Review: It just gets better...
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 18, 2014
In book three of what I now think of as her Cornwall series, Ms. Fox has yet again given her devoted readers what they want.  Gideon Frayne, big gentle-hearted copper from the village of Dark, and Lee Tayack, his psychic lover, are living together in a cozy old flat and exploring life as an established couple. Gideon’s once estranged family is back in his life, and in book three we are introduced to Lee’s family.Well, that sounds dull, doesn’t it?But, the joy of Harper Fox is that it isn’t, not remotely.  A lot happens in this book, both in Gideon’s life as a small-town policeman and in Lee’s career as someone who can see beyond this world and into the next.The central focus throughout remains this relationship, the evolving love of these two men for each other, and that sense of wide-eyed wonder they have at the idea of their love. Fox explores that relationship in the way she does best, by posing constant challenges to it and forcing her protagonists to deal with consequences of their own and other’s actions, past and present. Gideon has to deal with criminals; Lee has to deal with ghosts.Sometimes the two overlap.Fox’s beautiful writing (always perfectly edited) draws the reader into the world of Cornwall—the physical landscape, the weather, the seasonal shifts, and the sense of the people and the community.  She not only brings it alive, but makes the reader part of it, so that one is always hovering on the edge of the action and silently participating in the conversations.Fox creates characters so palpably real, with all their human flaws and fragility, that they become friends; folks we want to spend time with and get to know better.  One of the many little joys of this volume is Gideon’s decade-older brother Ezekiel, a hawk-faced reminder of their father, the late pastor Frayne. With a gentle touch, Fox strips away stereotypes and the brothers’ own emotional defenses, unearthing a deep yearning for fraternal love long buried in the debris of two emotionally stunted childhoods.And we learn, at last, Lee’s back story, the small-town saga of the Tayacks. Along with Gideon, we gradually understand who Lee is and, more importantly, why he is.The beginning of understanding comes, strangely enough, in a dream in which Gideon and Lee meet as little boys, hiding under a bed from a monster. In that dream Lee takes Gideon’s hand and tells him, “Don’t let go.” In that simple moment, taken as the title of the book, the magic of a gifted author is loosed in all its touching, intimate splendor.Harper Fox is always thanking Josh Lanyon as her guide and mentor.  Here is one case, I think, of the student catching up with the teacher.This book would be a perfectly fine way to end the Tayack and Frayne series. Whether Fox chooses to take them further or leave them here makes no difference. They have been realized in full, and all of us can be grateful.