Fair Chance

Fair Chance (2017) Josh Lanyon

Elliot Mills and Tucker Lance are settling into something akin to domestic bliss. Things are still uncomfortable with Roland, after they put his father’s good friend and old radical partner in jail for murder.

Elliot must have looked fairly horror-struck because Tucker laughed. “Listen, your father gets caught up in this stuff, in his causes du jour, but I guarantee you he has no idea you feel like this.”

“I don’t want him to know I feel like this,” Elliot said. He gave a short laugh. “I’m not sure I want to know I feel like this.”

And Tucker’s discovery of his mother is also difficult, since she and her husband are conservative Christians who are not comfortable with Tucker’s sexuality.

“It’s not even— or not only— the visible and pained trying to adjust to finding out gay runs in the genes. It’s the whole… the holy-roller stuff.”

“Sure…” Elliot didn’t really have an answer because it bothered him too.

“I don’t even know if I believe in God. They’re so conservative they make me look like a bleeding-heart liberal.”

Elliot laughed. “Uh, no. But I’m getting a kick out of the fact you think so.”

On top of that, they are still trying to discover where “The Sculptor–the serial killer from the first book–hid the rest of the bodies, and it seems like Elliot is the key to getting the murderer to talk.

When the hell were they going to be done with him and able to move on with their lives?

First thing–that last bit sounds like a trope, but it fits very cleanly into the story and the past between the two characters. Second, I like the fact that things were not over and done with at the end of the first book. Catching a murderer is one thing–but getting him to trial and getting a guilty plea is something else entirely, and a lot of work.

The previous two books were good, but this one was a page turner, where I was afraid of how things were going to turn out, but nothing was far-fetched or unreasonable, which I very much appreciated. And I also like how much drudge work for both Elliot and Tucker is discussed or shown.

It’s an excellent conclusion to the series.

Publisher: Carina Press
Rating: 9/10

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