Review: Fun and Endearing
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 09 16, 2009
FBI Special Agent Alex Ware and his partner, Special Agent Shawn Matthews are in deep trouble. Deep undercover to try to nail a particularly offensive weapons trafficker who doesn't trust nor do business with sexually straight people, they're forced into an intimacy that Alex hadn't anticipated - but what really makes him worry is just how much he enjoys the six month deep cover operation. What shocks him is when his Aussie partner and friend, Matthews, comes clean on both his bi-sexuality AND his interest in Alex. An interest that supersedes any work-related cover op.And from that point on, Alex's life - as neurotic and repressed as it was - turns on its ear and becomes uncomfortable, uncertain, and wracked with yearning. In short, utterly unrecognizable.Shawn is adorable in his open devotion to Alex, and Alex is quirky and frustrating in turns as he struggles with his fear and sexual confusion. As a character driven cop thriller, their relationship is the best part of Matter of Necessity.It's a solid short story, but it could have been truly great had there been more depth and detail given on their undercover assignment and fleshed out to a full length novel. The glossed-over introduction to the thug they're trying to bring down lessened the tension of the cop thriller aspect of the story. I also would've liked a bit more detail on the physical aspect of Shawn and Alex's relationship.