Rating: 5 Stars

Publisher: Self-Published

Genre: Murder/Mystery, Gay Romance 

Tags: Serial Killer, Child, Dark, Procedural, Morally Gray, Death, Mentions of Rape. See bottom of blurb for link to author page for TW

Length: 472 Pages 

Reviewer: Kazza

Purchase At: amazon, Author Page

Blurb:

My name is Dominique Chevalier, and I am broken. Two years ago, a beloved part of me died. Angelique was everything, but she left me alone.
Alone with an infant, a broken heart, unimaginable pain, and a promise that I’ll never forget.
After relocating and taking a job as Ottawa’s chief forensic pathologist, I find purpose.
I find escape from the anguish that threatens to drown me.
I find him.
Detective Kobe Haven is everything I can’t have but everything I want.
Our paths cross when we are called to investigate a murder. Kobe is charming, smart, and relentless, but I can’t move on. I’m not ready. Before I know what’s happening, he’s under my skin, inside my veins, warming a special place in my heart.
I can’t turn him off.
He’s all I think about.
But do I really know him?
Does he really know me?
As the case unravels and the bodies pile up, true feelings surface.
Winter storms rage. Spring is nothing more than a feverish wish on a cold night. Eternally out of reach.
Or is it?
Is Kobe someone I can trust?
Is he someone I can love?

**This is an MM romantic mystery. The case under investigation deals with heavy, possibly triggering topics. A list of content warnings can be found on my website.**

Review: 

**I have tried very hard to not put anything that would be a spoiler in my review**

This book was certainly an ambitious one and I can’t reveal exactly why that’s the case without spoiling the book. It took me a little while to get into the MCs lives in a way that connected me to them. I initially felt like I’d been dropped part of the way into the book. Detective Kobe Haven already had the hots for forensic pathologist Dominque Chevalier. His partner, Rue, chides him about it. It’s like we know.

Kismet is a dour book, and by that I mean the tone. The intentional downbeat prose. The general vibe of a freezing Canadian winter. Also two men who are awkward about romance, have complex trauma, are outliers in this world of truly unpleasant or apathetic people and awful situations.   

The Characters: Dominque Chevalier is a guarded and grieving man with a two and a half year old, Cosette. He and Cosette religiously visit the cemetery every week. The weight of grief those visits place on Dominque is immense. The last thing he needs is a youthful detective who is clearly interested in him. He’s surprised to find that Detective Haven is only six years his junior because he looks and, at times, seems younger. He was sure that Kobe was no older than twenty five. However hard he tries, it’s difficult not to let Kobe under his skin. His dimples. His smile. His smarts. His love of 50s jazz music and artists. That Kobe is a Big Brother involved in the BB organisation who coaches baseball as well, it appeals to the family man that is Dominique. As he gets to know Kobe, it’s very clear that Kobe very much cares about the underdog. Dominique might convince himself that his connection growing with Kobe is to do with the common thread of dead bodies, detective work, his forensic analysis, but the actual attraction – Kobe – morphs surprisingly into more.  

Kobe is a lonely man working as a detective at the Ottawa PD. His work partner, Rue Hayashi, is big on infantilising him or letting Kobe know he’s unprofessional, and yes, at times he is, or she’s arguing against his hypothesis that the serial killer is a man, and how a woman could have killed these men. I remember thinking maybe, but I’d like to believe women aspire to better things. While she’s off on her annoying murder equality tangent, Kobe is looking hard into an increasingly difficult case with a very quick body count. At a latter stage he agrees with Rue, maybe it is a woman, remnants of a female’s scarf are found at the last scene, after all. Kobe is not without fault in how he handles some of the things he does or says, his impulsivity, his inner thoughts sometimes on the outside. However, he’s a hard worker despite his partner and sergeant not keen on him, voicing their thoughts often enough. He also has a surprisingly innate kindness.  

