Review: An Unnatural Vice

An Unnatural Vice by K.J. Charles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

K.J. Charles' Sins of the Cities series is flat out phenomenal.
I was a bit worried about how this book might be as a follow up on Unseen Attraction as that book is just lovely (Clem is too good for this world and just thinking about him and Rowly makes my heart hurt a bit). I hadn't read any reviews of this story beyond just knowing that the basic plot would be picking up on where Attraction left off with the mystery in that book and that the pairing in the one would be essentially 'Good cop/Bad boy,' and I'm glad that I didn't go in without any more knowledge than that.

In an interesting twist I found myself having a harder time liking Nathaniel Roy, the good cop, so upstanding he must have a stick up his back end, ex-lawyer journalist. I couldn't help feeling that his reaction to Justin Lazarus' Spiritualist shtick was a bit overblown, especially as the guy seemed mostly interested in fleecing those who could afford it. Perhaps if there had been a bit more showing him twisting people's guilt and sorrow to his own enrichment (Someone other than Roy) I would have found him a bit harder to like. Roy comes off at the start of the story as someone who is used to getting his own way and is always looking for some kind of intellectual fight steadfast in the belief that he's always right.
Charles does a great job of showing not only Roy's transition from blind loathing of Lazarus but of Lazarus himself learning his own worth.

The history and overall atmosphere are all wonderfully done. Charles' knowledge of time and place really shine, actually naming all the streets as the characters run through them is just the tip of the well-researched and presented iceberg.

As this is the second of three books the mystery isn't solved at the end of the story, but we are left was the foundation of a lovely relationship between Roy and Lazarus. I can only hope that Charles will some day write up follow-up on what happens to Lazarus' familiars as I adore them.

Although the relationship doesn't make my heart grow three sizes every time I think about it like Clem and Rowly, Roy and Lazarus do make me smile. It's nice when two jerks find each other and mush together like melting M&M's in your hand. Broken hard shells, sweet inside, even as they make a mess everyone else has to clean up.

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