LGBTQ Event : Top Ten MM Cop Characters by Jen Burke

Hola and a big smushy WELCOME to our LGBTQ event which is here for the month of May. We have reviews, Guest Posts, Top Ten List and lots and lots of prizes all with a LGBT theme. The posts will be indexed on the side and I do hope you hop through … I have been so lucky this year!

Today, I have a wonderful Top Ten Post from Jen Burke. She has decided to do a Top Ten post highlighting her Top Ten M/M cop characters. There are a few on this list that are on my list too!

*      *       *        *        *

One of my biggest catnips in m/m romance is a character who’s a cop, or a former cop, or a private detective. FBI or CIA works, too. Maybe it’s my love of Law & Order showing, or maybe it’s just that there’s something about a strong, alpha man in uniform figuring out how to be gay in what can be a very unforgiving work environment—whatever it might be, if a romance has got a cop in it, it’s usually a one-click for me.

So, I wanted to gush a bit about my favourite m/m cops. For this list, I’m looking at only cops or former cops—sorry, FBI and CIA, but I had to make compiling the list a bit less daunting! My top five get featured quotes, because they’re that special. Of course, this is all my opinion and your mileage may vary, so let me know what you think in the comments. Who are your favourite m/m or LGBT cops?

1. Detective Jared “Mac” MacLean from Kaje Harper’s Life Lessons series

Oh, Mac. What an amazing character. When we first meet him, he is utterly smitten with the witness in his latest murder case, Tony Hart, an openly gay high school teacher. Problem is, Mac has always been in the closet and has no plans to come out—the potential to upset his life as a single dad dependent on conservative relatives for childcare is too great. Mac’s character arc over the course of the series is phenomenal and organic, and his relationship with Tony is one of the strongest, most satisfying I’ve read in any romance. No matter what life throws at them, they face it together.

Favourite quote:

Perry’s expression sharpened at Mac’s verbal hesitations and flat tone. “What the fuck kind of accent is that? You a foreigner as well as a fag?”

“That is my coming back from almost fucking dead accent,” Mac said as coldly as he could.

– Learning Curve, Kaje Harper

 

2. Agent Dexter J. Daily from Charlie Cochet’s THIRDS series

Dex is a cop who was turfed from the Human Police Force because he didn’t stand for his partner killing an unarmed Therian (shifter). He goes to work for the Therian Human Intelligence Recon Defense Squadron, or THIRDS, to replace an agent who was killed. With his love of 80s music and cheesy jokes, Dex seems like comic relief at first—but it isn’t long before you get glimpses of the brilliant mind behind all the fooling around. Dex is an incredible detective whose happy-go-lucky presence is not only incredibly refreshing to me as a reader, it’s the perfect counterpart to Sloane Brodie’s brooding personality. Watching the love bloom between these two over the course of the series as they learn to appreciate each other’s strengths and weaknesses is a real treat.

Favourite quote:

“Everyone hates you,” Dex muttered, looking down at his shirt. Was it inside out? Hey, sunglasses. He put on his aviators and smiled at Ash. “That’s why everyone wants to kill you, remember? Why’s it so dark in here?” He looked around with a frown. “Rosa? Something’s wrong with the lights. Is it closing time? No, wait, the lights would get brighter not darker.” Where the hell was Sloane? He looked up and gave a start. “Whoa! Hey, partner, I was wondering where you were.” Why was Sloane looking at him funny?

– Blood & Thunder, Charlie Cochet

 

3. Roan McKichan from Andrea Speed’s Infected series

Roaaannnnn. That’s it. That’s all I’ve got to say.

Okay, I’ll say a little more.

Andrea Speed’s Infected world is dark. In it, shifters exist, but they retain no humanity in the cat form they’re forced into once a month and they’re doomed to die young. Roan is weird in a world of weird—he was born infected and as a result, he’s got some abnormalities, like being able to change at will or only partially transform. Despite being called a superhero by his friends and former colleagues on the police force, Roan is damned human. He’s chronically depressed, addicted to pain meds, and toes the line between good and evil on a regular basis. He’s a hero you want to smack some sense into and cuddle, all at the same time. Even now, thinking about his journey makes my heart ache.

Favourite quote:

…Roan’s nose was telling him what his eyes refused to see. He couldn’t deny it. He threw back his head and screamed, a sound from the pit of his soul that quickly became a roar so savage and forceful that it didn’t just scour his throat but tore it up from the inside out. As the lack of oxygen finally made him stop, he could taste blood in the back of this throat.

– Infected: Bloodlines, Andrea Speed

 

4. Agent Westley Tavera from Reesa Herberth and Michelle Moore’s Peripheral People

In Reesa Herberth and Michelle Moore’s world, space cops operate in teams of four—two are Inspectors, who handle the physical investigation, gathering tangible evidence and proof, and two are Psy Agents who gather the intangible psychic evidence left behind at crime scenes. West is a Reader—and man, I wouldn’t want his job for anything. He can’t turn off his ability, but instead relies on his Ground, his best friend Gavin, to blank out the world when he needs it. West trips along the edge of insanity, hiding his stress and fears behind a silly, carefree façade, but there is so much beneath the surface of his teasing. What you see isn’t necessarily what you get with West, and I love that.

Favourite quote:

“I actually just wanted to take advantage of the typical urge for life-affirming sex. It’s even better than angry sex. And trust me, people have a lot of angry sex with me.”

