Nichole (DirrtyH)'s Reviews > Trust Me

** spoiler alert ** So, I usually love L.A. Witt, and this book wasn't bad by any means, but it was so fundamentally flawed that I couldn't truly enjoy it.

Brian is a homicide detective, and when called to a crime scene, discovers that one of the bodies looks just like his boyfriend, James, whom he's planning to dumb because he's been so cagey. He then finds out that the dead guy is a drug dealer, and that he has a brother/business partner named... yes, James. Turns out it's the same James.

James admits to running a drug ring with his brother Stephen. He swears he had nothing to do with the shooting, and tells Brian that the reason he's been so cagey is because he lied about having a gambling addiction.
Brian believes James about not being the killer, and about dirty cops being involved, so he agrees to hide James instead of putting him under protective custody.

So the entire book, Brian isn't sure whether he should believe James about not being involved in the shooting, and he wonders if he should break up with Brian. He can't decide if he can forgive James for lying about the gambling addiction. That is the sum total of the relationship drama. Uh... are we missing something? Really, Brian? You don't see another problem here?

In the end we discover that James, whose real name is Eric, was actually an undercover DEA agent. Okay, that's not really a surprise. But that isn't revealed until the end. Throughout the entire book, Brian is working under the assumption that James is a drug dealer. And not, like, a street level marijuana peddler, but actually running one of the biggest drug rings in town. But that's just okay. Brian never thinks about turning James in for being a drug dealer. He just hopes his instinct is right about James not being the killer. Like if he can find the real killer, everything will be fine.

This just bothered me so much I couldn't enjoy the story. Sure, it turned out James wasn't really a drug dealer. But Brian didn't know that, and his choice to hide someone that he had every reason to believe was a dangerous criminal... it didn't work for me. If this had been addressed, maybe I could have gotten behind it. But it was just completely ignored. It bugged me too much to give this more than 3 stars.