I'm too dumb for crime and mysteries but still read He's To Die For

He’s To Die For by Erin Dunn was simply one of those books that showed up, recommended to me when I was browsing. I truly do not have a cutesy little story for it. It turned up and I was like, “Yeah, I’ll read that.”

The blurbs says that at twenty-nine, Detective Rav Trivedi is the youngest member of the NYPD’s homicide squad, and his future looks bright. He may be a bit of an outsider in the department – with his British charm, Ivy League education and penchant for designer suits – but his meteoric rise and record-breaking solve rate prove he belongs. When Rav’s boss assigns him the lead on the high-profile murder of a record executive, he is ready for the challenge. He vows not to be distracted by TV crews, tabloid or what’s trending on social media, nor the ridiculously hot rock star with a clear motive and no alibi… But as Rav gets to know his number one suspect, he realises he is so much more than criminally handsome. And, when matter of the heart collide with matters of the law, will Rav follow clues or his feelings?

The very first thought I had in my head with this book was that tweet that said something like, “Does ACAB apply to the dogs in Paw Patrol.” Also, there’s a first, referencing bloody Paw Patrol of all media. But, really, does it? Because one of those little fuck ass dogs in a police officer. And did all of this stem from the main character being a policeman? Yes. Yes, it did.

Anyway, we open on a concert for this rock band, The New Knickerbockers, where there’s an attack, and this is where everything stems from. Rav gets assigned the case, purely by chance. Truthfully, I don’t know how the police system works. Do they just get handed out randomly? Do they consider what the staff has done previously, or who they think can handle what? I suppose they wouldn’t give someone who literally just joined the police force some high-class case, would they? But Rav gets assigned the case, and because he’s conveniently amazing at talking to people, when he gets around to talking to Jack, he essentially manages to win him over. And Rav and Jack start getting closer when Rav starts feeling sorry for him, even though he’s a suspect. Jack hates all the attention he’s getting, especially since the band’s original lead died. It’s all very much for him. Then obviously, will Rav and Jack getting closer, that blurs the lines of what’s okay in Rav’s line of work.

About two thirds of the way into the book, when Rav and Jack are talking to each other on the phone after Jack has been officially cleared of the murder suspicion but is still in danger, he says that when Rav came to visit him in the hospital, it felt like old times. Now don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy the relationship between Rav and Jack, but I had to stop and think, saying to myself, “What old times?” Because you see the two of them hook up once, and talk on the phone, properly, maybe a couple of times (I could well be wrong on numbers). And not only that, their relationship was maybe a few months old. How could they have old times? This is one of those moments where, because I’m greedy and always want more content, if we’d had more stuff on the page between Rav and Jack, this “old times” comment would have been more pertinent – made more sense.

Like I just mentioned, I did enjoy the relationship between Rav and Jack. They’ve got that good old trope going for them where they’re from two completely different worlds which I always love. In their case it’s the police and being a literal rock star. Rav was perfectly set up as a sweet talker, even before he met Jack, so when they did inevitably meet and Rav was the one, even as they referred to him as Jack’s “hotline” for when his anxiety was hitting, just worked so well. And that’s what I like. There was good set up for the kind of person Rav was, so the things he did with Jack all made perfect sense. I will once again mention, like in the above paragraph: more content. I thought the relationship between Rav and Jack was my favourite part of the book (totally biased here, considering my love of romance) but there definitely were parts where I could have just done with more of them. They’d have one scene together it almost felt like their relationship had just zoomed along. You know how Sims have that relationship bar. It felt like Rav and Jack would have one interaction and their bar would shoot up.

My big issue is something I’ve mentioned before in previous posts: I’m not smart when it comes to mystery. But in a way that’s good. I’ve also previously said I’m trying to be a passenger princess reader and just enjoy the content as it comes to me. Good for a mystery, because I don’t have to be smart and try and guess who done it. The book can tell me, unless it hits the don’t piss me off button. I don’t think this book hit the don’t piss me off button. But when it came to the mystery and crime aspect, I wasn’t gagging. You got the reveal of who the murderer was and for me it kind of just slapped down in front of me, I acknowledged it and moved on. That sounds horrible, but it made sense for who it was, but at the same time I thought it would have been someone else, because I never really considered who it was. Again, this might have been just because I don’t pay attention or think about things as hard as I should, but I don’t know.

I needed something like this after the last book I read. One massive thing I took from my last book was that how the last sentence of every chapter read like it was specifically trying to be punchy, so much so that it took all power away from them. Then I get to this book, and it was just nice to get back to a normally written book. Each chapter led into the next, and the wording never tried to hard to be puss. And leading on from the very smooth “wording” (you can really tell I just write whatever the hell pops into my brain about these books, can’t you?) when it came to Rav as the main character, I really liked him. This is another one of the things that didn’t feel like it was trying too hard to be something. I suppose the good thing about him being twenty-nine was that he was an established person with an established life and personality. Everything he was saying, and just the way that he was was exactly that. Him being a complete posh twat (even if he lived and worked in New York) was just who he was, and I suppose it was nice for a New York policeman to be a posh British twat too.

I enjoyed this book in the end. Like I’ve said, I tend not to read a lot of crime or mystery, I just don’t have the brain for it when I read – by which I mean I don’t want to figure it out, the book can tell me. I liked the book. I would call it solidly okay for me and think it could have been pushed to good with just a little bit more pushed into Rav and Jack’s relationship (and mind you, I’m saying this because I love romance lol).

Okay, bye.