Fox Hunt by Chris Quinton
Only with an English setting and probably only an English author, or at least one that knows very well the customs of that country, can write a story about tea, crumpets and supernatural being. Location is an small, cold, but homey cottage, the central piece of the story is the restoration of two small Elizabethan portraits too many people want and only one has the right to have.
Robert is a librarian by trade, but an antique paintings restorer by vocation; in today world, that is not an art that will help you making ends meet, and so he parked his dream and left his father’s shop. But now his father is immobilized in an hospital bed and wants for Rob to complete the restoration of what he affectionately calls Ann and Adam, the wedding portrait of a couple of the XVI century. Everyone is captivated by Ann, but actually Rob’s interest is more for Adam, even if he will never say something: Robert, a lover of beautiful things, has the tendency to fall for beautiful chaps who are a little flicky. And it seems he has not learned the lesson cause know he is falling for Fox, his little brother’s friend, a beautiful biker his brother decided has to play the role of Rob’s bodyguard until those valuable paintings will be in the house, only that, instead of being Fox guarding Robert, it appears that Robert spends a lot of time “guarding” Fox’s handsome body.
The pace is slow but not boring; it really aligns with the country setting, the slow pacing rhythms of who works in the antiquity field, where job are done little square by little square, taking weeks if not months. Same is the relationship building between Robert and Fox, which is the focus of the story, so much that, when the paranormal element enters the scene, it doesn’t seem important, or at least, it doesn’t change much the equilibrium Robert and Fox have already reached.
Amazon Kindle: Fox Hunt
Publisher: Manifold Press (May 4, 2013)
Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle
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