Narrated by Tristan James
Criminal Past is the sixth book in Gregory Ashe’s series of mystery novels featuring detectives Emery Hazard and John-Henry Somerset, and it concludes the story arcs that have run throughout the series. It’s longer than the other books (clocking in at 18+ hours), but the story is gripping and the interplay between the two leads is so sharp, so funny and so gut-wrenching that it’s easy to get lost in.
Note: There are spoilers for the other books in the series in this review.
Way back at the start of the series, we learned that Detective Emery Hazard had returned to his Missouri hometown of Wahuredua for the first time in more than fifteen years, determined to find out the truth behind his first boyfriend’s suicide. That storyline, along with several others that have been quietly humming along in the background of the cases Hazard and his partner, John-Henry Somerset, have worked over the course of the series, are slowly, inexorably and skilfully brought together in Criminal Past, as Hazard and Somers confront police corruption, white supremacists and a wide-reaching old-boy network that will go to any lengths to preserve the status quo. And at the same time, they’re both forced to face many unpleasant truths about their pasts and to question whether their newly-forged romantic relationship can ever work given the issues that have lain between them for so many years.
Following some unpleasantness at the County Fair, where Hazard had a run in with Mikey Grames, the bully who made his life a misery when he was at school, he and Somers are given a new assignment – one neither of them is eager to undertake. Mayor Sherman Newton – who has tried to have Hazard and Somers killed at least once – has been receiving threats against his life and has specifically asked that they be part of his protection detail. The mayor alleges that a man called Ted Kjar, an addict suffering from mental illness, is trying to kill him, but insists he has no idea why. Hazard and Somers are, of course, highly suspicious, but in the absence of any other information, have no alternative but to follow the police chief’s orders and show up at the mayor’s house at the allotted time. But someone manages to get into the mayor’s room and is attacking him when Hazard shoots and kills the intruder … who indeed turns out to be Ted Kjar.
But both Hazard and Somers know something is off, and when they start digging deeper to find a possible motive for the attack, it emerges that Kjar was an employee of Innovate Midwest, a local property development company they’ve had run-ins with before. The guys have long suspected the company of underhand dealings but haven’t so far been able to prove anything – and as the story progresses (and the plot thickens!) a history of money laundering and criminal connections emerges, and Hazard and Somers realise they’re dealing with something dirtier and far more dangerous than a shady investment company.
And as if that wasn’t enough, Hazard is getting closer to finding out what really happened to Jeff and the despicable, rotten-to-the-core Mikey Grames is out there, pulling strings and manipulating people and events to get what he wants – money, power… and rid of Hazard and Somers once and for all.
Having now reached the end of the series, I can look back and see just how cleverly the various storylines have been woven in and out of the individual novels and then tied together here to bring everything to a satisfying climax. The same is true of the central relationship between Hazard and Somers, who have both come a long way from where we first met them in Pretty Pretty Boys. They really go through the wringer in this book, both physically (be prepared from some explicit violence and scenes of torture) and emotionally, as the issues between them that haven’t yet been laid to rest jump up to bite them in the arse. Both are complex, deeply flawed individuals; they screw up when it comes to each other (several times), yet the bond they share is so strong that they’re able to work their way through it, and ultimately it’s that bond – their love for each other – that gives them the strength to face the horrors they face and come out the other side.
Criminal Past isn’t an easy listen. Apart from the violence I’ve mentioned, there’s talk of sexual assault and sex trafficking of minors, drug abuse and mental illness, and there are scenes that are very hard to listen to. Amazingly however, amid all the grit and despair, the author still manages to come up with quite a few laugh-out-loud moments courtesy of the back-and-forth between the leads, so it’s not all doom and gloom. I did have a few quibbles with the story though, such as the way that Hazard and Somers have a near miraculous ability to recover from injuries – which never seem to slow them down for more than a day or two. Apart from Hazard’s bad arm, that is, which was another quibble, because I find it hard to believe he’d have been cleared to return to duty if he wasn’t 100% fit. And while Mikey Grames certainly fits the role of “villain we love to hate”, I wasn’t quite sold on this broken-down meth-head whose addiction had screwed with his brain being able to keep at least one step ahead of two highly intelligent detectives all the time.
Tristan James’ performance here is one of the best of the series. When I reviewed the previous book, Reasonable Doubt, I mentioned some problems I’d noticed there – and in some of the other books – about the consistency of the characterisations of the two leads, but happily I didn’t come across any similar issues here. I’ve always liked his portrayal of Hazard; the deep pitch and resonant tone he adopts work really well to describe Hazard’s physicality, and he does a good job of depicting the character’s vulnerability. Somers is light to Hazard’s dark in many ways, and the contrast between them is clear; Somers has a lighter tone and there’s often a smile in his voice, which can very quickly turn to steel when he needs it to. Mr. James voices the fairly large secondary cast using a variety of tone and accent, which makes it easy to distinguish between them; he paces narrative and dialogue well, and he is once again spot on when it comes to underpinning the depth of the relationship between the leads. There were a few places in the story I felt he underplayed the emotion and would have liked him to have pushed things a little further, but I enjoyed his performance overall, and the few reservations I’ve expressed won’t stop me from listening to this again. (Although I might have to skip a few chapters next time!)
All in all, Criminal Past is a strong and satisfying wrap-up to what has proved to be one of my favourite series of the past year or so, and if you’ve been following Hazard and Somerset’s adventures since Pretty Pretty Boys, you’ll definitely want to pick it up.
Caz
Buy Criminal Past by Gregory Ashe on Amazon
