Love is a Stranger by John Wiltshire

Narrated by Gary Furlong

John Wiltshire’s More Heat Than the Sun series is yet another of those that’s been on my radar for AGES and which I haven’t yet got around to reading. It consists of eight books (and I believe a ninth is in progress) featuring the same central couple, and the books follow them through a period of around a decade as they become caught up in all sorts of perilous adventures and other shenanigans while navigating their complicated relationship. Having read the synopses for all the books, it sounds a bit like a British version of the Cut and Run series – the plots are fast-paced and often bonkers, the characters are damaged and complex, the love story is epic and in the end, it’s all going to add up to many hours of supremely enjoyable hokum. That sort of thing is right up my alley, and when you add narration by Gary Furlong into the mix, it’s fair to say that my reaction, when offered this title for review, was “GIMME!!” (Although I was rather more polite than that!)

Former SAS officer Ben Rider now works for the sooper-sekrit Black Ops division of British Intelligence headed up by the enigmatic and urbane Sir Nikolas Mikkelsen, a Danish diplomat who is married to a minor royal. Right off the bat we discover that Ben and Nikolas have been fucking for four years on and off, and at first, this threw me a bit – it was like walking into the middle of a story. But stick with it – I quickly realised that while these two know each other physically, that’s pretty much ALL they know of each other. Love is a Stranger explores the development of the emotional side of their relationship and how it evolves as they come to really know each other.

When the book opens, Ben has just returned to his remote cottage on the moors to discover that a fire has destroyed it and killed the man he’d left asleep in bed before he went out for his run. A month later, when Ben meets with Nikolas, they discuss the possibility that the fire wasn’t an accident, and that Ben is being targeted by the family of a man he killed in the line of duty. The author keeps this storyline humming along in the background while Nikolas sends Ben off on a mission to infiltrate a group of animal rights activists – which is a front for a more dangerous criminal operation run by two brothers who were formerly in the IRA. There are a number of different plotlines that run throughout the first part of the story which culminate in a climactic event that leads to Nikolas leaving his position and setting up his own private Black Ops agency. After this, things change direction, and the rest of the book is much more relationship-focused as Ben is forced to come to terms with the reality that he knows practically nothing about the man he’s fallen in love with – and discovers that Nikolas has been living a lie, that he’s “a figure of masks, illusions, and transitory alliances”. A man who doesn’t really exist.

As I was listening, it became apparent that Love is a Stranger wasn’t quite what I’d expected. Which isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy it, because I did, but I was expecting it to be more of a romantic suspense/action/spy-thriller-type-story, whereas in fact it’s a dramatic and sometimes – dare I say it? – even soap-opera-ish relationship story with action/thriller elements. (None of which was a problem for me.) The writing is generally strong, but I believe this was the author’s début and that does show at times in some repetitive phrasing and melodramatic prose, but there’s no question there’s some good quality writing here, and the central relationship is extremely well-done. Ben and Nikolas are compelling leads who aren’t always easy to like, and their connection is intense and complicated and messy. There’s a lot of sex in this book (a LOT – and no mention of lube. Ouch!) – some of it described in detail, some of it almost fade-to-black, and the author does a good job of using a number of the sex scenes to show the growing intimacy and the subtle shifts in the relationship dynamic between Ben and Nikolas. But there are also quite a few of them that don’t really advance the story or relationship and which slow the pace considerably; the balance of sex to story doesn’t feel quite right and I couldn’t help thinking that some of the sex scenes could have been cut (there would still have been plenty left in!) in order to keep the momentum going in other areas.

Ben is the PoV character, a gorgeous, deadly, highly skilled operative who has performed many different tasks for Queen and Country, from baiting honeytraps to assassinations. He’s thirty (to Nik’s forty-two), he doesn’t take any crap unless he wants to and he’s got a good sense of humour and sarcastic tongue that acts as a nice foil to Nikolas’ even drier wit. As for Nikolas, well he’s “the proverbial riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” Handsome, charming, powerful, sexy and very, very dangerous, he’s a master of deflection and evasion and has avoided being known by anyone his whole life. He wants to keep it that way, but Ben has got under his skin and Nik slowly comes to realise that he can’t – doesn’t want to – give him up. The big reveal, when it comes, is pretty shocking and not for the faint of heart, and it turns everything upside down, leaving Ben and Nik to face some stark and dangerous choices heading into book two, Conscious Decisions of the Heart (released earlier this month).

Gary Furlong is an incredibly versatile performer and one of the best male narrators of romance around. One of the things he’s best known for is his facility with a wide variety of accents, and he gets to exhibit that talent here in his characterisation of Nikolas, whose English is inflected with an American twang – in the way of many Scandinavians, no doubt because of the steady diet of US movies and TV shows they’re exposed to when they’re learning the language. But Mr. Furlong stops short of a full-on American accent and injects a European note, which made it sound all the more authentic to my ears. It’s well-judged, skilful and consistent throughout – and that Nikolas sounds like melted chocolate poured over rich caramel doesn’t hurt either ;) Ben does most of the emotional heavy-lifting in the story, and Mr. Furlong inhabits the character, hitting all the right emotional cues, displaying perfect comic timing in the lighter moments and banter-laden dialogues, and bringing Ben – a wonderful mix of sexy and cheeky, deadly and vulnerable – to life in vibrant colour. It’s a first-rate performance in every respect and is the perfect complement to this tale.

Love is a Stranger might not have been quite what I expected, but I enjoyed it and I’m sufficiently invested in Nikolas and Ben and their story to want to know what happens next. Gary Furlong’s perceptive and obviously switched-on performance is a compelling argument for following this series in audio, and I’m eagerly looking forward to more.

NOTE: This is an action/adventure/suspense genre. There are acts of violence in this book, including references to torture (one instance on the page) and references to childhood sexual assault.

Caz