THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE NEVER RUNS SMOOTH
It’s 1987, and Soho is in the grip of another hot summer. While working part-time in The Red Lion, Joe finds himself agreeing to help a notorious gangster search for her missing girlfriend.
Antonia The Gecko Lagorio is daughter to the ruthless but ageing gang boss, Tony The Lizard Lagorio. When her girlfriend, Charlotte Fenwick, goes missing, Antonia turns to Joe for help, believing her to have been kidnapped by a rival gang.
Charlotte Fenwick is daughter to multi-millionaire, Charles Fenwick—who also happens to be one of Freddie Gillespie’s bigger clients. Keen to keep any hint of a scandal out of the public eye, Charles Fenwick had already asked Freddie to recruit Russell and Joe to help him find his daughter discreetly.
With both of them on the case, Joe and Russell find themselves trying to stop a turf war between the two rival gangs while uncovering all manner of dark secrets about the missing heiress and her troubled life.
Meanwhile Freddie Gillespie has a run in with an old foe that could see him lose both his job and his relationship with Russell.
💚💚💚💚.5
Hi and welcome to my review for Crazy For You, the fourth Soho Noir novella! Massive thanks to Red Dog Press for another gorgeous copy, and for stretching the tour a little so I could post today, you rock!
After Tainted Love, Who’s That Girl and Careless Whisper, I’m sure everyone and their dog knows how much I love these novellas, and Crazy For You only further confirms what a great series this is and what a magnificent writer Toby Hunter is. Once again, he has managed to squeeze an inexorbitant amount of story in very few pages, yet never giving me the feeling of information overload, and despite the limited number of pages, never giving me the feeling of missing something. It’s a very delicate balance to maintain but for the fourth time in a row, our talented Mr. Hunter has pulled it off without a hitch.
Once again, I wanted to drop everything when Crazy For You arrived, but this time, I actually managed to control myself! Not because I wasn’t dying to dive in right away, oh no, August (Careless Whisper) might not be that long ago but it felt like ages waiting for no. 4! However, I remembered how annoyed I got every time someone interrupted my reading Careless Whisper, so I decided to keep Crazy For You for a night when I knew I’d be home alone, nobody around but my cat, so I could give Russell and Joe my undivided attention and savour their company. Best. Decision. Ever. I flew through it in little over an hour, and wanted to go straight back in!
Like I said last time, the fun thing about a series is that you feel at home with the characters, you feel like you know them, and getting stuck in a new instalment is like being reunited with old friends. Careless Whisper left Joe without a job and Russell with a love interest, so at the beginning of Crazy For You, we find Joe working part-time in the guys’ favourite bar, and Russell with a boyfriend (yay for Freddie!). Both of them are quite content, so obviously all the peace and quiet had to be broken. Once again, I found myself rooting for my guys, biting my lip in suspense, welling up a little at a certain scene as well.
With the disappearance of rich wild girl Charlotte, Joe and Russell are asked to track her down by two very different parties: Charlotte’s father, who wishes to keep things under wraps because he doesn’t want anything to taint his reputation, and Charlotte’s girlfriend, who is the daughter of a local gangster, so wants to keep the police at bay for obvious reasons. A very suspenseful investigation ensues, and while I had my theories (I ALWAYS have my theories), thing turned out not quite how I imagined they would (better, they turned out BETTER, there’s a reason I’m not an author, ya know 🙄).
Obviously, the man I love to hate, Detective Skinner, rears his ugly head again and doesn’t quite get the comeuppance I’ve been waiting for ever since Tainted Love in February. I swear, if Toby lets this series end with that *strong language deleted here* man in one piece, I’ll… *shakes fist menacingly and then sighs and hangs her head cos realises it’s an idle threat and she will still read anything Toby Hunter writes*
Right! So, in summary, this is a great addition to a great series, and if you haven’t read any of the Soho Noir novellas yet, I demand an explanation! I would not exactly recommend reading Crazy For You if you haven’t read the first three Soho Noir novellas, but I highly recommend you pick up the series!
Note that you can get the paperbacks directly from Red Dog Press here, and they have lots of brilliant (and affordable!) merch as well, so be sure to check out the webshop!
Thanks for stopping by today! If you’re in need of a second opinion, check out these awesome bloggers:
Fab review! Once again I have an 80s earworm! lol
Thank you ? And sorry not sorry ? Two more to come this year, and possibly a Christmas special ?
Fantastic review! I really have to step up my game and find time to read this series. xD xx
Thank you and yes you do ?