Title: The Past Is Present
Author: Edward Kendrick
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery
Length: Novella (137pgs)
Publisher: Silver Publishing (30th March 2013)
Heat Level: Low
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥3½ Hearts
Reviewer: Pixie
Blurb: PI Clive Frazier accepts a thirty-year-old kidnapping case that his husband, policeman Teddy Radcliff, is familiar with. Teddy’s father was the prime suspect. Teddy agrees to help Clive, hoping that he will be able to clear his dead father’s name.
PI Clive Frazier is called to the home of a woman whose daughters were kidnapped thirty years ago. One daughter was murdered. The other vanished. And now her mother has received a letter purportedly written by her just days ago.
At first reluctant to take the case, he agrees to attempt to find her, even though he knows it could upset his husband, police detective Teddy Radcliff. The reason: Teddy’s father was a prime suspect in the kidnapping.
Teddy is leery of the whole idea but agrees to help Clive locate the missing woman, hoping that if they do he will be able to clear his dead father’s name.
Purchase Link: https://spsilverpublishing.com/the-past-is-present-ebook-p-1427.html
Review: Clive is a private investigator who is hired to look into the disappearance of two girls thirty years before. It’s a case he knows well, as his husband, Teddy, and his family was nearly destroyed because of it. Accepting the case is a chance to clear Teddy’s father’s name and Clive asks his husband for his help. Teddy has always had the specter of his father’s suicide over his head. Helping Clive to discover the whereabouts of one of the girls who went missing might get him answers. But, danger lurks as they dig into the past.
Ah, I enjoyed this story for its simplicity of relationship and its interesting mystery. Clive and Teddy are an established couple, together for over ten years, Clive’s a PI and Teddy a police detective. When Clive is approached to take on a case where Teddy’s father was a prime suspect, he jumps at the chance to lay the past to rest. Teddy and Clive join together to find out what really happened thirty years before and to discover why one of the missing daughters has only now contacted her mother.
This is a well written story of a long-term couple who work together to discover the truth of the past. The storyline is great, investigating a thirty-year old case which leads to murder and mystery, but it also shows a wonderful relationship between Teddy and Clive. Raking over the past shows shoddy police work, casting doubts on what really happened. Discovering connections nearly forgotten and a new link to the present and putting the past away isn’t as painless as they had hoped. Teddy and Clive are brilliant, as you watch them together and see the love and support between them. There’s no conflict or angst in their relationship which makes a lovely change and they have a very health sex life that is only alluded to *pout*.
I recommend this to those who love established long-term, still madly in love relationships, a great mystery, a touch of danger, laying the past to rest and a happy ending.