father – a former history professor and rather infamous anti-establishment political activist – asks Elliot to look into the disappearance of a student (the son of his best friend), and Elliot agrees to ask around and see what he can find out. The first problem he has to surmount though is the fact that the lead agent on the case is his former lover, Special Agent Tucker Lance. They parted acrimoniously after Elliot was shot, and haven’t seen each other since; and while Elliot tells himself they didn’t have much of a relationship or much in common besides sex, he still feels Tucker’s loss “like a huge chunk of his life had been ripped out by the same bullet that put him out of a job.”
When Elliot and Tucker encounter each other again for the first time since Elliot was shot, neither is particularly conciliatory, and Elliot is further annoyed by Tucker’s willingness to simply accept the explanation being given for the student’s disappearance – that he just ran away or committed suicide. The boy’s parents don’t believe it, and neither does Elliot; and when another student disappears, it becomes impossible to dismiss it as mere coincidence.
The mystery is well-done, with some neat twists and turns, a couple of plausible red herrings thrown in, and it’s mostly wrapped up by the end, although there are threads left hanging to be picked up in the next two novels. The mystery and the love story are nicely balanced out, and the rekindled romance moves at a sensible pace as Elliot and Tucker move from being determined to believe the worst of each other and holding on to their resentment about the way they broke up, to a gradual rebuilding of trust and rediscovery of their mutual affection (their attraction to one another has never been in doubt). They’re both stubborn alpha-males, and yet they complement each other perfectly; Elliot is an attractive mixture of badass and vulnerability, while Tucker is take-charge (especially in the bedroom!) and down to earth, with a surprisingly dry and endearing sense of humour:
“Okay, okay. I’ll see you at five at the Black Bull pub. Try not to get yourself arrested in the meantime.”
“They were not going to arrest me, Lance.”
“That’s their story now.”
“I’ll see you at five.”
“Wear something sexy.”
“Asshole.”
“That will certainly work.”
The romance doesn’t really come into play until the second half of the book, but there’s still plenty of sizzling chemistry between the pair as they come to realise they have more in common than they’d ever thought, and that they really want a second chance to be together. The story is told completely through Elliot’s PoV, so we’re never in Tucker’s head, but Ms. Lanyon does a really good job of conveying his feelings to the listener through his words and actions; it’s clear that once he and Elliot decide to get back together, Tucker is pretty much all-in and is just waiting for Elliot to let go of those last shreds of resentment.
The All’s Fair series uses two different narrators; J.F. Harding performs books two and three, Fair Play and Fair Chance, but here, the narrator is Sawyer Allerde, who I recently listened to in Madeleine Urban and Abigail Roux’s Cut and Run and Sticks and Stones. I had similar issues with his performance here as I did in those books; while Mr. Allerde is a competent narrator and is able to differentiate effectively between the characters in the story, his narration lacks that special something that would take it from a reading to a performance. He’s not completely wooden (I’ve heard much worse!), but he doesn’t inject a great deal of expression into the dialogue or narrative, which is especially noticeable in the quieter, more intimate moments, love scenes and action scenes. J.F. Harding does a much better job with the other books in the series, and it’s a shame he wasn’t employed to narrate this one.
Fair Game is a tightly-plotted romantic mystery featuring two charismatic central characters and a colourful supporting cast. The ending felt a bit rushed, but that’s my only real criticism of the story, which is otherwise deftly written with plenty of humorous banter and a good smattering of spine-tingling moments and high-stakes action scenes. The narration is decent, and certainly didn’t ruin the listen for me, but it’s not great; so if you haven’t tried this series yet, you may want to stick to print for this one.
Editor’s Note: Fair Game is currently in the Audible Romance Package, as is book 2, Fair Play
Caz
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