Review: Not quite stand-alone...
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 13, 2013
I recently finished "Into Deep Waters" by Kaje Harper and having fallen quite in love with it, I was keen to read something else by her. Being a bit of a stingy she-dog, I opted for a freebie and ended up with this one. This is a short sequel to a book by Ms Harper that I haven't read, about a teacher and a closeted police officer. I might be in the minority on this one, but I actually quite like closeted characters, so I was pretty enthusiastic about it.As with "Into Deep Waters," the writing is pretty tight. There are some cliché turns of phrase that I could've done without, but overall it's good. The characters are believable and I like the dynamics between what I perceive as Tony's more out-and-loud persona compared to Mac's deep-in-the-closet one. However, I thought the way the characters' backstories are dealt with was quite clunky and clumsy. It is as if the author is trying to cram the whole plot from the first book into a short summary, and it ends up being a bit stilted and awkward. I also find the way Mac talks to his colleague about his home-situation over-indulgent and out of character. He strikes me more as the strong silent type, not as the open-the-floodgates type.On the whole, this is largely well-written and the characters are interesting. The only fault, really, is the way it doesn't quite work as a stand-alone story and how this affects the writing. I'm still optimistic about this author though.