A Friend in the Fire

An Auden & O'Callaghan Mystery, Book 2

By: C.S. Poe, Gregory Ashe

Narrated by: Garrett Kiesel

Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

After solving the mystery behind the death of his former friend in July, ex-Army Sam Auden has been aimlessly wandering the country. Everything had gone sideways in New York City, so when his phone rings three months later, the caller is the last person Sam expected to be asking for help.

Confidential informant Rufus O’Callaghan has been struggling. His NYPD contact was murdered over the summer, and the man Rufus is head over heels for was driven away by his own undiagnosed trauma. But when he receives an anonymous letter that promises information on his mother, life goes from dark to dangerous in the blink of an eye.

Sam and Rufus must dig into Rufus’s rough and turbulent past in order to solve a series of contemporary murders connected to his mother. And if the two can’t expose who the killer is in time, they will most certainly become his next targets.

©2021 C.S. Poe, Gregory Ashe (P)2021 C.S. Poe, Gregory Ashe

The book is great

The book is great. The narration not so much. A bit flat. Sometimes I find it difficult to hear who says what. But the story? Brilliant.

Great Narration& Story

Love these 2 guys together. their just perfect. The story was interesting and narration great.

Good story. Good narration.

Another action packed murder mystery. I enjoyed it. Mostly, I like the characters. Rufus and Sam are an interesting team. The last book ended on a disagreement between them, but a reunion seemed inevitable.

I keep getting Jack Reacher vibes from Sam, but I am not complaining. I am just very amused by the idea. Sam is still hiding most of his backstory, but we do get hints in this book. Rufus needs help with his past so he calls Sam. Things go about as well as they did in the first book. Mayhem happens.

I am looking forward to the next book. I want the rest of the mystery.... I am also enjoying the narration. Garrett Kiesel has a much better performance in this book. There are still a few awkward pauses here and there, but I like how he voices the characters.

Sam Auden and Rufus O'Callaghan are back and bette

After their horrible argument three months ago, Sam Auden finally get the call he's been hoping for. Rufus needs him. Someone who claims to know something about Rufus's mother's death contacted him, and asked to meet. Instead of learning more about the night Daisy died, Rufus is brutally attacked and barely manages to escape.

He needs Sam's help. Daisy might have been a prostitute and would never have won Mother of the Year, but she was the only family Rufus had and he won't find peace until he knows exactly what happened to her.

I've never heard Garrett Kiesel before this series, and I can say I'm a huge fan. He portrays Sam exactly how I thought of him, but Rufus! I love it! Well done!

I love Sam & Rufus

A Friend in the Fire by Gregory Ashe & C.S. Poe was given to me in exchange for an honest review. We pick up 3 months after the first book in this series where Rufus starts looking into the death of his mother Daisy. When he runs into a knife wielding man who wants him dead he calls Sam for help. As Gregory and C.S. weave a wonderful and intriguing murder mystery while keeping the snarkiness of both Sam & Rufus you can't help but get caught up in all the craziness these two create. I loved this book narrated by Garrett Kiesel and really brings these two to life.

Past and Some Boundaries

I received an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. Here it is.
This instalment of the series focuses on the adventures our heroes encounter when trying to figure out what had happened, all those years ago, with Rufus’ mother. Somebody from the past, who should have been in jail, appears one day in Rufus’ way and tries to stab him. This attack makes Rufus call Sam and ask for his help. And Sam comes back, and together they start putting together the sombre memories that might help them disentangle the past. This search carries them through Manhattan, the NYPL, the Brooklin, and some parts of Jersey. They ponder on what it means to be a victim of a crime when you come from a low status profession, and how easy it is to let people like that slip into oblivion.
The relation between the two MCs enters into the boundary negotiation stage. Rufus takes steps towards treating his illness, and we are offered a short blink into a possibly violent past Sam might have.
The narrator is perfect - it has a default quality that leaves the story intact.

Loved it

Loved this story. Fell in love with Sam and Rufus in A Friend In The Dark and loved them more in A Friend in The Fire. The story developed well and the dialogue was great.
I just love Garrett Kiesel, his interpretation is spot on and I could listen to him read anything!

Brilliant

This is a brilliant series, characters are amazing. Great plot, can't wait for more of this.

LOVED

Sam and Rufus are back together again and that can only spell TROUBLE! Of course they find themselves in the middles of danger. What else have we come to expect from these two!
While these two had parted on less than the best of terms, when Rufus needs him Sam is there.
A current day situation harkens back to a decades old history.
With danger and intrigue surrounding them, who can they trust?
I loved the slow build of this case. As a reader you will become immersed in this world, the good, the bad and the ugly.
Garrett Kiesel does a terrific job narrating this story.

slowly warming up

After Rufus and Sam worked together in book one of this series, though there was some attraction and connection between them, the two went their separate ways. I do believe that things will eventually work out for them, but I was okay with their hiatus because both men definitely had some issues to work out.

As we start out this book, Rufus is nearly stabbed by someone from his past, and it really kind of leads into the mystery that needs to be solved in this book. But he can’t exactly solve it on his own so he makes a call to Sam. Sam has been hitchhiking his way around the country for some reason. Sam has PTSD and also some sensory processing issues that made him adverse to touch sometimes and left him with nightmares. Though he started seeing someone for help and taking medicine again, his behavior at the beginning of the story reminded me he is a little bit of a jerk, too.

In a nice cameo from one of Gregory Ashe’s other series, Sam finds himself in Wahredua at the Pretty Pretty club and happens to see Hazard and Somerset before he takes home a bartender and leaves the man in tears just when the call from Rufus comes in. I was turned off by Sam’s callous treatment of this side character, but also happy when he rushed off to help Rufus without hesitation. I definitely appreciate that characters are flawed just like people are in reality. Rufus is crap at taking care of himself so Sam’s first action is to get him to finally sleep and then feed his malnourished body. Both of them clearly missed each other and proceeded to piss each other off with their trust issues and defensiveness. I do see some positive changed in the two men and I believe they will continue to get better as individuals and as a couple, but their happy ever after isn’t in sight yet.

Which leads us to our mystery. There were a few moments that amount of players involved in the murder of Rufus’s mother and several others was confusing. I got lost in what was happening a few times, but I also was able to sort it out in a short amount of time. The investigation and resolution of the crimes was exciting even though I felt bad for Rufus at the same time. I had no clue to who the killer was, but it wasn’t really written in a way that I think the reader is able to figure it out. It was nice to be surprised. And of course the police department still has its share of crooked cops, but Rufus’s new handler seems to be a good fit with him. Things are still a little bit up in the air of where Rufus and Sam are heading, but I am along for the ride for sure.

This is only the second time that I’ve listened to this narrator but I found his performance enjoyable and I hope to see him narrating more books in this genre. As for this book, I recommend it and the series.