The Caretaker

The Caretaker (2017) Dahlia Donovan (The Sin Bin)

This story picks up after The Wanderer. Taine is another retired rugby player. Freddie is the traveling nurse who helped Graham through his cancer treatments, and became a friend. Taine is fascinated by the slight young man.

Taine stood silent while the nurse gathered himself. He squared his shoulders, took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly before striding purposefully into the room, shifting from worried young man to confident medical professional in the blink of an eye.

I adore both of these characters. Freddy and his obsession with cheese.

Tad: We’re finishing up a new batch of cheese.

Freddie: Are you bribing me with cheese?

Tad: Yes.

Freddie: Fine.

Taine and his hamster and his marvelous adoptive father.

Father Wilson had gifted him several books over the years on the Maori people. It had been important to the priest that Taine had a firm grasp on both sides of his biological family.

Also, we are introduced to Scottie.

“Scottie? You want the one member of our group in dire need of anger management to run a nightclub.”

The weakness of this story, for me, is the conflict–the age difference between Taine and Freddy and Freddy’s parent’s reactions. Everything else I very much enjoyed, but I didn’t like that bit.

However, there were lots of other bits I did really enjoy.

“Not sure how I feel about you at the moment. Who ignores someone they just buggered for over two months?”

“Almost every friend of ours at least three times over the course of our sex lives?” Taine pulled his mobile out of his pocket. “Would you like me to list your own alphabetically?”

That exchange is fantastic, and one of the things I love best about the series.

Publisher: Hot Tree Publishing

Rating: 7.5/10

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