Guest Review: The Butcher of Oxford (The Jake Weston Mysteries #2) by Marko Realmonte

Timothy Ashlock risks everything to travel back in time and save his true love, Jake Weston-- but almost immediately someone is murdering the musicians in the Oxford Student Orchestra.

Who is the Butcher of Oxford?

DCI Carl Bridges thinks the couple may be involved in the crimes.

Can the boys uncover the Butcher before they end up in jail, or worse?

This thriller has twists and turns that will keep the reader guessing until the final surprising outcome. It presents a whole new take on time travel and an unapologetic look at modern LGBTQ relationships in college.

Reviewer: Annery

I guess I’ll start by some housekeeping first:

• You really should read Murder at White Oak first
• I’m not sure that this is a romance proper or a murder mystery in the traditional sense
• I’m not the target audience for this

The ending of the first book left a giant question as to how the series would proceed given where we left the title character. The author’s solution is one I didn’t expect and one that seems like it will be a recurring device in the series. Nothing about this series has been what I expected and I’m not sure how I feel about it.

Book 2 picks up about a year and a half later and Timothy, now a student at Oxford, is missing Jake fiercely. A murder happens and, as we’ve come to expect, the same oafish DCIs make an appearance and that’s as much of a traditional murder mystery as we get. The rest is a bit of a dive into esoteric matters relating to time travel and “infinitely diverging timelines”, which results in Jake coming back and it’s not a moment too soon. His irreverent voice it the best part of this series. The murders of course continue but their resolution is almost sidenote to Jake & Tim’s pursuit of a life of bliss.

This book has all the strengths and faults of the prior installment though the writing is cleaner, more cinematic, and perhaps sharper. The under 20 protagonists continue to sound like characters in a poor man’s Noel Coward play, the so called adults are bumbling fools out of the better teen movies and, going by vocabulary, Jake somehow became completely British. Very little of what transpires is rooted in reality and, perhaps in an effort at inclusivity on ALL FRONTS, the book feels a bit overstuffed with characters who, IMO, don’t bring much to the story itself but a nod, but not much dwelling, at representation. However I did resolve to accept the story on its own terms, where its not so much a romance or a murder mystery but more like the adventures of two boys, perfect specimens of course, through time and space. I don’t know if it will hold true on any day of the week but despite everything I was charmed, mostly because I can imagine some gay teen somewhere reading this and seeing there’s a whole world open for them. That’s not a small thing.