TITLE: Acts of Passion
AUTHOR: Sedonia Guillone
COVER ARTIST: Louca Matheo
LENGTH: 186 Pages
GENRE: LGBT; Gay Romance; Mystery and Detective; Romantic Suspense
RELEASE DATE: January 15, 2016
BLURB: When a man is found in his apartment, appearing to have committed hara kiri with a samurai sword, Boston Homicide Detective Jack Cade suspects more is going on than what it appears. The department’s criminal profiler has left and a new guy is taking his place. At first, Cade is skeptical of Dr. Michael Di Santo. Di Santo seems so absent-minded and too neurotic to be effective. But he is brilliant and hot and Cade finds himself falling hard and fast, both in lust and in love. The attraction is mutual, although Michael's past demons haunt him, keeping him from getting too close. Together, they begin to unravel Michael's emotional knots even as they close in on a killer, another brilliant, wily person whose sights are now set on Michael.
Studying the front area of the building, he wandered down the flower box lined stone walk of the apartment building and turned to face it. Crime lab workers and patrol officers moved around on either side of the yellow crime tape, keeping the building cordoned off until Jack gave instructions to clear out and retain only the apartment as the crime scene.
Jack stepped aside to let someone go past him and bump! Smacked into something.
He turned. “Excuse me, I’m—” Or rather, he’d bumped into someone.
The man was adjusting the glasses Jack had apparently knocked off his face. “You’re in a crime scene,” Jack said.
“Yes, I know.” Almond-shaped brown eyes seemed to study Jack from behind round lenses. He looked Asian, yet sort of…not Asian at the same time. His dark brown hair was styled in a conventional way, parted on the side in short layers. The crumpled navy suit he wore, complete with diagonally striped tie against a light blue dress shirt made him appear as if his mother had dressed him for a spelling bee at school even though he was probably about Jack’s age. Forty.
Jack blinked. He was taking absolutely too long to find out who this man was. Then light dawned. Of course. “Dr. Di Santo?”
“Detective Cade?”
“That’s me. Hope I didn’t break your glasses.”
Di Santo touched them on each side as if to check. “No, they’re fine.”
Jack watched the man’s hands as he gingerly adjusted the frames. Nicely shaped fingers. Clean, trimmed nails. “Sorry I bumped you that way.”
“No problem.” Di Santo cleared his throat. “I hope I can be of help to you.”
Jack started. “Me too. This way.” He led Di Santo into the building and up to the apartment. “As I told you on the phone, I’m not so sure this was a suicide.” He let Di Santo precede him into the apartment and followed him, observing the way the slim man took in the surroundings on his way over to the victim.
Jack explained his suspicions and then let the man work. For what seemed a long time, Di Santo wandered about then stood in the center of the room, his gaze on the coffee table. His hand disappeared into his jacket pocket and pulled something out, which he popped into his mouth.
Jack watched him. Watched the man’s cheek bulge on the side while he sucked on whatever it was in his mouth, his gaze intent on the coffee table and victim. He then approached Jack and Jack heard the click of hard candy against the guy’s teeth. Finally Di Santo turned and knelt by the body.
Jack saw the professor’s eyes widen, especially on the hilt of the knife. “What is it?”
Di Santo seemed to ignore his question, staring at the knife. “Were his hands on the hilt of the knife or over his face when you found him?”
“Over his face.”
“Okay. Please open the robe so I can see the wound,” he said to Murphy.
Murphy did as he asked and Di Santo gazed for what seemed five straight minutes at the vicious cross-shaped cut in the centre of the wound.
“Jumonji giri,” he said, nearly in a whisper.
“What?” Jack looked between the knife wound and Di Santo.
The hot-yet-nerdy man was still staring down, seeming to ignore him. The candy in his mouth clicked several times against his teeth.
“Dr. Di Santo?”
While checking on a supposed suicide, Detective Jack Cade becomes suspicious and calls in a profiler to help him determine if it was indeed a suicide or not. Newcomer Michael Di Santo steps in for his old professor to help Jack and together they determine it is indeed a homicide. As they start investigating, they grow closer, but there are things that might put a damper onto their relationship, including the killer as he becomes fixated on Michael.
This was such a fantastic, fast-paced, action-packed book, filled with suspense, intrigue, romance and fabulous writing! The main characters were tridimensional and likable, especially Jack, whom I adored. He was such an interesting character, strong, reliable, loyal and also vulnerable, willing to do whatever Michael needed, even when things didn't look good for the two of them. I wanted to slap some sense into Michael sometimes, even if I did understand why he acted the way he did, still, he hurt Jack and that alone made me want to hurt him. Anyway, they worked together, had amazing chemistry and their banter was great, nevermind the very hot sex scenes, which were a nice plus in the midst of them trying to catch the killer.
All in all, this was a very good read! If you're a fan of series like Criminal Minds, as I am, you'll be in heaven. It's such a fantastic book, I'm sure you'll all enjoy it as much as I did.
Rating: 4.5 Stars!!!
Award-winning, multi-published author of erotic romance, Sedonia Guillone spends her days writing deliciously naughty romances—when she’s not cuddling with the man she loves or watching kung fu and samurai films and eating chocolate.
Sedonia welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email address on her author bio page at www.sedoniaguillone.com.
Winner’s Prize: Print copy of Acts of Passion
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Thank you so much for the incredible review!
ReplyDeleteIt was my pleasure! I really enjoyed your book, are you writing more books in this 'verse?
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