Orientation

A Borealis Investigations, Book 1

By: Gregory Ashe

Narrated by: Charlie David

Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

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

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.

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.

Hands Inside the Car

It’s another bumpy emotional roller coaster with a great whodunnit. Can’t wait to finish; never want it to end.

It would be five stars all around, if only ...

I love this book, I love North and Shaw, and HOLY CATS is Charlie David a terrific performer. So why only 4/5 stars for the performance? Because as good as it is, it suffers from repeated pronunciation mistakes, even of some words that IMO are fairly commonplace. Honestly, Mr. David owes it to himself to look up the pronunciation of any word he's less than 10000000% sure of, because the quality of his performance in every other respect is superb. It's almost worse when work of such high quality is marred by such easily avoided faults.

Well, I'm off to listen to the next in the series, with fingers crossed that someone else has held Mr. David's feet to the fire on this point.

Outstanding

The book is narrated by Charlie David who does an awesome job bringing this book to life. Sexy smooth voice that matches what you would expect from North and down to earth voice that matches Shaw's authentic self. I loved it and can't wait to hear the next one!!!

knew this series would be another hit with me since I loved the Hazard and Somerset series so much. I'm so in love with Greg’s writing. He has a real talent for drawing you in and keeping you there and I’m a huge fan of his storytelling ability. It’s almost poetic and it flows effortlessly, which I love because it speaks to my heart. The MCs are well developed and come with a lot of baggage however, these 2 had me laughing out loud and they have a very unique relationship.

The mystery element was clever and had me guessing 'til the end.

I'll definitely be continuing on with this series 

A highly entertaining mystery featuring two fascinating gay PI's

With Orientation, author Gregory Ashe brings us another pair of inwardly tortured gay detectives, but with none of the awkward edges of his Hazard and Somerset series. The personalities and inner conflicts of his Borealis private investigators, North and Shaw, have a coherent emotional dynamic missing in the earlier series. Not that I dislike Hazard and Somerset; I enjoy those books quite a bit. But Hazard’s inner psyche has a stitched together, Frankenstein quality, as if characteristics from radically different people were pieced together In a way that’s left the disjointed seams showing. Both North and Shaw have deep seated emotional scars, some of them raw and open, but I can easily accept them as two unique, coherent personalities, each of whom have experienced different kinds of trauma but who’ve held on to their individual identities.

Set in contemporary St. Louis, Orientation finds North and Shaw on the trail of a blackmailer in possession of videos of members of the LGBTQ community in compromising positions. A core dynamic of the book is that the two PI’s are clearly in love with each other, but, because of missed opportunities, misunderstandings, and their own private demons, neither can acknowledge this obvious truth. Worse, North is already married and Shaw is still dealing with a violent assault from his past.

You might expect Orientation, given these plot points, to be a dark and angsty novel. In fact, it’s hilarious. The banter between North and Shaw, both in private and when threatened, is inventive, funny, and wonderfully entertaining. It lets the novel breath, creating space to understand the Borealis PI’s in multiple ways, but also provides the reader with a greater range of emotional experiences.

With Orientation, Ashe has found a way to give voice to his multiple gifts as a writer, allowing humor and tragedy, the absurd and mundane, and decency and violence to careen off each other. The result is a cascade of sparks that keep this story lively and engaging from start to finish.

The narration by Charles David is outstanding; his characterizations are superb, as is the emotional range of his voice. I can’t imagine anyone bringing this book to life as beautifully and seamlessly as David.

Wow!

Wow, what a ride. I thought I was prepared for what Gregory Ashe could dish out, I was wrong!! Charlie David did a great job with this complex, crazy story.