Toronto’s finest are back in book six of Nicky James’ compelling romantic suspense series featuring detectives Quaid Valor and Aslan Doyle, Disrupted Engagement. Once again, the author skilfully weaves together an intriguing mystery with the ongoing development of the romantic relationship between the central couple, which has been absolutely stellar throughout. The title of this one gives away a fair bit – although if you’ve been following the series and recall how the last book ended (how could you not??) it’s not exactly a spoiler. After almost a year together, and weathering good times and some pretty bad ones, Aslan is ready to pop the question – and is determined to make it a proposal to remember. But finding the perfect setting proves a lot more difficult than he’d envisaged.

When the story begins, Aslan has everything planned out. He knows how much Quaid craves a family of his own and exactly how important this moment will be to him, so is determined that the proposal will be one Quaid can tell the grandkids about – a swanky restaurant and a nice, candlelit dinner will create just the right atmosphere. The trouble is, that even though Aslan knows how deeply Quaid’s insecurities run, he’s so caught up with wanting to make everything perfect for him that he fails to realise that he’s giving off restless vibes that cause Quaid to start getting suspicious. They’ve been out to nice restaurants before, sure, but never one quite this nice… and all his old fears roar back to life. Has Aslan done something he thinks he needs to apologise for?

Of course, both of them so tightly-wound turns out to be a recipe for disaster and Aslan ends up going home with a lapful of wine instead of a new fiancé.

Things at home are still a little strained with Quaid now certain Aslan is hiding something, but before Aslan can come up with a way to make things right – and another way to effect the perfect marriage proposal – he and his partner, Torin Fox, are assigned to to work a big case out of town. Two weeks earlier, on a remote farm outside Cornwall, a landscaping firm uncovered six bodies in various states of decomposition, indicating that the murders took place over a period of thirty to forty years. Everything was going smoothly with the investigation until one of the most recent victims was identified as a member of Cornwall PD – a constable who had gone missing eighteen months before. In light of this, the chief of police decided it was no longer possible for her department to continue to work the case, so has requested outside help. It’s a fascinating case and both Aslan and Torin are keen to get started – until it sinks in that Cornwall is four hours away so there’ll be no daily commuting – they’ll have to stay there until the investigation is concluded. It couldn’t have come at a worse time as far as Aslan is concerned; he knows that Quaid is on edge (thanks to the botched proposal and the new tension at home) and that he’s most likely adding two and two and making eleven, but Aslan hasn’t counted on quite how fast Quaid’s hamster-wheel brain – so logical and rational most of the time but a mess of insecurities when it comes to himself, his attractiveness and his ability to keep Aslan happy – is catastrophising. Even Torin has a better perspective on things than Aslan does –

“Now your incredibly insecure boyfriend will spend all his free time worried when all you had to do was…” Torin rolled his hand like an ass, encouraging me to fill in the blank.

“I’m not proposing on a whim. He deserves better than that.”

“He’s going to worry himself sick now.”

“He won’t.”

“He will.”

There’s more than a touch of farce going on here, as Aslan plans another proposal only to have it backfire (almost literally), and Quaid falls back into his old ways of not eating, not getting enough sleep and generally not looking after himself while he works himself into the ground and obsesses about the fact that Aslan has lied to him – something they’d both promised never to do. Thankfully, Quaid’s new bestie, Costa Ruiz, is on hand to get him out of the office and get some food into him, complaining loudly about not wanting to be Aslan’s messenger boy, but caring enough to make sure Quaid is okay. I really like the way their friendship has developed – Quaid doesn’t have many friends (although he’s getting along much better with his new partner) so it’s good to see him and Ruiz getting along and winding each other up.

The serial killer case Aslan and Torin are working on is an interesting one; not knowing who all the victims are is their biggest problem to start with, and I enjoyed watching them work the angles to find out their identities and the connections between them. Things are moving frustratingly slowly though, and Aslan is increasingly worried about Quaid, but he isn’t about to propose over the phone or video chat – Quaid deserves better than that. When Quaid arrives in Cornwall unexpectedly, Aslan is delighted, but also knows he has to stop procrastinating over the proposal – which, while it’s certainly memorable, ends up not being exactly the romantic tour de force he had hoped for!

Even though Quaid has taken some vacation days to go to visit Aslan, he’s intrigued by the case and asks to help. Energised by the idea of a different perspective and knowing how observant and insightful Quaid is, Aslan eagerly accepts the offer, despite a few grumbles from Torin. I really like their dynamic, and the way the author is always mindful of the fact that Torin is Aslan’s work partner and Quaid is respectful of that. And watching Quaid and Aslan work together and bounce ideas around is always such a treat; even when they were dancing around each other in the first couple of books, their different styles complemented each other and they were – and still are – dynamite when they work as a team.

Six books in, and I’m finding this series as engrossing as ever. The character development is stunningly good, and Aslan and Quaid’s romantic relationship continues to grow in a very satisfying way. We’ve seen each of them fall apart and watched the other pick up the pieces and be their rock; we’ve seen Aslan grow from a slightly immature, no-commitment kinda guy into a man who works hard to be a better person and to be the man he knows Quaid so richly deserves, and we’ve watched Quaid working to overcome some of his worst insecurities. So his taking a few steps backward in this book is hard to read – but it feels realistic; the abandonment issues and insecurities he is living with aren’t going to just disappear overnight (or be magicked away by twu wuv) and he still struggles to believe that good things can happen to him, or that he deserves them. He just needs a little reminder from time to time. And that reminder – in the form of a handsome Irish/Italian detective – is never far away.

Disrupted Engagement is another great read from Nicky James, a wonderful mixture of romance, humour, tenderness, snark and clever, tautly-plotted mystery that I’m sure fans of the series will eat up with a spoon. We’re left eagerly awaiting some promised Matrimonial Merriment later this year – although I’m already worried about Quaid tying himself up in knots trying to plan a wedding!