Hold me closer, tiny dancer

I’m not sure what “Sloe Ride” title of Rhys Ford’s new book is referring to, but that’s a small quibble for an otherwise generally enjoyable book. It’s number 4 in The Sinners series, and while I was able to follow it without too much effort, I think I would’ve enjoyed it more if I’d read books 1-3 first. There were enough references to recurring characters and earlier occurrences that made it pretty clear I should’ve already known these secondary (in this book) storylines. They are well written enough to make me curious though, and I do plan to read and review the earlier installments.

But back to our story. Sloe Ride is a tale of two lost souls, strangers in a not so strange land, that have known each other a long time but are finally in a position for everything to click. Rafe is a fallen rock star – almost a cliche, really, with his history of drug abuse and trashing hotel rooms.

It all comes to a screeching halt when a one night stand overdoses and dies in his hotel room and he gets kicked out of the band he helped found. After a court ordered stint in rehab, he returns home to San Francisco to lick his wounds and put his life back together. No Tiny Dancer sing-a-long on the tour bus for him.

Quinn is a professor at a university, but his brain works a little differently than everyone else’s. Rafe, being the best friend of Quinn’s cousin, has known Q forever and just gets him. They are easy with each other in a way that is hard work for other people in relationships, be they platonic or romantic.

While they’ve always had that connection, even when they were kids, Quinn’s older brother warned him off because when you’re teenagers, five years is a big difference.

And, to be frank, the fact that Quinn is probably somewhere on the highly functioning side of the autism spectrum probably went into that as well. (I should probably note that that is my own diagnosis. The book never terms him as such.)

Anyway, when they run into each other for the first time in years after Rafe’s stint in rehab, the first thing Quinn does is ask to be relieved of his virginity. Needless to say, Rafe is taken aback. I’m pretty sure it looked like this in his head.

That’s the first 25 pages or so. The rest of the novel is a fairly standard thriller about a stalker that Quinn has acquired and has started attacking those whom he’s closest to. The stalker has bitten off more than he can chew, though – almost all of Q’s entire family is made up of cops. And they don’t like it one bit when one of their own is threatened.

A fair amount of time is also spent checking in with characters from previous installments in this series, but in a way that feels pretty organic. Overall, an enjoyable read with well fleshed out characters, but I do feel like parts of Rafe’s recovery weren’t written quite right. I’m not going to say anything else – I’d like to hear your opinion after you’ve read it.

Finally, a reminder from the always amazing Frances McDormand:

Note: This was a review of an ARC provided by the author for review. Sloe Ride will be available Sept. 5. In the meantime, Sinners Gin, the first book in the series, is only $1 on kindle right now. Definitely worth it!