Title: Needing
Series: Voices 01
Author: Sarah Masters
Genre: Paranormal, Crime
Length: Novella (164pgs)
Publisher: Totally Bound (11th October 2013) Available up to 4 weeks early with TEB VIP club.
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥ 1½ -2 Hearts
Reviewer: Pixie
Blurb: Getting calls from the dead in the middle of the night isn’t Oliver’s idea of fun…
Oliver gets calls from the dead, imploring him to help them find their killers. He’s heard them since he was a child and now assists the police in their investigations. He works closely with Detective Langham—and has steadily fallen more in love with him every day of the six months he’s known him. But does Langham feel the same? Is Langham even gay?
When Oliver answers the call of a dead woman, he finds himself standing in a remote field, gazing down at her corpse. Someone else is out there with him, though, watching, waiting to cause him harm. After he’s run off the road, Oliver has no choice but to aid Langham in finding her killer—no choice because more people are killed and more people call out to him…he’s unable to ignore their pleas.
As the body count grows and the investigation becomes more complex, Oliver realizes that Langham is indeed very gay—and out to make Oliver his.
Reader Advisory: This book contains scenes of excessive violence which some readers might find upsetting, including kidnap and imprisonment of children with enforced drug taking, mutilation of other victims, extraction of a fetus and implied child sexual abuse.
Purchase Link: https://www.totallybound.com/needing
Review: Oliver is called by the dead to find their killers and assists the police in locating dead bodies. His contact is Detective Langham, a man he has found himself falling in love with, but he doesn’t even know if Langham is gay. Oliver finds himself in the middle of a field after answering the call of a dead woman. Soon after, he is chased and driven off the road and Oliver knows it is the killer. Langham and Oliver work closer than ever before to track down the killer and the mystery of the sugar strands. As more bodies pile up, suspicion is rampant, and Langham makes his move. Making it clear to Oliver, just how gay he is.
This story has a great premise of a psychic helping the police solve murders. But I found it sadly lacking in some areas. Oliver goes when the voices call. He goes to the bodies of the recently murdered and he helps the police locate the killers. But this new murder hits closer to home, when he realizes he interrupted the killer. Oliver is also in love with his police contact, Langham. And it is an awkward dance, as the two finally change their relationship in the midst of the investigation. There is also the chase to catch the killer, as more people are murdered in brutal fashion. It is gory and bloody, and they discover that children are being experimented on.
The relationship between Langham and Oliver was confusing. At first, because they were constantly picking at each other and cursing each other out. I would not have called it a friendship at all. But, then Oliver explains it is just the way they are with each other. Their relationship heats up, as they work closely together and they track the leads. They face some homophobia from a fellow detective, but don’t let it affect what is developing between them. The one thing that got me more than anything was that we never learn Langham’s first name. Oliver only ever calls him Langham and even thinks of him that way …all the time. it made me feel the lack of real intimacy between them.
I really wanted to love this story, because the blurb pulled me right in, but I just couldn’t. The storyline and plot were pretty good with the mystery of the murders and who was behind it all. And the investigation into the murder/s was exciting and intriguing, but, (and this is where I vent like a teenager) I gather that the setting is in England. And while the author has done a fair job with the investigation, she should have watched reruns of The Bill (an old British cop show) or A Touch of Frost (British CID drama) to see the real workings of the ‘Detectives’ in England. (CID is the Criminal Investigation Department or Coppers in Disguise, LOL)
I will recommend this to those who don’t have a clue about British police, who love psychics and murder investigations, love mystery and mayhem, a relationship that is both frustrating and passionate, and a pretty good ending.