Fantastic start to a new series. 

Tallus is very much a people person. He’s vibrant, self confident and enjoys to banter and be flirty. Even though there’s been some misery in his past it doesn’t stop him from being true to himself. 

On the opposite end of the scale is Diem who is a very tall burly grump with absolutely no social skills. He dislikes his personal space being infringed upon and struggles with intimacy, affection and any type of physical contact. It takes some time before we learn some of the reasons behind his daily struggles and his feelings of inferiority and I have to say that my heart broke, especially with his constant negative inner monologue battling against what he truly desires. 

These two complex and well developed characters first came together in very embarrassing circumstances (see the prequel Invisible Scars) and are now investigating what at first appears to be a fairly simple case but soon morphs into so much more. There’s lots of twist and turns as the suspect list and the victim list increase in this engaging and intriguing mystery. It all comes together in the end but not before some dangerous moments for both Diem and Tallus. 

This is very much a slow burn with minimal steamy moments. It doesn’t finish with an HEA or an HFN but I’m eager for more in this series as I can’t wait to see all the layers these two superbly written characters have be slowly stripped away. I loved everything about this book and enjoyed having Valor and Doyle along with Costa and Torin making some appearances.