Series: County Durham Quad
Volume: 1/?Publisher: Rowanvale Books
Genre/s: contemporary M/M/M/M, crime/mystery
Length: -
Read in: English
Review copy format: epub
Rate:✮✮✮✮✰✰
Mike Angells is an excellent CID inspector, whose private life is in a sense a main attraction of the city. And all because he is part of a love quad, which he creates together with Ross – art gallery curator, Raith – artist and ex-con, and Phil who's a doctor.
When a young, considered heterosexual football player dies in a gay bar, the case is entrusted to the only gay officer in the department – Mike. Unfortunately, his investigation takes a dramatic turn when one of Ross' long hidden secrets comes to light, which forces Mike to make the most difficult decision in his life.
When a young, considered heterosexual football player dies in a gay bar, the case is entrusted to the only gay officer in the department – Mike. Unfortunately, his investigation takes a dramatic turn when one of Ross' long hidden secrets comes to light, which forces Mike to make the most difficult decision in his life.
"Badge of Loyalty" is a novel which structure can undoubtedly arouse interest of the readers, as it takes two forms. On the one hand, we see the events constituting the main action of the plot, which conceal a crime that Mike has to solve, and the drama of the story presented here. On the other hand, we look into the minds of Ross, Phil and Raith, we get to know fragments of their past and their thoughts, as all of this is connected to Mike. It is in this part of the novel that the relations between the characters are also explained. However, it should be noted that the dynamics of this quad are rather limited. And this is because, in fact, although this book consists of the aforementioned duality of the story, neither one nor the other form of it shows us these four lovers together. In fact, for us Phil and Raith are just the voices of the narration, people who are just mentioned here and there. They are part of the novel, but they are not really presented here.
Another topic worth discussing in the context of "Badge of Loyalty" is polyamory. In fact, the way in which the author presents the relationship of her love quad doesn't entirely convince me, because it sometimes resembles nothing but a simple open relationship. I admit that the protagonists often try to convince us that they are actually in a polyamorous relationship, but in the novel we also see the events that make us start to simply doubt it. Regardless of how we perceive the relationship between these four characters, it is really interesting that Ross clearly doesn't see himself as a polyamorous person. I find the fact that he is a monogamist, faithful to his partner who sleeps with other people, who are accepted by Ross, surprising, fascinating and really a great advantage of the novel.
I think that in "Badge of Loyalty" the relation between the title of the book and its content is presented in a very interesting way. What I'm referring to exactly is broadly understood loyalty. First of all, the author invoke the characters' relationship. Thus, she presents it in terms of several dependencies: devotion to a former lover vs. starting a new life, loyalty to the partner vs. polyamory, loyalty to the lovers vs. betrayal, loyalty to the beloved one vs. the law. Secondly, she presents it in the context of work, and thus we find here the problem of being loyal to the ideals of the profession, a respected superior and simply the police work. And finally, another problem which is raised here is the issue of being loyal to oneself, ideals of one's profession, and one's ethical boundaries. I admit that these are the topics linked to the loyalty mentioned in the title of the novel that I was able to find, and who knows how many more of them the other readers can find. So you really should see for yourself what else you can discover by simply reading this book and how it affects your opinion about this novel.
In this review I would like to raise one more topic, namely a problem of making a choice between a beloved and one's ideals. To tell the truth, I don't know if in this case I'm able to decide which option is the right one and fully in line with my personal beliefs. I admit, however, that while Mike acted somewhat rightly and I fully understood his choice, I was disappointed by his decision. I love the characters for whom being a police officer is a vocation and who are fully devoted to their work, and that's Mike, so until the last moment I hoped that his choice would be different. But if he really had made a different choice, what would have been my opinion about him? Would I have thought that he had made the right thing and chosen the right side? It's hard for me to judge, because I think that Mike and Ross were unnecessarily afraid of the blackmail, as I don't believe there were some real evidence, just empty words. Anyway, Mike really let me down, although I admit that he was in a situation with no 100% right choice. The fact that the author has set her protagonist in such a difficult situation is undoubtedly an advantage of this story. The more so because in this way she managed to engage me emotionally and ethically.
With all this in mind, I admit that it is quite difficult for me to unambiguously rate "Badge of Loyalty", as it has both numerous advantages and numerous disadvantages. However, I believe that as the beginning of the series, this novel can make us interested in it enough to encourage us to reach for the continuation, and that says a lot about this book. I encourage you, therefore, to give "Badge of Loyalty" a chance and form your own opinion about this book.
Headcanon: When Ross gets mad at Mike, Mike himself is afraid of him.
Fanfiction idea: One day a young teenage boy approaches Mike and asks him about his polyamorous relationship as the boy has some problems to deal with his own love affairs.
AU idea: Ross is a writer who creates a contemporary love story about three guys (Mike, Phil and Raith) who are madly in love with one another. He writes his book during a storm and that's when a lightening strikes the electric pole. Because of the electric discharge, his computer is completely damaged but at the same time his characters materialize in the real life world, in his room.
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