Murder House

I don't even know what to say anymore that won't make me sound like a member of some sycophantic #VictorBayne club. I can only say that with each outing, [a:Jordan Castillo Price 268722 Jordan Castillo Price https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1325364144p2/268722.jpg], against the odds, has managed to deepen and widen the world these characters inhabit, without resorting to improbabilities or schmaltz. In [b:Murder House 44785199 Murder House (PsyCop, #10) Jordan Castillo Price https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554394789l/44785199.SY75.jpg 69432192] Vic has decided that gaining access to his redacted past can't be left to others, it's too dangerous. To earn a higher clearance he volunteers for undercover work, and the experience is not at all what he expected. The mystery is inconsequential to the point of being inexistent, but it doesn't matter. JCP is laying out the organic progression of an adult relationship, how we don't know what we have until we don't have it, how much or how little we know about people close to us? As I said: adulthood, even if it arrives in jolts & spurts at 40!To work the case Vic has to go live in a house where, maybe a ghost still resides, deal with nosy neighbors, pose as a writer, and half of a married couple with Jack Bly, the empath. I was in stitches seeing Vic try to navigate The Douchebag's (as he calls his persona) taste in clothing, and pretentious socio/political essays, and I was touched by the things he missed about the Cannery, his life, Jacob. Every emotion rang true without betraying who Vic's always been. Externally, a bit of a hard ass who had to get that way after life manhandled him one to many times, while inside he's just someone trying to find his place in the world. Cautiously. I think he's found it. And maybe he's starting to know it too. Normally I'm one for wanting series to end on a high point, but incongruously, I feel like with this one JCP is just hitting her stride. The scene with the coffee mug? GOLD.It goes without saying that [a:Gomez Pugh 8435087 Gomez Pugh https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] has to do whatever other books come in the series. It's a new law. A good one.

2.5 stars

I found most of this one to be frustrating and not particularly interesting. Things didn't pick up until the last quarter of the book, and even then, it wasn't all that exciting. Here's hoping the next one is better!