Attachment Strings Review

Attachment Strings   

Author: Chris T. Kat

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

American release date: June 16, 2013

Format/Genre/Length: Novel/M/M Mystery/244 pages

Overall Personal Rating: ★★★★★

Detective Jeff Woods is closeted. Better safe than sorry is his motto, so he keeps his true sexuality a secret from his fellow officers and gets his kicks in private. Feeling the need to get off, he heads to a little place he knows, called the Lion’s Den, and begins to scope out the inhabitants. He’s just picked out his choice for the evening when he’s hit on by a pretty blond guy who’s appeared out of nowhere, a guy that’s completely not his type, not in a million years. But Jeff ends up taking Alex to a nearby motel and having sex with him anyway.

Jeff tells himself it’s just for fun. A way to scratch an itch. Even if he does seem to like repeating this particular encounter of the intimate kind more often than not. Until one night when Alex gets a call in the middle of their fun and ducks out to handle what he refers to as a “family emergency”. An infuriated Jeff isn’t buying that, of course, and he won’t listen to Alex’s protestations that it isn’t what he thinks. Afterward, he becomes very hard to live with. His feelings are only exacerbated when his partner, Parker, reveals that he knows Jeff is gay. He promises he won’t tell, but can Jeff trust him?

The two detectives are assigned to work a case involving death threats against students at a special school for the handicapped. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the attacks. To his surprise, Jeff finds himself face to face with the brother of one of the kids at the school, in the course of his investigation, and it’s none other than Alex.

If Alex is all wrong for Jeff, how can he feel so right? And can Jeff accept Alex’s handicapped brother, Sean when he finds it hard to even be around the child?

The first book in the Jeff Woods mystery series introduces us to Jeff very nicely and lays the groundwork for future volumes. Told in a first person POV, I like Jeff’s brutal honesty about himself and the world around him, including his aversion to Alex’s handicapped brother. I like the way that his and Alex’s relationship grows and evolves in a realistic way, while they fumble their way through the getting to know you stage.

At the heart of the novel is a mystery: who is killing these children and why? Attachment Strings is a mystery first and foremost. This is Jeff Woods’ story, masterfully spun by a great storyteller. Has he found something serious with Alex, despite the fact that he’s not Jeff’s usual type? And where does Sean fit into the scheme of things?

The writing flows so smoothly that before you know it, the book’s done, and you’re ready for the next one. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good mystery as well as a bit of romance.