The Monet Murders

The Art of Murder, Book 2

By: Josh Lanyon

Narrated by: Kale Williams

Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

Jason West and Sam Kennedy are back!

All those late night conversations when Sam had maybe a drink too many or Jason was half falling asleep. All those playful, provocative comments about what they'd do when they finally met up again.

Well, here they were.

The last thing Jason West, an ambitious young FBI Special Agent with the Art Crimes Team, wants - or needs - is his uncertain and unacknowledged romantic relationship with irascible legendary Behavioral Analysis Unit Chief Sam Kennedy.

And it's starting to feel like Sam is not thrilled with the idea either.

But personal feelings must be put aside when Sam requests Jason's help to catch a deranged killer targeting wealthy, upscale art collectors. A killer whose calling card is a series of grotesque paintings depicting the murders.

©2017 Josh Lanyon (P)2017 Josh Lanyon

I Like!

It's been eight months since we said goodbye to Jason and Sam and their tentative beginning of something more. Life and cases has kept them in different parts of the country. That all changes when a German national ends up murdered and Sam calls in Jason for help as a painting resembling Monets works has been found on the scene.

In the last book, I never really warmed to Sam, but I did have some hope by the end of it that he had and would continue to change going forward. Lo and behold, it's now 8 months later and he's back to square one. I wasn't happy. Relationship-wise I feel like we just started over, like the first book never happened. I was back to disliking Sam. Feeling Jason was back to being a bit of doormat who constantly being kicked around by Sam and that's not a feeling I particularly enjoy. While we got to know Sam a bit more and understand his reasons for pulling back from Jason, I still don't feel like that was enough. The constant back and forth with Jason is getting a bit tedious and exhausting, almost like watching a tennis match.

I'm deliberately not talking much of the mystery as I don't want to give anything away - I mean, what fun is a mystery if you already have all the answers? I will say that as always Lanyon delivers a great mystery plot with lots of twists and turns – just as it should be.

I feel like Kale Williams struggled a bit with this book. The voices he had for Sam and Jason were at times exactly the same so the read wasn't as effortless as it could've been or was with the first book. I still very much enjoy listening to his voice, and the narration of this book, I just wish he differentiated more between the different characters and keep them differentiated throughout.

The Monet Murders should be read for the mystery, not the romance. The mystery will keep you on your toes and guessing who the culprit is right up until the explosive end. While I didn't enjoy aspects of the book, the mystery alone made this a very enjoyable read, which is why I'm jumping straight into the next book in the series.

A copy of this book was generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review for Love Bytes

Superb

Fantastic, Brilliant, Entertaining. Gripping, Thrilling, Romantic, Absorbing. Engaging. Mysterious comes to mind when describing The Monet Murders.

Faultless comes to mind when describing Kale Williams narration.

Began listening to this addicting series through Hoopla . They have book 1 , 3 and 4 available to borrow. It's more than likely I will end up buying this series - hopefully they are included in their 2 for 1 deal - though Audible to have it on my personal Library.

Decent, but a missed opportunity for better

This is an okay listen that never lived up to its full potential. I appreciate male to male romance fiction that does not fit an overused pattern of being written as if it were a female romance bodice-ripper. I have three Josh Lanyon books in my library and I appreciate how this author writes stories about people who are doing things in the world and also happen to have a gay relationship to nurture or not, as the case may be.

I really enjoyed the mystery narritive of the story. What was problematic for me this time was the personal relationship between the two main characters and how that relationship was explained to us. Josh Lanyon is a female author who I think tries to provide a more realistic view of the male psyche and then many of her male to male romance female contemporaries.

Nonetheless, she can slip into using a cliched and hackneyed form of presenting male characters in a way that would be most pleasing to female readers and not actually indicative of the male emotional behavior. It can be a subtle difference but a difference there is. In the Lanyon books I have read, she certainly likes to have a "daddy" cop in the mix. As often as not, those characters are a bit stiff, and not in the more useful way.

And then there is Jason the main character, whom I really like. However, if I were an FBI agent I would want him nowhere near any important action I was involved with. Law enforcement officers, from the federal level all the way down, all have the same protocols for discharging firearms. In the climatic scene, special agent Jason violates that protocol in such a way that I would imagine an after-action review would see him benched - possibly for good. This was not done to show any inner turmoil on his part, but in order to make the scene evolve in a way that was more productive for the author. This choice took me out of the headspace of what had been a fairly well written scene.

