A review by readinginmagnolia
Cop Out by K.C. Burn

5.0

I enjoyed this book so much I read it twice in two days. It’s very rare for me to enjoy a short book this much. Of course, it may have helped that I read several 1-2 star books this week followed by two that I gave five stars including this one. I may be a little afraid of the next book I choose.

This book is about Kurt’s journey to finding his truth and happiness. He discovers in a terrible circumstance that a man that he had known and worked with for three years had a secret life. As more and more details of that life are revealed to Kurt, he discovers that he probably would not have really liked Ben had he known what he was truly hiding, not that he was gay but that he was so secretive about his personal life that it bordered on being psychologically unhealthy for those around him, especially to the detriment of the life partner that he left behind.

When Kurt discovers the truth, he vows to help Davy just like he would have supported any other fallen partner’s spouse. Davy ends up becoming his best friend and then perhaps something more. You see, Kurt has never felt comfortable with his dating life and has all but given up on it. It takes this unusual circumstance for him to realize why (I’ve seen other reviewers consider this a GFY type story but I don’t agree with this, I just think this was a case of the guy just never considered that was a possibility. Some people might see that as unrealistic at the age of 31 but in some circumstances it can be very true to life, happened to someone I know). Will Kurt learn a lesson from the way Ben conducted his life? Or is he doomed to make the same mistakes?

As I said above, this book is about Kurt’s journey. Davy is actually missing for a good chunk of the book, so if you are not into the main character’s introspective thoughts then this book will probably not interest you. I did have some issues with the Kindle edition. The paragraphs were triple space though the spacing was consistent. It just made for some heavy page turning, plus when you reached a section break there would be more like six spaces between paragraphs. With the time jumps in some sections of the book, it was sometimes disconcerting except the author usually gave you a time perspective in one of the sentences be it, two weeks, six weeks and on one occasion it was three months. I wish that I had even more introspective during those time periods rather than the time jumps. I would have probably enjoyed the book even more.

The book also mentions that Kurt texted Davy every day or sometimes weekly but I was a little unclear on what he texted him. At first I thought he was just keeping a running commentary on his daily life in the texts since Davy was practically his best friend at this point but later I discovered that did not appear to be the case when it was revealed that Kurt had not told Davy some very important information about what was going on in his life. The texting was a little ambiguous to me at that point. I guess he was just texting him to tell him that he was thinking about him and missed him.

This book has apparently already made it into my re-read list. So five stars.