Mirrigold: Mutterings & Musings

The Murder Between Us by Tal Bauer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

EPIC!

Tal Bauer is top of the tree when it comes to this type of romantic suspense – a story filled as much with personal introspection and doubt as it is with investigations and police procedure.

For FBI Agent Noah, the one night he allows himself to own his attraction to men means a Vegas experience that not only shatters him to his core, but which he has to deal with unexpectedly when FBI Profiler Cole, the guy he spent the night with, turns up in his serial killer incident room.

This book gripped me from the start. The opening chapter tells you everything you need to know about the two men without copious amounts of exposition. Noah is repressed, he’s never acted on his attraction to men and he’s now being confronted by the object of his desires daily.

He’s also dealing with the return of a serial killer after a six-year absence and this will be a no spoiler at all review but you can see from my updates just how it was going!

There is everything you’d expect in a suspense novel from Tal. It has rapid twists and turns, it’s fast-paced and adrenaline filled, it makes you squirm and it causes your heart to race.

It has two men who are beautifully detailed and fully fleshed out characters who leap off the page to grab your attention and hold it in a tight grip.

There are red herrings and false starts, there is a twist in the tale which I never saw coming, things are both exactly as they seem and yet not all at the same time. it’s so cleverly done but, when the information comes out, it becomes much clearer.

The romance is just awwwwwwww in word form; I fell for these two men instantly. Their chemistry skyrockets off the page but it’s so much more than just lustful hormones. They connect on a deeper level from the start, even as they tumble into their Vegas hotel bed it’s clear there could be more between them.

Surprisingly, it’s only medium steam, but it feels more, if that makes sense. The intimacy and emotional connection between them comes out of the bedroom and into everything they’re experiencing together.

And when it comes to experiences, let me say, if you have an easily turned stomach, parts of this book will make you want to vomit. Tal holds nothing back when it comes to the brutality of the killer the two men are trying to find.

There were times I actually gasped out loud when reading, my heart was thumping and I had to force myself at 3am to put the book down and go to sleep. I NEEDED to know that the bad guy would get his just deserts.

But, I should have known, as with all Tal books, there would be a final sting before our amazing two men can get their HEA.

And what a HEA, the Epilogue is so beyond adorable I had a grin like the Cheshire Cat when I finished this book.

Murders aside, I could have read about Noah and Cole indefinitely. I also seriously appreciated Noah’s daughter Katie was an integral part of the narrative too, not just there to add a bit of interest to his character.

So, get it, start reading it early so you don’t stay up half the night, and be blown away by a romantic suspense novel which hopefully ticks all your boxes like it did mine.

#ARC kindly received from the author in return for an honest and unbiased review

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