And finally there is the narrator. The guy has got a perfectly fine voice which I would otherwise really enjoy listening to. However, he chooses to pop the last consonant of almost every word he says - even soft consonants like m or n. I never got used to it and fact found it highly distracting since it is an affectation used by Clint Eastwood, particularly in his Dirty Harry roles.

Excellent series and the narrator...

Love the series so far and the narrator is a plus to engage with the mystery of the story, Sam and Jason are the most irregular couple who finds love investigating criminals in between, wait to see the third book how is going to be.

Loved it, loved it; I love me some Lanyon

I binge listened to this book in less than a day. It's dryly funny, suspenseful, and sometimes sexy. It was very Josh Lanyon.

This book has more interpersonal stuff going on with Jason, mostly with his very complicated relationship with very complicated Sam, and a little with his family. One gets to know Jason a little more each book, as well as Sam, (although Sam is a lot harder to get to know). The mystery almost takes a back seat to Jason & Sam's struggles, from this book onward in the series, really. This is not to say that there's not loads of mystery, danger and suspense, (and rather gruesome murder), but since Jason and Sam have already met & become involved, that aspect of the first book is taken care of, and their relationship is there from page (or minute) one. Jason also shows that his trait of making rather questionable decisions is kind of his thing - particularly with regard to his personal safety. (He's similar to Elliot from the All's Fair series in that respect.)

Unlike the first book's whodunit, I was not able to solve the mystery right off the bat, (and well before Jason). Each book has a way of throwing out multiple plausible and possible suspects, but I did not have the confidence in my detective skills as much with this book as the previous one. That's probably a good thing, even if I missed gloating about figuring it out before the heroes.

The audio continued to be stellar. Kale Williams is not praised enough.

Great romance. Inriguing tale.

Loved it. The birthday party was my favorite moment. Kale has the perfect voice for these stories.

Good series, great performance!

Well, I am enjoying the push and pull romance between Jason and Sam as they join forces in their investigations. Kale williams is freakin' awesome....That voice he did as Rodey Burkwan when Jason and another handsome agent knocked on his door, "Whatever church you're sellin'....sign me up boys! Hallelujah!" lol.... As much as I enjoyed this book and I enjoy Kale Williams....and I think I will continue the series, I can't see myself listening again once I complete it.

4 stars -

Evolution of self awarenesss

I disagree with a different review where “voices between Sam and Jason became similar… the reason without spoilers was there was a role reversal in a relationship. I enjoy this series for the character self analysis. I am able to understand why Jason feels and makes decisions to protect boundaries. Josh Lanyon- keep writing like this. It helps me be more self curious too.

maybe it's me, not the book

I don't know why exactly (story is interesting, narration is good), but the story didn't hold my attention like first book

Great Book. Great Series!

A great follow up to the mermaid murders. Josh Lanyon is one of my favorite authors. I love the characters in this series.

Monet Shot

Excellent 2nd installment of this series perfectly narrated. Josh Lanyon writes such concise well scripted MCs, who fit so well into the drama their occupations produce, orated to create such clever different voices for the contrasting MCs. No room for stupid, or facile, no shanigans or trite. Every scene is set perfectly, where less is definitely more, leaving you so hungry for more when you get to the end of the book.

EXCELLENT

Enjoyable Story

The concept is interesting and well written. The characters are likeable and the narration is good.

Wow, I love it!

This time around we got a little more of Sam & Jason relationship <3

Although this is a 5 star listen to me, I did not enjoyed so much as the first book. The romance have a little more space and we got to see the struggle of their relationship. They were flirting for 8 months trough phone calls and texts when finally they have a case overlapping their paths.

This time they didn't work together together, there ar two different investigations: a murder and an art forgery. The investigation was a little different from the first, it didn't have that suspense and unease and mystery the first one had, but it was still a little unsettling when they arrive at the island. I think Jason's job is a little boring if comparing with serial killers investigations. But one think I did like a lot here, is the author didn't solve one of the investigations, showing that not everything can be solved as in the movies. Don't worry, the murders investigation is solved though ;)

Kale Williams... Oh but I fell in love with your voice <3 I'll repeat what I said in the first book: His voice is so beautiful, soothing, deep. And he has this ability to make the voices so distinct, it amazed me. He speaks a little slow, but I just speed up a few seconds and was good to go. He also does all the right pauses. Overall, he did an spectacular job with this series!

This audiobook was given to me in exchange of my honest review.