Body Count

Hazardverse: Sidetracks

De: Gregory Ashe

Narrado por: Greg Tremblay

This isn’t a romance. This isn’t happily-ever-after. This is a mystery. And, like me, it’s pretty messed up.

Detective Gray Dulac is in freefall: a disfiguring injury; a crumbling relationship; a slowly imploding career. But there’s a kind of clarity to it all. A detachment. A way of being in the world when you can’t screw things up any more than you already have.

When he stumbles across a wounded young man outside a party, though, Gray is struck by the similarities between their injuries, and he discovers he might not be as detached as he thought. The case falls under the jurisdiction of the sheriff’s office, but Gray can’t seem to leave it alone, and he continues to investigate even after being told to stop.

The only problem is that everyone, including the victim, is lying to him. And when the young man turns up dead, Gray finds himself at the top of the list of suspects and racing to find the real killer—and the truth. Because better than anyone, Gray knows that truth is a broken mirror.

And the edges are sharp enough to cut.

©2025 Gregory Ashe (P)2025 Gregory Ashe

Wonderful story.

I really enjoyed this story and can’t wait to see what Grey gets into now. I love all of the Hazard stories and am glad that Gregory wrote this book. Thanks

Note

When I saw this video ,I was glad , finally part I didn’t like , but it get better close to the end,

White knuckling through the book

What a ride , I loved this broken charter and how the story unfolds , The Narrator was the best , distinguished voices for each characters just such a job

Great mystery and character growth

Despite the blurb, and despite the author’s warning, there was a part of me that hoped there was some romantic element to this story. At the very least, I expected the relationship between Gray Dulac and his boyfriend Darnell to be as it was in the Hazard and Somerset books. Which was ,admittedly, a little foggy for me since Gray was a background character I never really knew how I should feel about. I think I am just a hopeless romantic when it comes to book characters, I’m always looking for the happy ending.

It seems there were more foggy things for me about Gray. I don’t know if I can’t remember if the accident that left Gray with scars occurred in a previous book or if took place off page and is only relevant to his own story. Either way, there was some explanation so I didn’t feel completely lost.

Gray Dulac who once partnered with John Henry Somerset on the Wahredua police force is a lot more complicated in his own story. The man who once tried to be best friends with Somerset is now bitter, drug-addicted, and reckless. After going to a party and getting high, Gray runs into a young man, Thomas/Trip, who has been attacked with a bottle and has a gash on his face. Though there is no connection between Gray’s injury and Trip’s, Gray can’t help but relate to him. He gets involved in the case even though it’s not assigned to him.

Like Gregory Ashe’s other books, the mystery of who attacked Tip and then who murdered him is very complicated. Trip’s family hates that he is gay. His on-again/off-again boyfriend, Jordan, who has a body count pool with his roommate, Rory, wants the relationship to stay on. Then there is the powerful and wealthy Sunny who likes to hurt the people he sleeps with. So many suspects, and the most shocking one I’ll leave you to discover. The murder does get solved, but it is crazy how much trouble Gray gets in trying to solve it.

Back to my beginning statement, I had hoped for a romance, but this author definitely knew his character better. Gray’s behaviors in this book are cries for help. I thought Darnell was kind of a paragon in the previous books dealing with Gray, but I learned he is also very flawed. There is a part of me that hopes that after time, when Gray learns to love himself and feels he can stand on his own that he might find his way to Darnell again. I think both of them truly had love for each other, but they also have some internal work to do. If not Darnell, I would still love to find out Gray does get his happy every after in a follow up book. Until then, I was drawn in by the mystery and I am really happy that Gray is working to be happy for now.

Not to be forgotten is the narration by Greg Tremblay. He is one of my very favorites who always does a great job bringing the characters to life.

Wow, really dark

This is a spin off book from the Hazard & Sommerset universe featuring our favorite f**k boy/detective, Grey Dulak. When we last heard from Gray he had been severely injured in his face by a booby trap. He and Darnell were having problems and he was not handling it well. In this book we find out a lot more about his traumatic childhood and his less than desirable life choices. In a nutshell he is a mess and out of control.

