I’d been in a reading slump. Few things caught my interest, and an overwhelmingly churlish fog dissuaded me from the more enthusiastically underlined titles on my extensive TBR.
(I didn’t get a literature degree just to pompously say “I was being too big of a jackass to read a book I might love”, but the skill proves its worth now and again.)
So.
Disinclined toward my familiar shelves, I ventured from my cozy genre couch and into the weeds of adult thrillers. Seriously, this is not my genre, but I grew up watching Die Hard every Christmas. I’m not averse to a bit of adrenaline.
No Body No Crime by Tess Sharpe delivers on the adrenaline front. It begins with main character Mel waking up just after a plane crash, steak knife in her leg, somewhere in the wilderness. And it doesn’t stop for about 280 pages. (There are a few calmer pages of denouement near the end.) Mel is a PI, tasked with tracking down her high school girlfriend, the one who got away and stayed away for the past six years… but now Chloe’s father is dying. He wants to say goodbye.
The story unfolds in multiple timelines and perspectives. From the get-go, readers know that Chloe and Mel murdered a boy in high school. (The summary discloses as much.) Additional details, villains, threats, and motives grow from there. It’s nonstop action, twists, and sapphic yearning, the ink-and-pulp embodiment of “never a dull moment”.
The story hits all the right notes. It’s tightly plotted and functions well. Chloe and Mel’s relationship starts in a place of familiarity and mistrust. Six years apart left them fond and frustrated, and both are dedicated and stubborn. They clash. They snipe. Each tries to protect the other even as they grow to trust one another. A trio of villains called The Dicks (Richard, Richard Jr., and Rick) strives to stop the women and the feral peacocks. A few characters seemed cliché at first, but deepened as the story played out, especially secondary buddy girl, Gigi, whose short skirts and shrillness in high school develop into organization and fierce loyalty.
Some aspects of No Body No Crime landed less well in ways that may be related to reader/genre mismatch. I enjoyed this book. I picked it because I’ve enjoyed Tess Sharpe’s YA books, which appealed more to me than this one, but then, I prefer YA. It kept me entertained and while a few twists were predictable, overall the story moved apace and with engaging narration. Some aspects simply felt jarring. Noir-ish, perhaps? And that’s why it may have been a genre/reader issue. I don’t often read adult fiction and, for example, the references to Mel’s abusive background making her strong became wearing. But that fits for a hardened PI. Some of the villains seemed relentless edgy. But, again, that belongs in a gumshoe investigation. I didn’t care for it, but that feels slightly like complaining about too much sand at the beach.
Overall, this is a fun, fast thriller with two determined bisexual women in the leading roles. It didn’t convert me into a complete enthusiast for adult thrillers, but it held my interest and gave me a few laughs. For a bonus, it booted me up from a reading slump. I’ve read two and a half books since finishing this one… even another queer adult thriller. So maybe that conversion remains plausible.
Content warnings: explosions, plane crash, stabbing, shooting, blood, gore (I did not find the blood and gore excessive, but more squeamish readers might); misogyny, biphobia, & homophobia (only from villains); death of a child (brief), death of a parent/mentor by cancer
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