Henri’s terrifying stalker is on the hunt again. Can Birch help Henri overcome the paralyzing memories long enough to escape?

For three years Henri has fought to overcome the horrors of the past. Now on the other side of the world–after leaving Australia for Canada–Henri’s nemesis is hunting him with maniacal focus. Trying to escape, he meets Birch, a kind horse trainer, who’s confounded by Henri’s idiosyncrasies even as he is drawn to him. But when Birch discovers the truth, he encourages Henri not to just survive, but to live.
Maybe even to love.

My first time reading fellow Aussie A. Nybo. Not a bad way to start. I liked it but I didn’t love it and I’ll mention why.

This could have been a really good book, maybe even 5 stars, but there were some things that grated. Like-

The psychology. It was Google-search psychology. I’m very picky about this. Henri has PTSD. So would pretty much anyone who had been through his ordeal – was still going through an ordeal – but it was tell and not show and without being technical, it was off. Henri throws out the words flashback and nightmares and angry to more or less explain his PTSD away, with a brief mention of having taken antidepressants at one time, the same with some therapy. Alcohol is also mentioned in passing. The idiosyncrasies alluded to in the blurb are just Henri coming off as impolite and grating. And yes, he occasionally would be triggered and understandably meltdown. I say understandably, but it was initially hard to “understand” because I didn’t know. It was a struggle for me to fathom why the eminently likeable Birch was attracted to Henri because Henri clearly had some serious baggage, and seeming rude was one of those things. I put this book down and thought, nope… Henri is a dick. But my curiosity, and I truly liked Birch, got the better of me and I wanted to know what the hell was going on.

Ms Nybo takes a while to let the reader in on what has happened, because there is a backstory. I would have preferred to have known much earlier on. The author may have taken her time letting Birch find out, that would have worked, but the reader needed to know because I definitely felt like I’d been plonked in the middle of something that I didn’t have all the data to fully compute. I think Birch summed up Henri’s seeming moodiness and the initial disconnectedness to what was happening here –

“I’m finding it a bit hard to understand what’s going on. One minute you’re friendly, and the next you’re attacking me or someone else. It’s pretty obvious that something happened to you, and that’s probably why you behave the way you do, but it doesn’t give me anything to work with.”

Also. My god – crotch luggage? I’m guessing it meant cock and balls. I’ve never seen/heard that expression before and I don’t care to ever again. It took me out of the story and made me wince.
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While Henri was hard to connect to for sometime, I was glad I hung in there. He’d had a terrible time at the hands of an unhinged person. Once it’s fleshed out a bit more you get that Henri had well and truly fallen into the sights of a psychopath, one with obsessive personality traits heavily fixated on Henri, and all scarily ramped-up with SAS training. Russell Andrews was omnipotent and always ahead of everyone. Had been for some time. How he escaped Goulburn Supermax – yes, it’s a real place, a prison with the worst criminals in Australia – and then left the country and entered another one, Canada, made me question…but it’s fiction so I rolled with it. Russell adds a bad guy to rally against and to wait to be taken out and I was patiently lurking for that moment. I like payback. I was waiting to say, “bye. See you, Russell!!”   

Birch. He was this very chill, kind guy who helped a complete stranger out when he was having a panic attack. He also helped him when that same guy was less than appreciative, although we learn there are reasons. Birch knew how to gentle horses and read their behaviour so he did the same with Henri, and he thought Henri was beautiful. There’s someone for everyone. For Birch, it was Henri. Birch’s dialogue and his inner thoughts were nice. He is so genuinely likeable. The author really got into his psyche and who he was. I liked how he calmly told Henri that he had boundaries around how he was prepared to be treated.

Once I knew more about Henri I could empathise. He was a survivor and I have a lot of respect for that. I just wish he’d been written more sympathetically earlier on, with some more depth and dimension.

The thriller aspect, once I knew what was going on, was fine. Like I said earlier, I wanted a resolution. I wanted payback. It was good at keeping me on my toes once shit got real. Once we were down to business the pages went by quickly and I wanted to know how it would all end.

I believe with some extra polish and detail The Devil’s Breath could have been a really good book, as it stands it’s an enjoyable read but it lacked that true emotional and extra character depth and psychology that could have taken it to the next level. 3.75 Stars!