Blue on Blue by Dal Maclean

Narrated by Gary Furlong

Sometimes you read or listen to a book you intend to review and then sit staring at the screen wondering how the hell you can possibly encapsulate what you just experienced in a review and do the book justice. This is one of those times, because Blue on Blue, the third instalment in Dal Maclean’s incredible Bitter Legacy trilogy just… blew me away. In fact, every book in this series of complex, gripping, superbly written and expertly narrated romantic mystery/procedural/suspense novels has done that, and the series as a whole is easily one of the very finest of its kind.

Note: Blue on Blue is the third book in a trilogy and doesn’t really work as a standalone. There are spoilers for the earlier books in this review.

Newly returned to the Metropolitan Police, Detective Inspector Will Foster is doing the job he loves and has, for the past nine months, been living with the love of his life, Tom Grey, postgraduate student and part-time model. (Their story leading up to this point is told, from Tom’s PoV, in Object of Desire). Blue on Blue, which is told from Will’s PoV, opens with Will and his colleagues attending the funeral of an officer who was shot in the line of duty and then, somewhat incongruously, moving on to the party being held to celebrate the engagement of DI James Henderson to Ben Morgan (Bitter Legacy). He’s on his own – Tom is in LA on a modelling job and Will is finding their separation a bit tough, especially as he’s started to receive anonymous texts containing photographs of Tom with another man – obviously another model – in moments of relaxed intimacy. On edge at the party, Will is almost relieved to get a shout – a young woman has been found dead in a Soho walk-up, and the South Kensington MIT (Murder Inverstigation Team) is still on rotation so it’s Will’s case.

The victim is a young woman, most likely a sex worker, who appears to have been the target of a professional hit. That, in itself, is strange, and questioning the other occupants of the building doesn’t yield much by way of useful information. Will and his sergeant then go to interview the victim’s flatmate, who is clearly devastated by the news and who desperately urges Will to find the killer. Some of the things she says strengthen Will’s conviction that there is more going on here than meets the eye – a suspicion that is confirmed when the DNA test performed on the pile of vomit found at the scene but a few feet away from the body proves it to belong not to the victim, but to a woman who was convicted of murder thirteen years before. And who is still in prison.

The investigation is frustrating as hell and is taking all Will’s time and energy, but he can’t ignore a call from his superior – Assistant Commissioner Christine Hansen – who tells him that Ava Burchill (aka Jenna Haining from Object of Desire) has been attacked and hospitalised in prison and has asked to see Will. Will has no wish to see or speak to Ava and tries to wriggle out of it, citing his current case and absence of his DCI on business, but Hansen won’t take no for an answer. It turns out that Ava was injured in order to get a message to Will – a message from convicted serial killer Eve Kelly – that she wants to see him. Will isn’t happy at having to take more time away from his murder investigation but he decides to take the bait to see what Kelly wants – and comes away from that meeting realising that he’s stumbled across a hornet’s nest of police corruption linked to gangland boss Joey Clarkson, the man Will holds responsible for the death of his previous sergeant and whom Will has wanted to put away for years. This is too big for Will to handle alone, but when his superiors order him to direct his attention in another direction, he realises the corruption extends to the Met’s highest echelons and that there’s no-one he can trust. Apart, perhaps, from James Henderson – who has become a friend as well as a colleague since Will re-joined the Met – and who agrees, even knowing they might not come out of it alive, to help Will expose the truth.

And while all this is going on, Will is struggling in his personal life. The photos he’s being sent are only serving to re-inforce his own suspicions that Tom wants to end things between them, and it doesn’t help when Tom comes home with a friend in tow – Cam, the other man in the photos – explaining that Cam is in England shopping for an agent (and also to get away from a possessive ex). Will has been waiting for the other shoe to drop ever since Tom moved in, for Tom to realise it was an impulsive decision born of everything he’d been through and that he prefers his exciting, glamourous life to living with a mere copper in Leyton (in North East London – my old stomping ground!). Tom’s been more guarded around Will lately, too, and instead of actually talking about what’s going on (men!) Will, having no idea that he’s sending all sorts of mixed signals to Tom, instead prepares himself to be dumped. Again.

Like the mystery, the relationship between Will and Tom takes many twists and turns in this novel, and I’m not going to spoil any of them, save to paraphrase the great Bette Davis and say you’re in for a bumpy ride. (I will, however, say that yes, there is an HEA :)) The story is complex and brilliantly written as the author skilfully pulls everything together, including elements from plotlines begun in earlier books – many of which were complete surprises (I loved that!) – while also juggling a fairly large and well-realised secondary cast. Her principals really shine though, Will in particular, as the author builds on what we came to know of him through Tom’s eyes in the previous book, a confident, capable man who loves deeply and whose flaws and insecurities make him all too human. Also worthy of note is the friendship between Will and James, which is one of the best things in the book (seriously, I’d read the hell out of “Will and Jamie fight crime” stories!) – they’re dedicated coppers but their approaches are very different and complement each other extremely well.

There are times when you listen to an audiobook and you just know that the narrator completely ‘gets’ the author and their characters, and that’s been the case with every book in this series: Gary Furlong has done the impossible and taken already fantastic books to even greater heights. Everything about his performance here works on every level; all the technical stuff such as pacing, enunciation and character differentiation is excellent, but his vocal acting is outstanding and I would venture to say that he’s done his best work to date in these books. His portrayals of Will and Tom capture them perfectly, and he’s terrific when it comes to conveying the vulnerability and turmoil lying beneath the surface, and all the things they don’t say. His interpretation of Tom is particularly good; from the moment he first speaks in Blue on Blue, I could hear his insecurities and fears for his relationship with Will, his love for him, and all the things that Will misses because he’s so focused on his own fears. Mr. Furlong’s female voices are really good, too; his performance in a late-book interrogation scene featuring a young, female television presenter is gutwrenchingly emotional, and he demonstrates his facility with different UK accents with effortless ease when switching between Northern Irish (Des Salt) and Scottish (Alec Scrivenor) and others in-between.

A clever, complex mystery combined with an angsty, achingly tender romance and an incredible performance by a narrator who is completely in sync with his material, Blue on Blue is outstanding in every way and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

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Caz

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