Review: Couldn't finish
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 02 14, 2014
While I read more than what I thought I would after the first few pages, I had to quit. There are too many things that don't make sense, and if they don't in the first 30%, I didn't have much hope.**Spoilers**There is no explanation given to Remy why he must go to London. He is trundled off to the airport, but told he's being demoted to  driver for some senator. Made little sense why he wasn't given a reason.He gets to London and is set up in a shabby hotel. Next Inspector Jamie comes, Remy meets him at the door in a towel and a gun, and the towel drops to the floor, exposing Remy to the stranger. That seemed convenient to get the attraction going, and highly inappropriate.The dislike between the two men is palpable, but is unsubstantiated. We have no reason for it. They snipe at each other like teenagers. These are grown men in responsible positions.The inner dialogue of both men is laden with sex, another thing that I found off-putting. Ostensibly they were brought together to solve cases involving human trafficking, an important and relevant subject. However, we have these men eyeing each other, Jamie watching Remy in the shower, ruminating about the attractiveness of the other, while they do little with the case. This plays into the stereotype that gay men can't be in a room with another man without thinking, talking, or acting on sex. A common theme in m/m, but one that doesn't help the genre, nor does it enhance the story.The seriousness of their purpose should be paramount, with the attraction simmering and building in the background. Here, the cases take a backseat to the continual teenage libidinous thoughts.They take showers every five minutes it seems, and have abundant clothing, though we never got any indication that Remy even packed a bag for his trip.A director from Interpol visits Remy's room and indicates that the two men must room together, though Jamie lives in London, but the reason doesn't make sense. They've both been working on the cases for some time, but suddenly, Jamie can't go home - for whatever reason.This is a convenient set up for the move to the Marriott, where Jamie, or Lord Fordham, has a suite. No explanation as to why he needs one, but he has one.One major error here: An earl and his duchess mother are not minor royalty or members of the royal family. They are nobility, he is a peer of the realm - quite different from royalty.At the Marriott, there is only one bed. This is a contrivance and a not very convincing one. Paired with no real reason for the two men to have to stay together, I didn't buy it.The first night, Remy strips down to his skin and hops in bed. While this might be his habit at home, out of consideration, politeness, decorum, manners--something, he should have worn something to bed.Jamie goes to a gay club, then leaves out the back door and is confronted with paparazzi. Why? Do the photogs stake out gay clubs? The picture is used as a way for Jamie's very annoying mother to confront him about his careless behavior.Again, these men are nearly forty. The duchess (I assume she is a duchess as the driver referred to her as Her Grace, but then he referred to her as Her Ladyship, which is incorrect. [...]) treats Jamie like a child and he allows it. Jamie comes off weak with her and with Remy, and not at all the inspector we are told he is.When Remy finds out Jamie is an earl, he stalks out and acts like Jamie has committed a great offense. "You got what you paid for," he shouts (or words to that effect.) The reaction was childish and more something I'd expect of a woman character than a Phoenix police detective. This conflict is vastly contrived.Remy gives a bellman "a fist full of notes." While Brits call their paper currency notes, Americans don't. In his POV, he would have used bills or money.The case seems a convenient backdrop for the continual misunderstandings and arguments between Remy and Jamie. The conclusions in the trafficking case are repeated over and over again, with nothing added. Given that they don't really do anything (in the first 30%) but interview a grandfather of a missing boy, something Jamie had already done badly, all their interaction could have been conducted electronically. There is no valid reason for Remy to be in London, when two of the cities involved are in the United States.I gave up when the Interpol director assigns Jamie to the UN Human Rights Exploratory Commission, and Remy as his bodyguard. They go undercover (Jamie has worked the case in London and is a high profile peer of the realm.) The director tells him that this assignment will "get you away from the sort of lifestyle that the pictures captured," and that his mother will likely never get wind of it.In the next paragraph she explains how he will visit gay clubs, looking for traffickers, and they will create a cover story of how he has lost his job and is exploring his darkest desires. ??? Then he's supposed to have a public falling out with his family, and he's encouraged to get himself photographed at the clubs, dancing with young men, to established his cover. Remy is his bodyguard, yet they spend an evening in a club dancing thisclose, and end up leaving to go back to the hotel.Soon after, they are told they are going to New York. What was all the above for?The sex talk has a feminine quality. You simply don't expect that level of mush from two experienced police detectives who have seen things no one should ever see, and are older than sixteen.Remy is portrayed as rude and basically a jerk, and Jamie as needy and immature. Nothing there to admire. Also, Americans are referred to as uncouth, surly, and ill-mannered, which I found offensive. There was also a reference to a "midget-high shower head."  Do people not know an insult when they write them?Repetitions like "man-mountain" and the hands running through someone's hair are annoying. Do men really run their fingers through their combed hair or someone else's hair, all the time? I know no one who does that.We had lots of body parts acting on their own, which evokes images that a serious story doesn't need.Misspellings - "He looked as though Michael Angelo himself...." It's Michelangelo. A good editor would have caught that and others.All in all, at 30% in, I have no reason to go further.