Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Suspense
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay
Reviewer: Maryann
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About The Book
Crime Scene Cleaner [kraɪm siːnˈkliːnə]: Cleans up crime scenes…before the cops know there is one.
People always say ‘you can’t go home again’. It turns out that doesn’t count as a guarantee…especially not during a global pandemic.
After the jobs in LA started to dry up, crime scene cleaner Grade Pulaski was forced to pack up and move home. He loves his family, but the last thing he ever wanted was to face the ghosts he’d left back in Sweeny, Kentucky.
Also, the place just sucks.
He certainly isn’t going to stay any longer than necessary. The plan is to save up enough money to move back to LA and give his business a kick-start. The problem is that, as previously mentioned, Sweeny’s a hole and the locals are anything but professional.
Now a body has gone missing, Grade’s reputation is being held hostage, and people keep asking whether his Dad really did run off with 100 grand of meth in the back of Dodge. Plus, even though you shouldn’t sleep with your employers, crime lord Clay Traynor is exactly the sort of bad idea that Grade can’t resist. Tattooed, bad news, and dangerous.…oh, yeah. Grade’s job is to clean up the crime scene before the cops know someone’s dead. That’s why he needs to sort this out before he gets a bad review on dark net Yelp.
The Review
Dirty Work is the start of a new series “Dirty Deeds” by TA Moore. Meet Grade Pulaski and Clay Traynor, who encounter one another under the most chaotic circumstances.
Grade Pulaski is smart, and he’s going to earn money the best way he knows how in order to to get back to LA.
Crime lords, Adam Ezra and Clay Traynor own The Slap. They have a big problem. In the men’s room of The Slap lies Buchanan, a dead bagman, who used to work for Fisher, the head of the Catfish Mafia. They need to get rid of the evidence, and fast.
Grade takes the job to clean up the mess, and it gets him into all kinds of trouble.
When Grade’s van is hijacked along with the body, he winds up with “tattooed, bad news, dangerous” Clay Traynor. Besides being a crime lord, Clay is an ex-military Seal, and has bouts of PTSD.
Just who is the guilty party? And what kind of trouble is following them? All Grade knows is that he needs to prove his innocence.
Dirty Work is a quick read – a fast paced, gritty, exciting, packed-with-action-and-danger suspense novel. It’s loaded with that special snark, banter and steamy moments between characters that Moore is so good at. This contemporary thriller takes us to a small fictitious town where anything can happen, spinning a suspenseful “who-done-it” mystery.
I’m not going to say too much about Grade, as the blurb covers what his plans are for himself. But I like both Grade and Clay and the connection that they make. The age difference between them makes the storyline even more interesting, and they both seem to be able read into each others emotions.
There’s also a secret about Grade’s father, Tommy Pulaski, that adds to the plot
The story loaded with secondary characters: Grade’s sister Dory and nephew Cody; Harry, who seems to be a really good friend to Clay; Adam Ezra; and Deputy Jones. There are also some not-toobright bad guys: Arlo, TJ, Hadley, Betsy and Nesmith, the mouthpiece for Fisher.
This new series from TA Moore does not disappoint! As with her novels, her imagination and creativeness are off the hook – I don’t know how she does it! And even with the danger, grit and gore, I can see it’s going to be a fun ride. With her wild imagination and characters, I have no idea what she has planned next, but it’s bound to be great. I am so excited for the next book!
The Reviewer
Hi, I’m Maryann, I started life in New York, moved to New Hampshire and in 1965 uprooted again to Sacramento, California. Once I retired I moved to West Palm Beach, Florida in 2011 and just moved back to Sacramento in March of 2018. My son, his wife and step-daughter flew out to Florida and we road tripped back so they got to see sights they have never seen. New Orleans and the Grand Canyon were the highlights. Now I am back on the west coast again to stay! From a young age Ialways liked to read.
I remember going to the library and reading the “Doctor Dolittle” books by Hugh Lofting. Much later on became a big fan of the classics, Edgar Alan Poe, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker and as time went by Agatha Christie, Ray Bradbury and Stephen Kingand many other authors.
My first M/M shifter book I read was written by Jan Irving the “Uncommon Cowboys” series from 2012. She was the first author I ever contacted and sent an email to letting her know how much I liked this series. Sometime along the way I read “Zero to the Bone”by Jane Seville, I think just about everyone has read this book!
As it stands right now I’m really into mysteries, grit, gore and “triggers” don’t bother me. But if a blurb piques my interest I will read the book.
My kindle collection eclectic and over three thousand books and my Audible collection is slowly growing. I have both the kindle and audible apps on my ipod, ipads, and MAC. So there is never an excuse not to be listening or reading.
I joined Goodreads around 2012 and started posting reviews. One day a wonderful lady, Lisa Horan of The Novel Approach, sent me an email to see if I wanted to join her review group. Joining her site was such an eye opener. I got introduce to so many new authors that write for the LGBTQ genre. Needless to say, it was heart breaking when it ended.
But I found a really great site, QRI and it’s right here in Sacramento. Last year at QSAC I actually got to meet Scott Coatsworth, Amy Lane and Jeff Adams.
