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Rack and Ruin: Thirds #3, Charlie Cochet
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By Charlie Cochet
Four stars
I’m slowly working my way through this series. I only commit to one book at a time; but each time I finish a book, I buy the next one. Cochet is good at finishing a story while opening a door that makes you need to read on. “Rack & Ruin� ends on kind of a cliffhanger, which always irritates me; but it got me to buy book #4.
What makes these books, once the odd Therian/Human world is a given, is the characters. I love Dexter Daley, goofy innocence masking his strength and courage; and his reluctant boyfriend Sloane Brody. Dexter is very appealing, and Cochet has painted his deep love for Brody in a way that makes it palpable and takes it far beyond the physical attraction. And now we’ve got a couple of emotional puzzles that get more play—the friendship between Ash Keely and Dex’s adopted Therian brother Cael Maddock takes center stage in this book. We get to the core of Ash’s looming personality, even as his role in THIRDS falls into doubt. The Calvin and Hobbes relationship carries on as a sidebar.
As always, the two conflicting splinter groups, The Order of Adrasteia (hates Therians) and the Ikelos Coalition (who hate the Order) are both at play, and THIRDS has to keep law and order on the mean streets of New York. Interestingly, in this volume Cochet has Dex specifically comment on the fact that the emergence of the Therians in the 1970s took the attention away from gay folk, and allowed being gay to become just another part of being human. I’m not quite clear on what the religious bases for hating Therians would be (beyond the fairly understandable fear of powerful alien creatures), but I rather liked that she made it explicit.
There’s plenty of action in this book, showing THIRDS fumble around for a bit until they hit their stride; but the real center of the book is all the relationships, and the very strong depiction of how the THIRDS teams rely on trust to achieve their goals. As I read these books, I keep thinking of the Theban Band of ancient legend—armies made of gay couples who fought side by side. I wonder if that will ever surface in Cochet’s compelling series?