The Hell You Say

The Adrien English Mysteries, Book 3

By: Josh Lanyon

Narrated by: Chris Patton

Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

The third novel in the Adrien English series finds the "ill-starred and bookish" mystery writer and bookseller battling demons - maybe literally. After bookstore clerk Angus flees following terrifying death threats, Adrien must contend with a mysterious Satanic cult, a hot and handsome university professor, and his on-again/off-again relationship with closeted LAPD Homicide Detective Jake Riordan. And, oh, yes, murder...

©2007 MLR Press (P)2013 Josh Lanyon

Good if painful read

This series is interesting. It is very story driven with very little in the way of erotica/sex - some but not a ton. I like Adrian English quite a bit, and can see his attraction to Detective Jake Riordan. That fact does not make me want to smack Jake upside the head any less.

This book is a bit dark, and bridges a difficult portion of the mc's relationship. It is important to their over-arching story-line, but is probably my least favorite book and story line in the series.

I really like Josh Lanyon, and his writing but I have to be in the right mood to read/listen to his books. they are not brain candy in my estimation and also not light and easy sexy time romances - but smart, often funny, dark and complex.

Chris Patton is exactly the right voice for this series. Love him.

No Napoli Bitter

felt familiar to other occult mysteries. The thread with Jake and Adrian unresolved. A pleasant listen but not compelling.

Fun mystery!

_The Hell You Say_ by Josh Lanyon receives 4 stars from me; the mystery is fun, and the character development is as well.

First, the Reader: Chris Patton. Patton is excellent as the voice of the main character Adrien English. His interpretation of the character was solid. I liked his voices too, especially for Jake. Patton's voice for Lisa reminded me of the Purple commercial with the bigfoot family. I liked it. I think Patton is a solid reader, and I'd enjoy another book read by him.

Now, the story. I don't think this is a very complicated mystery, but it isn't predictable either. I enjoyed the setting, the characters. Perhaps, I enjoyed the characters more than the plot, which is ok with me. I think that Adrien is an interesting character and I enjoyed his interior monologues where he tried to unravel the mystery. Those were interesting to me. Additionally, I feel that there was some development in his character in regards to his relationship with Jake. I found the relationship between the two to be realistic, although perhaps not healthy.

Will I continue to read / listen to the others in the series. I think so. I liked the characters and would enjoy watching the development.

Recommended: Yes.

I have a confession to make

My confession is that I am positively and irrevocably addicted to this brilliant series .

Chris Patton narration is faultless.

Flawless like all the books in this series

The Adrien English series is the Holy Grail of m/m fiction: a slow burn romance (a slow burn over SIX BOOKS), compelling mysteries, flawless writing. The Hell You Say is the one I'm most likely to want to skip when I relisten to the series (and I can listen to the entire series over and over again) but it would be a mistake to do so; even though this book isn't exactly the high point in the saga of Adrien and Jake, it's still a fantastic read (or listen; Chris Patton is perfect). There isn't much to say about this series except that it's the best m/m mystery series--or indeed the best m/m series in general--in existence.

Story still feels dated

I am so angry at Jake. SO ANGRY. There are no words to fully describe how much I utterly despise him at the end of this book. Poor Adrien.

I will try to review this book in spite of Jake.

Content notes for abuse, homomisia, satanic cults, racism, references to Harry Potter, and stalking.

This is one of those books where the story is compelling enough for a reader who may decide to just give up on reading solely for the romance. Last I checked, this is a series in the romance genre, but it definitely doesn’t feel like it. I’m not necessarily sure there’s technically cheating involved, since it was never stated that Adrien and Jake are in a monogamous relationship. BUT, Adrien certainly doesn’t want them to be in an open relationship either. I know a lot of romance readers view this as a hard no for books, but since this exactly doesn’t crop up until the third book…if you’ve made it this far into the series, you’re probably not going to stop reading the series now.

