Reasonable Doubt

Reasonable Doubt (2018) Gregory Ashe

Ugh again with the editing issues. Somers freaks out when he discovers a twelve minute phone call that Hazard will make a couple chapters later.

Years ago my husband and I watched Fight Club and Snatch, and after that we joked about only watching a movie if Brad Pitt got the shit beat out of him in it. (Which wasn’t that difficult to do at one point.)

I’m kinda feeling like Hazard is Brad Pitt in this scenario: he keeps getting the shit beaten out of him. Every single book.

Yeah, he has a temper and is a physical guy, but, come on. He’s been shot. Beaten up, including hit in the head and a giant gash in his hand. Hit in the head with a baseball bat. Has his already concussed head slammed into the floor.

So of course he gets beaten to hell in this book as well.

It wouldn’t be quite so noticeable if Somers wasn’t getting away without a scratch in every book.

This isn’t to say the story was bad–it wasn’t. I mean: still reading here. But the giant editing errors are annoying, and Hazard always being a bloody mess is starting to get a little old. As is his temper; I have to wonder whether a real cop could get away with some of the shit he pulls.

So, the positives: Somers is finally spending time with his daughter, who he adores. And Hazard has NO IDEA how to deal with the kid.

Hazard wasn’t entirely sure about how babies worked. He understood the biology and physiology of reproduction. He’d seen a few documentaries on childbirth. If worse came to worst, he could probably get a woman through an easy labor. But the rest of it— were children like cats? Was there some toddler equivalent of catnip that Somers had sprinkled in Hazard’s pockets?

No kiddy catnip equivalent, but there ARE people that kids are drawn to. I’m one of those people. And I remember adults like that when I was a kid.

She yanked a fat volume and held it up questioningly.

“That’s James Joyce.”

One pudgy hand folded the book open. She grabbed a page. With a sudden, vicious cry, she tore the page free. Then her big, dark eyes cut towards Hazard.

He shrugged. “Nobody will even notice.”

So the story is that a religious figure is murdered, and everyone seems like they should have good reason to kill him.

Interestingly, there is a fair amount about religion here, with Hazard (of course (but justifiably)) reacting badly to it.

“I just can’t think straight when I’m around that kind of stuff. God, Jesus, all that. I’m back in that shithole again. And I know, up here, that it isn’t all the same. I know about Mother Theresa and I know about people, good people, who are religious. But then someone opens their mouth and it doesn’t matter what my brain says.”

Somers deals with it a little better.

“You two call it a night. I’ll stick around and see if the river turns to blood or wine or whatever the hell it’s supposed to.”

“If it turns to wine,” Somers said, “call. No matter what time. If it’s blood it can wait, but if it’s wine, just keep calling.”

So the mystery was interesting, and I couldn’t stop reading, but the editing issues are bothersome.

Luckily, I’ve got two pre-orders that just came in, so good for me.
Rating: 7/10

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