Great series opener!

The second season of Cole McCade’s enthralling Criminal Intentions series takes a slightly different format to the first one. In Season One, the cases to be solved were mostly standalones although some were loosely linked and there was an overarching plotline that gradually became clear as the season progressed. In Season Two, there are individual crimes to be solved, but they all link into one major plotline – the search for the so-called Golden Ratio killer, a serial murderer who has been dormant for a number of years but who has resurfaced to go on a killing spree the like of which Malcolm and Seong-Jae have never seen.

As in the previous books, the author doesn’t shy away from showing violence and the results of violence, and the opening chapter of The Golden Ratio is possibly one of the goriest yet and absolutely not for the faint-hearted. But I wouldn’t say it’s gratuitous; it’s there to show us just what – who – Mal and Seong-Jae are up against, just how twisted their mind is and how utterly depraved they are.

The story begins as the two men – now romantic partners as well as professional ones – are still on the suspension meted out to them at the end of the last series. An unexpected phone call from their boss sees them heading into the office to find a blast from Seong-Jae’s past waiting for them. FBI Division Chief Aanga Joshi from the BAU – Seong-Jae’s former boss (and ex) – wants Seong-Jae’s help with the unsolved case of a serial killer who has eluded capture for decades. Seong-Jae absolutely does not want to be drawn back into that life, but Joshi knows exactly what buttons to press and how to guilt Seong-Jae into agreeing. Backed into a corner, he reaches for the one thing he hopes can keep him sane through what he knows is going to be a total mindf@@k of a case and insists that he and Malcolm come as a package deal.

This first instalment covers a fair bit of ground with Mal and Seong-Jae heading out to the crime scene in Arizona to get a first hand look at what went down, trying to work out what the killer’s next move will be and who he might be. The plot is compelling, but so is the central relationship; just because they’re together now doesn’t mean they don’t still have some work to do, and in this season, a lot of the emotional heavy lifting is Seong-Jae’s. We get to learn more about his time with the bureau, how terrified he is of being sucked back into the creeping dark that lets him project himself into the minds of the worst murderers and understand them, and how he doesn’t want to return to that cold, emotionless state that was the only way he could function. This time, though, he has Mal at this side to ground him and remind him of what’s truly important, that whatever happens, they have each other, and it’s a measure of how far he’s come since we first met him that he’s now willing to open up and allow himself to be vulnerable with Malcolm. They’ve both grown as individuals, but their coupledom is still relatively new so there are still doubts and insecurities hiding in little corners of their minds, and this new case is really going to put them to the test, both personally and professionally.

Although I’ve read this story – this season – with my eyes, I was really looking forward to listening to it because Curt Bonnem does such an outstanding job with the narration. He absolutely IS Mal and Seong-Jae, Mal’s gravelly tone and Seong-Jae’s smooth, deep notes depicting them perfectly, and he completely nails their emotional connection, whether it’s in the sex scenes or in their banter or simply in the way they care for one another. We do get to spend a bit of time with some of the Baltimore gang in the book even though Mal and Seong-Jae are elsewhere, and the recurring characters – Sade, Anjulie and Gabi, for example – are all consistently voiced. I also liked that Mr. Bonnem adjusts his ‘narrator voice’ when he’s reading different PoVs, so that the narrative portions of the story sound different when they switch. I don’t hear narrators do that very often, so kudos!

The Golden Ratio is a gripping (and gruesome!) start to Criminal Intentions’ second season and I can’t wait to listen to the rest of it.

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