Dash and the Last Picks are back in Again With Feeling, book six in Gregory Ashe’s cosy mystery series set in and around the fictional Portland town of Hastings Rock. I don’t mind admitting that I came away from the previous book (Between You and Me) feeling frustrated by the amount of emotional constipation on display and exhausted by Dash’s almost constant panicking and repetitive overthinking. So I picked up Again With Feeling with a mixture of hope and trepidation – and am pleased to report that we’ve moved on from treading water and are back on track with a story that is more serious in tone and provides some real forward momentum.

Dash’s heart has been breaking, bit by bit and day by day over the past few months as he’s watched Bobby actively “courting every eligible young man within driving distance.” But it’s fine. He’s happy for Bobby, really, he is. Bobby needed to get back out there after his break-up and… it’s all perfectly fine. He’s a little bit upset when Bobby tells them all that his current squeeze has asked Bobby to partner him in the upcoming sandcastle competition instead of Dash, but… it’s fine.

As Dash is trying to put a brave face on it, his phone rings with an incoming call from the Oregon State Penitentiary – from Vivienne Carver, the successful mystery author Dash went to work for in Mystery Magnet, who faked her own death, tried to kill Dash and turned out to be a murderer. She’s never getting out, and Dash isn’t sure why she’d be calling – but even though he doesn’t really want to talk to her, curiosity gets the better of him and he takes the call. It turns out she wants him to find out who killed her brother, Richard, over thirty years earlier; his body has just been discovered in the slough behind the family home, and she is, perhaps not surprisingly, the prime suspect. But she loved her brother and is adamant she didn’t kill him – and she wants Dash to find the person who did. Dash is reluctant and tries to turn her down, but Vivienne, despite their short acquaintance, has Dash’s measure – she knows he hates injustice and the idea of a guilty person walking free. He says he’ll think about it. And as he thinks, another idea takes shape. Bobby has always insisted that Dash should tell him if he’s thinking of doing ‘something stupid’ like getting mixed up in murder investigations… so Dash tells him.

At last, we get to see more of Dash and Bobby on the same page – literally rather than figuratively at this point – as Bobby tags along with Dash to speak to Vivienne’s remaining relatives to see what they can find out about Richard, the family dynamic and who might have had reason to kill him. Of course, Dash manages to ruffle plenty of feathers along the way and to land himself in very hot water, but the mystery in this book is quite different from the previous ones in that it’s a cold case with only one victim, and Mr. Ashe has dialled down the quirkiness to focus more on the emotions of the characters involved and on how it impacts on Dash and Bobby personally.The stakes are still high and there are still plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader guessing, but there’s a melancholic air as the bigger picture begins to emerge and the extent of the tragedy is revealed.

It’s hard to write this next part without spoilers, because anyone who is reading these books or who has read my reviews of them so far will know there’s a will-they-won’t-they thing going on (or not) between Dash and Deputy Bobby Mai that became especially fraught in the previous book. Gregory Ashe isn’t known as the King of the Slow Burn for nothing, and while I’ve been very frustrated by the characters’ emotional paralysis, I had faith that he would (eventually) get them to where we all wanted them to be. He does a fantastic job in this book of exploring all the complex, messy feelings lying between them, explaining their past struggles and enabling them to at least begin to move past them. It’s not easy and there are some harsh – but necessary – words exchanged which feel like a gut punch, but those arguments are key in their journey towards a willingness to be vulnerable with each other and start breaking down the barriers they’ve both erected.

This is the first book since Doom Magnet where Bobby has felt like an actual main character rather than a peripheral one. Mr. Ashe has done an excellent job of conveying the essense of Bobby – his difficulty with expressing emotion, his avoidance mechanisms, his need for perfection – through Dash’s eyes, while also showing the reader that Dash’s view of him is very rose-tinted, so it’s good to see Bobby finally acting like a normal human being, getting angry and scared and upset – and showing it. The tight, single PoV the author is using to tell these stories means we don’t get into Bobby’s head, so having him describe his perceptions of Dash and their behaviour towards each other in a real come-to-jesus conversation is both timely and revelatory.

There are fewer appearances by the other Last Picks in this story, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I like them and the way they are such good friends to Dash (most of the time), but sometimes, less is more ;) And I really like the little winks towards the fourth wall formed by Dash’s musings on the mystery genre and tropes and on writing in general. (“Cozy noir” is the perfect label for this particular story.)

Again With Feeling ends on a much more positive note for Dash and Bobby and will certainly enable readers to heave a massive sigh of relief! It’s the perfect way to end the first half of The Last Picks, although I have no doubt there will be some screw-ups and misunderstandings on the cards for our newly-minted couple. The next book in the series promises (threatens?) a visit from Dash’s parents, and the author has said that book eight will focus on Keme (and to expect some heartbreak), so there’s still a lot to look forward to from the Hemlock House gang.