I struggled with how I feel about this listen. To be clear, this is NOT a romance book. There is plenty of sex, but very little romance. Although Darnell tries so hard, bless his heart. It was hard to listen to some of the sex scenes as some were dub consent and some were just so inappropriate given Grey is suppose to be a police officer. But the murder mystery is great and I ended up engrossed in the story. There are no heroes in this tale; just broken people trying to put one foot in front of the other. I can't say it was a HEA or even a HFN ending. It was what needed to happen for Grey to continue breathing.

Greg Tremblay really did a wonderful job bringing this story to life. A++++

I was given a free copy of this audiobook in return for an honest review.

Inside Gray’s head

An excellent and intimate deep dive inside the characters and world of the Hazardverse. This one helps continue several of the longer standing plot points in the main series in a very fun way!

Read the blurb!

With many books, I find that reading the blurb made little difference in how I viewed the story, but in this case, I'm glad I did. It was still a bit of a shock, but I knew to expect some dark subject matter. The first half of the book is very dark with almost no light moments, the second half gets a bit less dark, but by no means light and fluffy either. Also, like the others in the Hazzard-verse Sidetracks series, this book doesn't really stand on its own very well. I wish I'd read the iron on iron series because I think I was missing a few things, but it didn't really take away from my enjoyment of the story. However, this isn't the place to start, as I have read most of the Hazzard and Somers books, so I knew what Gray was like, and I do like him much better than I did before, but that's all I'm going to say on that front.

Greg Tremblay did a great job as usual. I was thrilled to see he'd be narrating this book as he's one of my absolute faves. I highly recommend this book, but if you are looking for a romance, you won't find that, but you will find a good mystery with a nice twist, and a chance to really get to know Gray as a fully flushed out character. I hope we see more books from Gray's point of view in the future.

A solid addition to the Hazardverse

Four-plus stars for the story (though don't read it before the preceding series), but the performance had some deficiencies (weird voices, "Dor-ay" County, etc.).

I spent a while debating between four and five stars on this one. Greg Ashe's writing is always outstanding, and there's a lot to love about this story. I really liked learning more about why Gray is who he is (and having hope that he'll move beyond who he's been). Let's just go with four-plus. And I hope we'll eventually learn where Gray goes from here.

My thanks to the author for a complimentary copy of this audiobook.

Great story. Great narration. Fitting cover!

This book reminds me of a fancy sofa cover that everyone pretends is being used to protect the sofa from the dogs. In reality, the sofa cover is hiding some irreparable damage and dark stains. Gray Dulac’s existence runs a pretty close parallel to this analogy. The story opens with Dulac in a very uncomfortable situation. Things don’t really improve. Like the synopsis says, the novel is a mystery. Not a romance. Dulac isn’t chasing his happily ever after; he is chasing a killer.

Dulac’s inner turmoil kept the tension in the story high. His life experiences added social commentary about law enforcement that kept me thinking about the story long after I was done listening. Greg Tremblay voicing Dulac was an excellent addition to the book. Tremblay is one of my favorite narrators, and his smooth narration was a nice complement to the rocky journey that Dulac travels in this book.

If you are curious about what the “Hazardverse” side characters are doing while Emery and John Henry are trying to stay out of trouble, the Sidetracks series is a must-read/listen. Fer’s story in The Kiss Principle was my favorite of the series, but Dulac’s story is running a close second.

A twisting dark mystery

Get ready for a spiraling dark mess you won't be able to stop listening to. Gregory Ashe has quickly become one of my favorite authors--he's just another few levels above most mystery authors featuring gay protagonists. In this introspective into Gray Dulac, we get to see inside the mind of a character who at times is hard to even like. Warning--this story is darker than most any Ashe has written before. Forget the over-the-top bravado of the Dulac from previous volumes. After the injury he suffered, all the bravado has been stripped away, and Ashe gives you a peak under the hood of someone who is hanging on to reality, and to his will to survive, by a thread. Of course, with Gregory Ashe's writing, I couldn't stop listening, even though some sections were very hard to listen to. From a detective perspective, I wanted him to be instinctively smarter about the case--sometimes I was yelling at Dulac for the stupid decisions he was making. (Yes out loud, don't judge.) With that aside, I'm super impressed by the raw exposure we get inside a very complicated character--I really know Gray now. No sugar coating on this one. Well done, Gregory Ashe!