The Question of Us is the second book in Jay Hogan’s Fisher & Church romantic suspense series, and it follows our two protagonists – Nick Fisher and Madigan Church – as they process the events that took place at the end of The Meaning of You while figuring out who they are to each other and what they want from a relationship. There’s a lot of soul-searching going on in the first half of the book, and honestly, some of it feels just a tad repetitive, but things ratchet up a gear when the suspense plot kicks in properly in the second half, and we’re on a real rollercoaster ride of action and emotion as Madigan sets out to right a wrong and Nick finally comes face to face with his husband’s killers.

Note: This is a same-couple series with an overarching plotline, so you need to read The Meaning of You first. There are spoilers for that book in this review.

Three weeks after Madigan was kidnapped by the people responsible for the death of Nick’s husband, the two of them are recovering both physically and mentally from their ordeal. Nick has practically moved in with Madigan, but although they’ve spent every night together they’ve done nothing more than sleep in the same bed and haven’t really talked about where they see their relationship – if, indeed it is one – going. And Madigan is starting to feel frustrated; not just sexually (although he is that), but also with Nick’s reluctance to really talk about what they are to one another. He’s also struggling with a shedload of guilt over the fact that he got away from the kidnappers while the young man held captive alongside him, Lee Shepherd, did not – and as if that isn’t bad enough, he feels responsible for the fact that Lee was taken in the first place because he, Madigan, had inadvertently helped Lee’s abuser to find him. Mads desperately wants to make sure Lee is alright – the police’s hands are tied because Lee isn’t talking and there’s no evidence to support Mads and Nick’s theory that he was on the run from his abuser – but he doesn’t know what to do. Between the guilt and what is starting to feel like Nick withdrawing from him, the normally equable Madigan is finding it hard to excercise his usual degree of patience – and when Nick suddenly starts expressing doubts about things Mads thought they’d agreed on (about Lee, about what led to Davis’ death, about what they should do now), it’s too much. Nick hasn’t talked to him about any of it and having his opinions dismissed with a jibe at his lack of objectivity and a seeming disregard for his need for closure has Madigan making a snap decision. He’s had enough of Nick making it all about him and now he’s going to do what he needs to do to get some peace of mind – go to Melbourne and somehow find a way to make sure that Lee is okay and maybe even help him get away again.

This early-book spat about Madigan’s plans to look for Lee serves as a reminder that these are two mature guys who have been around the block a few times and carry a lot of baggage, especially Nick, who is still grieving the loss of his husband and is struggling to let Madigan past the thick emotional walls he built to protect himself after his mother left when he was barely eight-years-old. As was the case in the previous book, Nick can be hard to like because he’s so prickly and stubborn and doesn’t always treat Madison with the same consideration Madigan shows him, although here, Nick at least admits that his stubbornness is partly due to his fear of losing another person he cares deeply for. And to his credit, he realises that he needs to be the one to fix things this time; he can’t just sit back and wait for Madigan to reach out like he’s done every other time – Nick has to pull up his big-boy pants and use his words.

Madigan isn’t completely free of blame for their argument, though. Like Nick, he has plenty of unhealthy established patterns of behaviour, and he allows his old, deep-rooted insecurities about not being enough to take hold when he feels Nick isn’t being supportive and is trying to put distance between them. But the ball is in Nick’s court now; Madigan has been very clear about what he needs – honest, open communication – and all he can do now is hope that he’s come to mean enough to Nick for him to want to learn to stop falling back back on old habits and let him in to his life and his heart.

Once Nick and Madigan have properly talked – with the understanding that the talking is something that needs to continue – the two of them and Gazza (Madigan’s apprentice/friend, who is struggling with his own guilt over what happened in the previous book) start working out what they’re going to do when they get to Melbourne – and realise they don’t have a lot to go on. They know that Lee is likely living with Marty Klein, a wealthy and well-known figure on the Australian horse racing scene, and they know Klein had spent two years tracking Lee down and the lengths he’d gone to to get him back. Clearly, Klein is meticulous, ruthless, and dangerous – and getting to Lee is going to be difficult, to say the least. The three men decide to head the town nearest to Klein’s stud farm and discreetly ask around – and play it by ear from there. (I admit I had to side-eye this a bit – on the one hand these guys aren’t law enforcement, so their not having much of a plan actually feels quite realistic, but on the other, it’s incredibly reckless of them to jump into a potentially dangerous situation for which they’re so woefully unprepared.)

The suspense plot is in the driving seat for the second part of the book, although it’s skilfully entwined with the romance as we see Nick learning how to get out of his own way and Madigan coming to trust that what and who he is are absolutely what Nick wants. Once arrived in Australia, it doesn’t take long for our heroes to realise how out of their depth they are, but with long-distance help from a furious and exasperated Samuel (Nick’s policeman brother-in-law), they come up with a scheme they hope will at least help them get eyes on Lee. It’s risky, but it’s their only chance – and the tension mounts as they realise they’ve stumbled across something much more nefarious than a ‘simple’ case of sexual and domestic abuse. As their plan begins to fall apart, and with danger and potential disaster facing them at every turn, we barrel towards a nail-biting, high-stakes climax that threatens to put an end to the future Nick and Madigan are looking forward to building before it even has a chance to begin.

I really enjoyed this one, although there were times I could happily have slapped both Nick and Madigan upside the head and locked them in a room until they actually started talking! Nick needs a strong push from Samuel to admit to what is staring him in the face; that he’ll lose Madigan if he keeps shutting down and failing to communicate, but when the pair do let their guards down, they talk openly about what they want and what they’re afraid of, and agree on the importance of keeping the channels open. This is them doing real and sometimes hard work on their relationship and I appreciated that.

I was pleased to see Gazza getting a larger role in this story – he’s a great friend to Madigan and really steps up here, prepared to put himself in the firing line to do whatever he can to help. Samuel plays an important part, too – albeit long-distance – offering useful advice and providing what little back-up he can even as he’s furious with them all for embarking on such a hare-brained scheme.

The Question of Us is superbly written with plenty of action and drama, some very steamy moments, and a lot of insight and humour. It’s a terrific follow-up to The Meaning of You, and although it seems that the trafficking storyline is concluded, Nick and Madigan’s story isn’t finished – they’ll be back next year in The Promise of Together.