I felt comfortable around Kobe. He wasn’t like other men. Every facet of his personality intrigued me, even the unfiltered side he was so sure would drive me away. My grief and reluctance to talk about the past hadn’t scared him off. He accepted me without question. I felt no pressure or expectation. Kobe, somehow, made everything easier.

I loved Kobe’s ‘fuck black and white thinking, there are shades of gray’ attitude, which extends into policing. There lies a real inner dichotomy. He likes to think that being a detective can help the people who need it but sometimes the people who are arrested and are found guilty have stories of poverty and abuse and neglect and Kobe understands, more than most, what that feels like. There are people who steal because they’re starving, just like when he was as a child. A woman who slashes her husband’s tyres because he’s going to drink drive. Again. A single mother who places food above car insurance and hopes and prays she doesn’t get into trouble, but does. Then there are girls older guys prey on. No one cared about him when he was young and needed someone. Now, with this case, it’s these girls. It triggers Kobe. The injustice. Because he understands them. So where does that leave him on the current case? The further it goes, the further it appears these (now) dead men were opportunistic, soulless scumbags, the more he wrestles with outcomes. A part of him wants to solve it…. However, if the murderer is caught… maybe they shouldn’t be.  

The Case: There are plenty of people who have a beef with the first man murdered. Dr Navi Kordestani wasn’t liked at the hospital he worked at or the campus he taught at, except by a sole TA. The second man, Jesse Vargas, had been a university student. He also has a lot of people who are far, far removed from caring that he’s dead. The third seems to have become a recluse, although a young man. The fourth was acquitted of sexual assault of an underage girl. They also both went to Ottawa University. In total there are four bodies linked to OU. They all have a plastic white rose piercing their anatomy, one through the heart, three through their penises. All of them are staged, although the last one was a bit messier. All have a scented cardstock attached to the rose stem with a cursive message like ‘heartless bastard’ or ‘self-righteous prick,‘ etc. 

As the body count continues, Kobe narrows the common thread between the murdered men to Ottawa University. It’s previously been less than useless in a number of matters regarding sexual assault/rape. The same for healthcare and law enforcement. Useless. But exactly how do all the murdered men completely fit together? What’s the common denominator? Why now? Because, as Detective Haven digs more he’s learning the primary assaults were at their peak several years ago. 

  “You think these men deserved it.” The statement drew me from my thoughts. When Dominique saw he had my attention, he clarified. “Before. You said, ‘the asshole had it coming.’”
“Jesse. Yeah.” I huffed and shook my head. “I don’t know. I shouldn’t have said that. It’s unprofessional, and Rue would have my head.” How could I have been so careless?

Nicky James leans into the serial killings and the detective/forensic work in Kismet. There is also a romance in the background between Kobe and Dominique. In between work and grief, they steal what they can. Dominique does try to resist Kobe but Kobe is sweet, an appealing juxtaposition of old and young. That Kobe wants to help people and sometimes that comes out in his unfiltered, ‘they had it coming‘ utterances doesn’t scare Dominique off. Kobe has fallen hard for Dominique and Cosette. I thought this book was very raw and visceral and psychologically real in terms of the relationship between Kobe and Dominique. The attachment. I’m a sucker for a sad story. A complex one. I got that here in spades.

It’s very hard to write a review about Kismet without spoilers. However, I loved this book so it needed a blog review. I really need to emphasise that you should go in blind. After finishing, I needed time to process the book before I rated it. The book isn’t without a couple of issues, there is repetition of words and situations and thoughts, it could have had 100 pages shaved off and it would have been a bit tighter. However, I love morally grey themes and this delivered. I had the utmost time for Dominique and Kobe and for a number of the secondary characters who had important, emotional parts and moments. The ending won’t please all diehard romance readers but it absolutely felt right for this story. It stole my breath away in it’s perfectly non-cookie cutter way. How it was written. I worked out one thing early on but that helped me. I was happy. I actually told Cindi I’d yeet my Kindle if it wasn’t as I thought it would be. I also bought in hook, link, and sinker to what Nicky James was selling. It’s one of my books of the year. For the well named Kismet, it’s 5 Stars!