Orientation

A Borealis Investigations, Book 1

De: Gregory Ashe

Narrado por: Charlie David

Shaw and North are best friends, private detectives, and in danger of losing their agency. A single bad case, followed by crippling lawsuits, has put them on the brink of closing shop. Until, that is, a client walks into their Benton Park office.

Matty Fennmore is young, blond, and beautiful, and he’s in danger. When he asks for Shaw and North’s help foiling a blackmail scheme, the detectives are quick to accept.

The conspiracy surrounding Matty runs deeper than Shaw and North expect. As they dig into the identity of Matty’s blackmailer, they are caught in a web that touches politicians, the local LGBT community, and the city’s police.

An attack on Matty drives home the rising stakes of the case, and Shaw and North must race to find the blackmailer before he can silence Matty. But a budding romance lays bare long-buried feelings between Shaw and North, and as their relationship splinters, solving the case may come at the cost of their friendship.

©2019 Gregory Ashe (P)2019 Gregory Ashe

A Great Start To Another Great Series!

Gregory Ashe is one of my favorite contemporary authors. His writing is crisp, smart, funny, and impressive in its ability to make you *feel* something. After falling completely, maddingly in love with his Hazard & Somerset series, I was excited embark on a new Ashe adventure.

North and Shaw are complex, endearing characters. Their relationship is beautiful, deep, complicated, simple, and--at times--infuriating. They are friends who care deeply about each other, each wishing, in their own way, that they could be more. Shaw naturally seems like the more fragile of the two, but by the end, one wonders if it isn't North who might fall apart in a brisk wind without Shaw as his anchor.

The mystery in this novel is wickedly smart.
It's hard to express just how smart it is without spoilers, but It's like if a Sherlock novel and Macgyver had a baby and that baby took classical piano lessons from the age of 3, kind of smart. You might think you have a bead on what's going on, on the culprit/s behind it, and you might be right... For a while at least.

Charlie David does a nice job narrating the story, giving each character their own, unique voice and setting the tone throughout the entire book.

In summary, you really should get this book if it sounds like something that's up your alley. You won't be disappointed, but you will be swept up and carried away into North and Shaw's daring, dangerous, and intriguing world.

It's Gregory Ashe's world, and we're all just living in it.

*I would be remiss to not take this opportunity to also plug his Hazard & Somerset series as well. Both series are amazing (Sorry Gregory I had to)!*

Fantastic

‘Moments like these, very rare, very few, we’re like catching fireflies.’

You can’t help but want North and Shaw to wake up and really see what they mean to each other. It’s a great case of having so many years behind you that it clouds your judgement on the other person. So many memories you never spoke of. Which of course means they know exactly how to hurt each other too.

“If you’re thinking about what Shaw would look like in a collar, join the club,” North said. “He’d look f***ing fantastic in one.”

GA does it again.

What an introduction to this author and series!

Gregory Ashe was an author who came highly recommended to me by my friends who adore M/M romance as much as I do. I can't believe it's taken me THIS long to finally dive into a story of his, but given that Orientation is the first in the Borealis Investigations series, I decided this was the best time to discover his writing without me whining and complaining that I'd have to do a lot of back list reading. Funnily, after listening to this audiobook, I've decided to check out Ashe's audio back list via the first three audiobooks in his previous series, Hazard and Somerset, which is the same series my friends have been encouraging me to check out for the past couple of years, while I'm still on my three-month trial run with Audible Escape.

Orientation introduces listeners to North McKinney and Kingsley Shaw Wilder Aldrich, best friends and co-owners of Borealis Investigations. With the future of their business in limbo after an incident that finds North with a suspended PI license, North and Shaw know that they need to say "yes" to the next case that comes their way, and that just happens to be a case of blackmail. Matty Fennmore may be gay but there's no way he can come out of the closet, not with his family being as conservative as they are, so being the victim of blackmail has him in dire straits. But there's more going on than meets the eye, and when all is said and done, solving the case may end up costing North and Shaw more than they bargained for.

Color me absolutely intrigued! Gregory Ashe has penned a story that had me on my toes from start to finish. I was totally curious about the case itself, as well as the relationship between North and Shaw, one that clearly had some history to it. This was heavier on the mystery and suspense than on the romance, but the inklings that were there made it obvious that Ashe was slowly building towards something, and I'm guessing we'll be delving deeper as the series moves forward. With as far as the narration is concerned, Charlie David isn't my favorite narrator for the same reason I'm not a Sebastian York fan--they both sound lackadaisical--though I know they're both favorites of many listeners. Overall, four stars for Orientation. ♥

Ashe has done it again

love Hazard and Somerset and now with Shaw and North... Excellent portrayal of the Gays...

Narration hurt

As a native of St. Louis, the narrator's pronunciation of some streets and areas of St. Louis is painful. The story itself was surprisingly weak from this author. This is the first book of this author that I've not enjoyed. This book is a DNF finish for me.