It’s always sad to say goodbye to characters you’ve come to know and love over the course of a long-running series, and bittersweet, too, because even though they’ve been through the emotional wringer, they’ve ended up exactly where they’re supposed to be – happy with each other and looking forward to the rest of their lives together. Those were exactly my feelings when I finished reading Paternal Instincts, the eighth – and final – book in Nicky James’ outstanding Valor and Doyle series. Quaid Valor and Aslan Doyle have certainly had their ups and downs and Quaid, in particular, is still something of a work in progress, but Nicky James gives them a spectacular send off and does both them and her readers proud with this emotional and immensely satisfying final instalment of their story.

First off – if you’re not a fan of babies in romance novels (which I’m generally not) be assured that this is a ‘proper’ Valor and Doyle book; the guys are days away from fatherhood, yes, but the mystery is clever and intricate, and while there is baby-related talk, the impending arrival of the new member of the Doyle-Valor household doesn’t overwhelm the story.

It’s Quaid and Aslan’s final day in the office before they start six months paternity leave, and to *ahem* celebrate, Quaid – who was always adamant about not using the supply closet for anything remotely inappropriate – has dragged a surprised and delighted Aslan in there for a last minute quickie. But any afterglow is cut short when Quaid’s partner, Jordyn, starts banging on the door and says she needs help with something – which immediately sets alarm bells ringing. Jordyn is competent and capable, and wouldn’t make such a request for something she could handle on her own, especially as she knows Quaid is about to go on extended leave.

She explains that an extremely distraught man has just showed up and is asking for help to find his son, who has been missing for three days. The alarm bells get louder; three days is outside the ideal window of recovery and lessens the chances of finding the child alive. But the man – Nixon Davis – had been warned off contacting the police in a short but threatening note:

If you ruin me, I’ll ruin you. The truth, or you’ll never see him again. No police!

This puts a different spin on things. Jordyn has never worked a ransom case and is on her own until her temporary partner arrives the following week, so Quaid offers to help her get started and she takes him to speak to Davis. Seeing the grief-stricken father in his rumpled clothes sitting in a pose of abject despair is something Quaid has had to learn to innure himself to over the years – but looking at the little girl, who can’t be more than five or six years old, sitting at his side is a different matter. Her hair is tangled, her clothes are stained and her shoelaces are undone; clearly, she’s been forgotten in the midst of her parents’ frenzy of fear for their son – and it’s then that Quaid knows he isn’t going to be able to walk away from this case. His older sister disappeared when he was just six-years-old, changing his life and family forever, and he can’t help but see himself in this little girl, knowing how scared she must be and how unmoored she must feel because of all the upheaval going on around her and the changes in her parents’ behaviour.

He takes the girl – Sparrow – to the kitchen to find her something to eat, and then to Aslan, asking him to take care of her while he goes to talk to her dad. Aslan immediately knows this case is important to Quaid and that he’s going to delay the start of his leave to work on it – and is completely on board with that. He knows his husband too well to think he could live with himself if he doesn’t do everything possible to help this child and her family, and find the missing boy.

Right from the start, this one is tough going. In cases like this, the person responsible is almost always a family member or someone close to them, and it’s immediately clear that Davis, his wife, and their extended family are keeping a lot of secrets. The hostility between the couple and both sets of in-laws is thick enough to cut with a knife, and with tempers running high it’s not long before shouting and screaming matches break out and the accusations fly thick and fast. Quaid knows, in his very bones, that one of these people is the key to finding the boy – but no matter how strong their professions of grief or how urgent their demands for help, whoever it is remains tight-lipped and unforthcoming. And time is running out.

In more ways than one.

Running alongside the mystery plot – which is fast-paced, intense and superbly put-together, with lots of twists and turns and a thoroughly dislikeable group of suspects – is the countdown to Quaid and Aslan’s impending fatherhood. Their surrogate – an absolute gem of a woman named Bryn (who readers may recognise from the author’s Trials of Fear series) – is due to deliver their baby any day, and they timed their leave so they could be present at the birth and for the first moments of their child’s life. But now, Quaid is desperately torn between needing to solve the case and wanting to be there with Aslan and their baby and for Bryn. His conflict is palpable – his own life experiences mean family is incredibly important to him and he’s always wanted one of his own –but he feels a real kinship with Sparrow and doesn’t want her to suffer as he did.

“I knew for a fact that when he looked at Sparrow, he saw a reflection of himself as a child. He saw his broken family and the suffering that had teken him thirty years to articulate. He didn’t want that for her…”

But shining through it all is the love and devotion these two men share. Aslan is Quaid’s rock through it all, helping and supporting him in whatever way he can – which includes making sure he has the back-up he needs in order to solve the case as quickly as possible, including IT guru Costa Ruiz, who has become an amazing friend over the course of the series. His and Quaid’s bromance is in high gear in this book, and their quips and good-natured jibes provide a lot of its humour, as do Aslan’s ridiculous choices for baby names. (I admit the idea of siblings named “Phelony”, “Jedi” and “Danger” made me snort-laugh!) Yet for all his joking around, when the time comes, Aslan has the perfect name all picked out – and it’s a real lump-in-the-throat moment.

Paternal Instincts is a fantastic finale to this favourite series, and while I’m sad this is the end of the road for Valor and Doyle I’m delighted with where the author has chosen to end their story. Quaid began the series as something of a loner with a reputation as a cold, emotionless hard-arse and is ending it as a man deeply in love surrounded by people who care about him, while former-commitment-phobe Aslan has found his soulmate and has his hard-won sobriety. I was so pleased to see Quaid employing healthier coping mechanisms to deal with the negative behaviours he used to exert so he could feel in control – and I really appreciated the realistic, nuanced way their impending parenthood is dealt with; both men are excited to embark on the next stage of their lives, but (and I think this will strike a chord with most parents) vaguely terrified, too!

The Valor and Doyle series is one the best romantic suspense/mystery series I’ve read in recent years, and it’s one I will (and do) return to. I can’t do anything other than put Paternal Instincts on my keeper shelf – and say a massive “thank you” to Nicky James for coming up with the grumpy bear and the playboy in the first place and then writing them such an epic love story.