– Peripheral People, Reesa Herberth and Michelle Moore

 

5. Captain Evan Cerelli from Tere Michaels’ Faith, Love & Devotion series

The first book in the Faith, Love & Devotion series opens on the worst day of Evan Cerelli’s life. His wife of 20 years was killed in a car accident, leaving him a single dad of four kids. Months later, he meets former NYPD detective Matt Haight at a colleague’s retirement party and they start up a friendship that develops into something more, startling them both. Evan strikes a chord with me so strongly because he is a very flawed man. For years, he put his career first, above everything, and depended on his wife to keep the homefires burning. When he and Matt enter into a relationship, he falls into the same old patterns, and it’s painful yet satisfying to watch as they find some measure of compromise.

Favourite quote:

“It isn’t easy. Believe me when I tell you, I thought about this a lot. But then I have to think—why do they get to win? Why do people I don’t care about have a say in my life? When I married your mother, people said we were too young. They said we were crazy to have four kids. I can’t imagine having let other people deprive me of that.”

– Faith & Fidelity, Tere Michaels

 

6. U.S. Marshal Sam Kage from Mary Calmes’ A Matter of Time series

Sam Kage is kind of the epitome of growly alpha male. He starts out the series as a tough, straight Chicago detective who is absolutely floored by his attraction to Jory Keyes and more than a little resistant—and by the end, he is completely committed to Jory and his family, having even switched careers in order to have more freedom to be himself. We never get to see inside Sam’s head, but his love for Jory is obvious as it grows from a need to possess him to a need to protect and cherish him—not to mention in his often-tried patience for Jory’s antics.

 7. Cole McGinnis from Rhys Ford’s Cole McGinnis series

Cole McGinnis’s past is full of pain. In one shocking night, for unknown reasons, his partner shot Cole, Cole’s boyfriend, and then committed suicide. Mourning the two men who meant the most to him, Cole is left to try to put his life back together after a forced retirement from the LAPD. The books in this series are told in Cole’s first-person perspective, so we get a ringside seat to his thoughts and inner, snarky voice. Cole is smart as hell, determined, and committed to his private detective clients—and when he falls for Jae-Min, he falls hard. He’s my favourite type of character: a tarnished white knight.

 

8. Tony DeMarco in Eli Easton’s The Trouble with Tony

Once a cop, now a private detective, Tony DeMarco much prefers minor investigations to getting shot in the line of duty. His latest case focuses on what may or may not have happened in a sex clinic—so he infiltrates the clinic, posing as a sex addict. Dr. Jack Halloran doesn’t buy it and Tony has no choice but to come clean with an actual problem: he has, in his words, a “picky dick”. Tony is another of those lighthearted characters that I love—but it’s tempered by the fact that he isn’t out to his family and is dealing with what he thinks is a sexual dysfunction.

9. Detective Kurt O’Donnell from K.C. Burn’s Toronto Tales series

When Detective Kurt O’Donnell’s partner is killed in the line of duty, he discovers that not only was his partner secretly gay, he had a long-term boyfriend that no one knew about. Kurt and Davy start up a friendship and Kurt eventually realizes that he’s attracted to Davy. Kurt’s journey from thinking he’s straight to accepting himself as gay is one of the most realistic I’ve read, full of introspection and more than a little self-destructive behaviour. It’s painful to read, but so satisfying when he reaches the pinnacle of self-acceptance.

 

10. Detective Douglas Brody from Sam B. Morgan’s Slow Burn

When Brody meets Zack, the physical therapist determined to see him recover from a blown knee, he’s…well, he’s a jerk. There’s a whole lot going on underneath his attitude, though. He’s in the middle of tracking a serial killer and the knee injury has seriously derailed his investigation. Not only that, Brody is incredibly repressed. He knows he’s gay, but he refuses to accept it, and as a result, refuses to acknowledge the attraction pinging immediately between him and Zack. Brody doesn’t magically begin accepting himself when he and Zack start to connect, which makes his character that much more sympathetic. He’s got so much garbage in his head, thanks to his dead father’s bigotry, that digging through it to the light of love and acceptance seems almost impossible. When he gets there, you kind of want to cheer.

—

About the Author

Jenn’s always been drawn to weird and wonderful stories. Her love of the written word prompted her to get a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the University of Ottawa. A self-confessed geek, Jenn loves spending time in the worlds of video games, surfing her favorite websites, reading all the romance novels she can get her hands on, and accumulating an impressive collection of nerdy t-shirts. She currently lives outside of Ottawa, Ontario, with her husband, two kids, and her writing helper, Alenko the husky.

LONELY SHORE, the second book in the Chaos Station male/male science fiction romance series (co-written with Kelly Jensen) is out now!

Jenn’s website: http://www.jennburke.com

Jenn’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeralibu

Jenn’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jeralibu

Learn more about the Chaos Station series at: http://www.chaosstation.com

Book two of Chaos Station

All they can do is live day to day…

Felix Ingesson has returned to his duties as the Chaos’s engineer with Zander Anatolius, his ex-boyfriend-turned-broken-super-soldier, at his side. Hope means something again. But there’s nothing Felix can do to battle the alien poison flowing through Zander’s veins, or his imminent mental decline. With each passing day, the side effects of Zander’s experimental training are becoming more difficult to ignore.

When the ruthless Agrius Cartel seeks their revenge—including an ambush and an attempt to kidnap the Chaos’s crew—Zander is pushed over the edge. He can no longer hide his symptoms, nor does he want to. But hurting Felix when he’s not in control of himself is Zander’s worst nightmare—when it nearly happens, he agrees to seek help. Even if that means trusting the unknown.

As Zander places his life in alien hands, Felix appoints himself his lover’s keeper. And though he tries to be strong, he can’t ignore the fact that he might lose Zander…forever this time.