Adrien isn’t the one really getting cheated on, per se. He’s really the “other woman”, for lack of a better term, in this relationship with Jake. Jake still very much wants to be married, and have babies, and all this he envisions having with a woman. Which means that Adrien’s not even in the running for that future Jake thinks he wants. And it hurts to realize that. We’ve known for two books now that Jake has some really big hang-ups about being gay, but we don’t really quite know the depths of it until shocking revelations in this book that’ll make you want to punch Jake in the face. (Or that’s just me, because I really feel like someone should punch Jake for being awful).

ANYWAYS. The saving grace in this book is the mystery. I have a weird fascination with cults, and this story brings it. In spades. There’s a Satanic cult involved with threatening messages to Adrien’s bookstore, and at the center of it all, might involve his employee, Angus. Angus is a strange college student Adrien managed to hire after a slew of temps sent over by the temp agency. Angus is odd, but he gets the job done, and Adrien can’t really ask more from him. Except the messages left for Angus has Angus scared and Adrien pays him to go hide away for a little while. The move is innocent enough in Adrien’s mind, until, that is, it puts Adrien at the center of yet another crime investigation.

This book is also extremely dated at this point and the contemporary references hasn’t aged well. There’s a prolonged explanation about Yu-Gi-Oh, references to the Flintstones?, and for some unexplainable reasonable while Adrien does own a cell phone he still calls from a pay phone and wired phones? It’s strange. Also, Adrien reads like his age would be now, roughly 20 years since the book was originally published past his age of 33, so more like a guy in his 50s. At least. The way he views and comments on people in their 20s was so weird when he’s only supposed to be in his early 30s in this book.

There’s a lot of new characters, but most importantly, a guy named, well, Guy Snowden. He’s a university professor with what seems to be a fake English accent. He’s into teaching classes on witchcraft and older than Adrien. He’s attraction to Adrien is not subtle. He’s a suspect, but also likable enough? I do like that Adrien has a new family in this book and everyone is actually really lovely. Poor Adrien being in his thirties and getting siblings for the first time is really fun to read about.

SO BACK TO JAKE. BECAUSE HE IS THE WORST. Problems with Jake include unprotected sex with Adrien when he’s clearly sleeping with other people. And he gets abusive at the end and Adrien himself says that he’s frightened that Jake would kill him, because Jake is pissed off at Adrien. HOW DO YOU COME BACK FROM THAT. It hasn’t been a physically abusive relationship before that point, and yet we’re supposed to forgive Jake down the road? Like, IDK you guys. This is a touted as a ~romance and Adrien and Jake are supposedly endgame. But, as far as I’m concerned at the end of this book, Jake can leave Adrien’s life forever and never return.

And there ends my very passionate stance on LAPD Detective Jake Patrick Riordan.

This book, like all the rest so far, ends quite abruptly and I don’t know if the author just doesn’t know how to write an ending or what, but it’s very odd. Thank goodness the next book is out? Because the ending of very unsatisfying.

Not the best and not the worst

I enjoyed the previous books, especially the second one. This had way too many characters that didn't really have any signicant role. The problem with an insane amount of characters serving no purpose is that you don't know who really to focus on. I suppose they were added to help with the mystery, which would have really been flat. For me what was missing was the dynamic between Jake and Adrien, instead he was partnered with characters that weren't really interesting or developed. Angus who I thought would be more front and center wasn't as much. Lot's of potential with existing characters, but that wasn't the road he traveled.

For these reasons, the substance of the story just felt forced and just went on and on. I'll finish the series, because I love the chemistry between Jake and Adrien even when they are annoyed with one another. I hope the next one makes up for this so so story.

Pretty thin and dated

Great book if you're 17 and into Satan. Because Audible doesn't put dates published with the books (something I am still begging them to do) this book actually contained reference to "floppy disks."

Only made it to Chapter 4

Although well written and performed, I found the main character far too self-satisified for my taste. I also did not expect such an explicit sex scene between the main character and his occasional lover, Jake, in what I initially thought was going to be a light mystery.

I should have read the reviews more carefully. I'm sure others will enjoy this somewhat self-consciously edgy novel, but it's not for me.

spoilers!!! Beware!!!

Adrian was so weak in this book!!!! I was fuming at how he would allow Jake to verbally and physical assault him. Hopefully the next 2 books Adrian stands up for himself.