Too Close To Home (Whitton & Black Book 1) by C F White

A new town is supposed to be a new start for DI Harrison Black. But theres a missing girl, and a town that doesn't forget, especially the brother of another girl that went missing thirteen years ago. Explosive chemistry and two men that have painful pasts are the main characters in this new mystery suspense series.


From the blurb:

Starting over might mean getting too close.

When DI Harrison Black transfers from the Met to the small Yorkshire town of Hartswick, he’s chasing distance—from London, guilt, and the grief of losing his husband.

He expects a quieter life.

Instead, within hours of his arrival, a seventeen-year-old girl vanishes on a woodland path, plunging Harrison straight into a case with a chilling echo. Thirteen years earlier, another young woman disappeared from the very same place.

Robyn Whitton was never found.

Her brother Jake never stopped looking for her.

Roofer. Drummer. Ex-con. Local troublemaker with a temper and absolutely no faith in the police, Jake Whitton is everything Harrison should keep at arm’s length. He’s also fiercely loyal, infuriatingly persistent, and determined to involve himself in Harrison’s investigation whether Harrison likes it or not.

Which would be considerably easier if Harrison weren’t becoming far too interested in the man behind all that anger.

Jake knows better than to trust a copper. The police failed Robyn. Then they failed him. And DI Harrison Black, with his quiet authority, wedding ring and grief he wears like armour, should be the last man capable of getting beneath Jake’s skin.

Except he does.

Jake knows how to want a man. He’s far less comfortable with wanting one to stay.

As a present-day disappearance drags Robyn’s cold case back into the light, Harrison and Jake are pulled closer together, blurring the line between professional and personal. Because Harrison isn't only getting dangerously close to a man connected to his investigation.

He might finally be getting close to the truth.

And in a town that has kept its secrets for thirteen years, someone will do anything to make sure they stay buried.

For Harrison, getting too close could cost him his career.
For Jake, it could cost him the answers he’s spent half his life searching for.
For both of them, it could cost far more than they’re ready to lose.

Too Close to Home is Book One of the Whitton & Black trilogy, a gritty MM romantic suspense featuring a widowed detective, a hot-headed ex-con roofer, cop × cop-hater tension, age gap, forbidden attraction, forced proximity, hurt/comfort and a slow-burn romance that develops across all three books.

SNik's review:

First in trilogy (Whitton & Black Mystery). Mystery suspense. Small town. Age gap. Hurt/comfort. Opposites attract. Slow burn/low burn. Dual POV. Heed content warnings. 

Harrison has left London for a small Yorkshire town and on his first day he is thrust into a missing persons case. But, Hartswick has been scarred by a girl’s disappearance in the past, and the brother of that girl is still angry and grieving for the sister he lost. 

There really is a juxtaposition between Harrison and Jake, the older widowed police officer has a calming effect on the hotheaded playboy drummer and roofer, while attraction explodes between them. There were times where this story was hard to read, both men still grieving important losses in their lives while Harrison investigates and Jake tries to keep his head above water and not miss the life he could have had. The characters were engaging, the mystery interesting, the thought that maybe over the trilogy we can get an answer to Jake’s missing sister made everything really compelling. I am super invested in this series and gladly await the following books, which are set to come out in a quick fashion thank goodness.


Too Close to Home is currently available as an e-book and paperback and can be read as part of your Kindle Unlimited Subscription