After reading Bound By Your Touch, I was curious how Mina Masters, our Rochester's-wife-in-the-attic-style-mystery could ever be developed into a three-dimensional female main character. I shouldn't have doubted! The first half of this story leans into Duran's signature dark comedy - Mina's internal monologue is pure gold - and the second half gets emotional and messy and vulnerable and I loved it. These two main characters are morally gray. Both are willing to choose violence and betrayal when it serves to protect themselves and their loved ones, and both are facing down traumatic and abusive pasts. They are well-matched, willing and able to see the other's fears and insecurities, and unafraid of the other's secrets. The intimacy is particularly well done here, and I loved how their first extended experience authentically explores the intersection of emotional and sexual vulnerability for Mina. 

Significant content warnings here, as always, and there are moments between main characters that may simply be too dark for some readers (one character is a professional spy and one is an opportunistic spy, and they are, at times, pitted against each other). 

Classic #DuranDuress in this one!