This second book in H.L. Day’s Paranormal Problems series is a fantastic mixture of paranormal mystery, police procedural and angsty second-chance romance that had me glued to it from start to finish. Like the previous book (Deader Than Dead), Dropping Like Flies features a central couple who are fated mates; unlike that book, while the mate bond continues to exist, it has outlived the actual relationship, because the two men involved went their separate ways after a tragedy led to their break-up three years earlier. I liked this approach; I’m not a fan of fated mates stories as a rule because they often just skip the relationship building in favour of insta-love, but having the bond in this story be one the protagonists could actually choose to walk away from was a refreshing change and made the love story that much more interesting.

We met – actually, no we didn’t, we just heard a lot about him – necromancer Griffin Caldwell in the previous book. The impression given was of a man out of control who rarely bothered turning up to work and who generally saw life through the bottom of a bottle. It turns out that impression is largely correct; for the last three years, Griffin hasn’t cared much about anything and if it wasn’t for the fact that his boss, Cade, is also a personal friend, he’d probably have been out of a job years ago. On one of the days he does turn up for work, Cade calls Griffin in to his office to tell him that the local CID has requested help with a case, the murders of a number of young, gay men who appear to have been killed in some kind of ritualistic manner. The murders have taken place fairly close together so time is of the essence if they’re to stop the sicko before he kills again. Cade isn’t surprised when Griffin refuses flat out – but there’s nobody else available; it’s Griffin or no-one. Griffin very reluctantly agrees to go to a meeting to find out what’s going on – but makes no promises beyond that.

DCI Ben Weaver is heading up the investigation into the murders. Three years earlier, he and Griffin Caldwell were deeply in love and engaged to be married – until it all ended in the blink of an eye when Griffin walked out with no explanation and ignored all Ben’s attempts to contact him afterwards. Ben has tried to move on, throwing himself into his work and hooking up when he feels the need to scratch an itch, but there’s been no one special in his life since Griffin, and their mate-bond makes it impossible to simply forget him, especially as it means they can still feel each other’s emotions.

When Ben’s boss informs him that he’s made the decision to partner him with a necromancer in an attempt to speed up the investigation, Ben doesn’t have much time to process the news before Griffin strolls in to the room. He can’t refuse to work with Griffin, and it’s clear Griffin isn’t pleased about the situation either – but maybe, if they agree to work together, can leave the past in the past, and keep things purely professional, they might be able to stop whoever is responsible for this killing spree.

H.L. Day does a great job of combining the mystery/suspense plot with the second chance romance between Ben and Griffin, keeping things moving at a fairly swift pace while also injecting some quieter moments of intimacy and introspection that allow the pair to finally start working through the issues that still lie between them. It’s not easy; every time Ben so much as tries to broach the subject of their break-up Griffin shuts him down, and his frustration at Griffin’s refusal to explain his behaviour is palpable. It’s perhaps easier to sympathise with Ben because he has absolutely no idea why Griffin dumped and ghosted him, but Griffin has had a tough time of it, too, and is so mired in guilt and pain that the only way he can cope is by drowning his sorrows in copious amounts of booze. Ben, too, has tried to dull the pain, by locking away his emotions and just going through the motions, but Griffin’s reappearance in his life makes him realise that he really needs to know what happened so he can at the very least move forward with his life – even if Griffin is not destined to be a part of it.

Griffin and Ben’s journey back to each other takes a lot of guts and a lot of honesty, and I liked that, once the barriers are down, they communicate like grown-ups and are up front about what they want and expect from their relationship. Griffin’s ability to admit to his mistakes is admirable, as is Ben’s capacity for forgiveness, and I appreciated their willingness to make themselves vulnerable to one another.

The murder mystery is intriguing, with the sadistic killer always seeming one step ahead of Ben and Griffin, and it builds to an exciting, edge-of-the-seat finale. I admit that it’s fairly easy to work out the identity of the villain, but that makes the story more of a ‘why’ than a ‘who’dunnit, and there’s a nice tie-in to the mask storyline from Deader Than Dead that points towards what’s to come in book three, due out later this year. The one thing I struggled with is the deus ex machina moment in the finale; given the identity of the character involved, this may well be explained in the next book, but as it stands, the incident jars and feels too convenient.

But that’s the only thing about the story that didn’t work for me. Dropping Like Flies is a compelling read feauring complex and engaging characters, a tender second-chance romance and an intriguing paranormal mystery. It’s a terrific addition to the Paranormal Problems series and I’m really looking forward to the next instalment.