Fractured Men – Hunt&Cam4Ever #6 by Adira August

262 pages

Release Date: November 28, 2019

Buy links: Amazon US | Amazon UK

Available to read in Kindle Unlimited

I’m so very happy to welcome Adira August and her latest Hunt&Cam4Ever mystery to my blog. The book, as always is fabulous and Hunt and Cam are still the deliciously sexy, incendiary hot, and swoon-inducing men we’ve come to know and adore.

Talking about Hunt, he dropped in for an interview I’m delighted to share with you:

HUNTER: Where is she?

ADDI: Helena? She’ll be along in a minute. Cam’s not coming?

HUNTER: You know, Cam. He’ll just sit in the corner and smile and nod. I should bring Mike to these things. Or Twee.

ADDI: You could, if they were in this book. Besides, Twee is quite enough for an interview all by herself. You guys glad to be back at work?

TWSR: Hello, sorry I’m late.

HUNTER (stands and leans down to give Helena a kiss on the cheek): I think we were early. How have you been?

TWSR: I was going to ask you. I’d love to hear the answer to Addi’s question, though.

HUNTER: Cam’s constantly busy between the Foundation, the New York show coming up, and the book coming out.

TWSR: You mean Fractured Men?

ADDI: No. Cam’s working on a book about Alpine skiing with another writer.

TWSR: What about you, Hunter? You seemed to be getting disenchanted with being a homicide detective.

HUNTER: There’s always a point in an investigation when I wish I’d entered some scholarly field. Or become groundskeeper at a golf course. But I’m good at this. The work is critical. There are parts that are satisfying.

TWSR: What about this case in Fractured Men?

HUNTER: (Looks out at the wintery back garden.) No. It was just one more private tragedy in a sea of private tragedies. (shrugs) But I suppose that’s what murder always is, isn’t it?

TWSR: How do you survive that?

HUNTER: Addi’s been making that clear from the beginning. There’s also courage, commitment, duty, sacrifice … That’s love. It always wins.

Did you like that? I sure did. And I’m never washing that cheek again. Js

Blurb

Sometimes what you never thought would happen, does. All at once. A furnace explodes taking your house with it. A cop at the door says your father’s dead. Or lightning stirkes from the ice-blue eyes of a much-too-you-for-you man you pass in a doorway.

One year to the day later, the young man was my husband.

I slid onto a counter stool and Cam handed me a mug of coffee. A big slice of his grandmother Dee’s apple pie waited on a brick red ceramic dish. Our cell phones lay on Cam’s side of the breakfast bar.

He made quite the ceremony of turning my phone off and dropping it into the silverware drawer. “For the seven days of our honeymoon, you are not a homicide detective.”

Somebody should’ve told the killer.

THE BOYS ARE BACK in a ‘cozy mystery’ done Hunt&Cam style that would give Agatha Christie the vapors! Love, sex and murder at an isolated canyon resort with our fave BDSM honeymoon couple. Cam really wants to get Hunt away from his job and onto a horse—God willin’ and the creek don’t rise.

Only then it started raining. … And something popped up.

For adults who like puzzles and power dynamics.

Review

This was where they truly lived for one another, in the power of surrender and safety of control. In the trust that allowed them to use each other, by which they gave to each other. In the absolute joy of mutual lust.

If you’ve been following my reviews at all you won’t be surprised when I say that I’m a HUGE fan of the Hunt&Cam4Ever series. I’ve been raving about these two men since I met them for the very first time in On His Knees/Matchstick Men and have only fallen deeper in love with them with every subsequent book. Fractured Men, the latest instalment, is a very welcome, totally delicious, and very compelling addition to the series.

The fabulousness starts in the very first chapter with a rather short but sublime description of Cam and Hunts wedding and it is EVERYTHING. The glimpse we get is as perfect in its simplicity as it is meaningful and an exquisite portrayal of who these two men are together. A few pages in and I was a blubbering mess while smiling hugely.

Their honeymoon, which should have taken the form of a BDSM dreamtime far away from crimes and interruptions, goes off to a good and, of course, very hot start. But even before there are any signs of trouble, Hunt’s instincts kick in, telling him something isn’t quite right. But, because he is on his honeymoon, he pushes those feelings aside to concentrate on what should be and is his main focus: Cam, his Dom and husband.

Of course, there are a few things we can be sure about when it comes to Cam and Hunt. For starters, there is no doubt that they will be hot as f**k and always manage to come up with something new and exciting while exploring the dynamic between them. The second certainty is that they will, invariably, run into a crime in need of solving.

Their peaceful hideaway turns into a prison of sorts when the rains come and the river and canyon flood, sealing Hunt, Cam, and the other guests in the canyon off from the rest of the world. Of course, that’s also the moment Hunt discovers a corpse who, as far as Hunt can tell, didn’t die from natural causes.

Thus begins yet another investigation. But this one is different from their earlier exploits because due to their isolation, there is only a very limited pool of suspects, which turns Fractured Men into the sort of mystery that reminded me of Agatha Christie and other ‘manor house’ or ‘locked room’ crime stories. Although I suspect the Grande Dame of Mystery might have raised a few eyebrows while reading this book. 😊

I’m not saying anything else about the crime or its solution. Read it and figure it out with Hunt and Cam as they investigate. What I do want to say is that this story came with a fabulous cast of secondary characters, one a blast from Cam’s past. I will also say that while the solution to the mystery was flawless and convincing, it also left me somewhat heartbroken. Then again, it wouldn’t be a Hunt&Cam4Ever story if it didn’t arouse an endless stream of emotions.

As always, these two men are arresting (pun intended), unique, and an absolute joy to read about. Cam in Dom mode is magnificent, almost larger than life, and pretty much a polar opposite to the Cam who’s ‘just’ Hunt’s husband and still young and often shy. While Hunt remains the best example of power in submission I have ever read, as well as one of the most intriguing and complex characters I have encountered.

I’ll end on a bit of advice. If you haven’t read these books yet, do yourself a huge favour and pick up Matchstick Men. I challenge anyone to read that book and not obsessively read all the sequels in quick succession. Just make sure you have a fair bit of time on your hands when you start one of these books. Putting it down once you’ve started reading is all but impossible.

Related Reviews

 On His Knees | Matchstick Men | Dancing Men | Snowed In | Psychic Men | Secret Men

(Please note that On His Knees and Matchstick Men have since been combined into one book, which can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XKLP8PF)