Why we don’t die in Dreams by Debbie Zello
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Why We Don’t Die In Dreams is an exciting thriller by Debbie Zello, focusing around a detective who’s dreams seem to be giving him clues about a serial killer. It is the first in a series, leaving some mysteries to be answered in the next book.
This book is an erotic thriller, and the protagonist Gavin definitely spends a lot of time fantasising about (and, occasionally, sleeping with) women. Personally I didn’t feel like I needed a description of every female characters’ boobs but I do get that, in a story told from Gavin’s perspective, that was a detail he would consistently pick up on. With the killer’s approaches seemingly S&M-adjacent, Gavin and his partner Lou investigate the local S&M scene which is approached sensitively and positively.
My favourite characters include Jules, Gavin’s long-term friend-with-benefits who outlines the unfair differences in expectations of men and women in her kind of work, and Josie, the “twenty-year-old stuck in a sixty-year-old’s body” who runs the bar Gavin frequents.
For me, this is a four-star book. I’d recommend it to people who enjoy getting their teeth into a good, weird mystery and are into reading erotica. It’s a page-turner that will occupy your brain until you’ve finished it (and a good while after…)

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