Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

A quite unusual read. A slow burner that tells the story of 2 journalists, investigating oil companies in Mexico.

With Violence, corrupt cops and cartels is everything you expect but done very differently.

It just never really captured my imagination and I found it disjointed and a bit all over the place.

The standard of writing is clearly very high but a literary Mexican LGBT cartel thriller just doesn’t quite work for me which is a shame as I expected and wanted to love this book.

Loved the pace of this original and fascinating crime novel! Not at all what I was expecting and really brilliant. Fantastic characters and a really intriguing storyline.

Andrew is an Irish journalist living and working in Mexico City when he and his photographer boyfriend stumble across the body of a person brutally murdered by a cartel. When Andrew's boyfriend Carlos asks too many questions about the body, he is also killed. Now Andrew is faced with a dilemma - turn the other way or begin to probe into the killings which lead back to oil fields, big corporate boardrooms, and a lot of people who have been silenced in terrible ways.

This is a fantastically told story, and something unlike anything I have read before, and I cannot recommend this book enough!

The atmosphere and setting of this book is superb, and I really feel like Mexico City became alive for me while I was reading it, as well as other parts of South America Andrew visits in the novel. The danger towards Andrew and others in his field is clearly stated several times throughout the story, and we see it physically affect Andrew at times, but also shown is the vibrancy of the city and culture and the adrenaline rush that comes with a great story told that is why Andrew lives and breathes Mexico City instead of his Dublin hometown.

You can definitely tell while reading this book, that Tim MacGabhann knows what he was writing about, and has an amazing knowledge of the types of goings-on he is reporting about in the book - the corrupt police force, drug cartels and all those affected by it. His author note at the end of the story is a really good addition, and I would definitely urge people to read it once finished as you learn about where he got inspiration for this story which isn't 100% fictional.

I loved this book, and can't wait to see what Tim MacGabhann writes next. I think the character of Andrew was beautifully portrayed and I was just so sucked into this story - even when it was a little bit scary, and fairly brutal and gruesome at others times.

I've been trying to get into this book for months! I pick it up, read a bit and just cannot get into it.

Unfortunately it's a DNF 43% in.

Personally for me the writing feels messy and all over the place, and it fails to keep my interest.

I rarely DNF books, but this may drag me into a slump I don't want and its better we part ways as friends.

Thank you so much NetGalley for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

An LGBT thriller- very of the moment, very captivating, this was fast paced and kept me guessing. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you

The book is a LGBT thriller set against the backdrop of Mexico's drug and oil trades. I didn't particularly enjoy this book but I don't know why, it was just a bit meh. For me, it was a slow burner and didn't really hook me in at any particular point.

My thanks to Orion Publishing Group/Weidenfeld & Nicolson for an eARC via NetGalley of Tim MacGabhann’s ‘Call Him Mine’ in exchange for an honest review.

I found this a stunning debut with a moving love story at its heart. Tim MacGabhann’s writing reflects his journalistic background in its discipline though also is passionate and lyrical. I could imagine ‘Call Him Mine’ being considered for literary prizes.

Its narrator Andrew is an Irishman living and working in Mexico as a journalist. Years of covering the crime and corruption in the country has left him jaded. Returning from an assignment with his boyfriend, photojournalist Carlos, they come across the dead body of a young man. Carlos takes a series of photographs while Andrew keeps watch. They are disturbed by the police, who remove the body. However, this encounter sets in motion a series of tragic events.

This was a powerful novel that gripped me from its opening. Alongside the story of horrific violence inflicted by the cartels and others it deals sensitively with grief and loss.

It is a dark tale though has its moments where light shows through such as the acceptance shown by Carlos’ mother towards Andrew, his friendship with Maya, a staff writer at another paper, and his delightful cross-eyed cat, Motita.

In his dedication to ‘the real Carlos’, MacGabhann relates his own story as a reporter in Mexico and how he came to write this novel. He explains that ‘Call Him Mine’ isn’t quite a nonfiction novel though draws on the Mexican tradition of “the crónica, a hybrid form that owes its subject matter to reportage, its questioning of objectivity to autobiography, and just about everything else to fiction.”

As is clear from the text of the novel telling the truth in Mexico can be dangerous and this has allowed the crónica to become a powerful form of storytelling. He also includes the historical background to the events of the novel including notes and sources, plus a short glossary.

I found it intelligent, inspiring, and thought-provoking.

How many reviews do I start with I don’t know what to say? Well, here’s another one for you! I really enjoyed this book, but do I know why? Nope, no such luck!

Call Him Mine is a kind of thriller, but about journalism, and what happens when a journalist and his photographer boyfriend stumble into a big conspiracy. After Carlos is murdered as a result of his investigations, Andrew vows to bring down those behind his death.

This book is one of those ones that grows on you, but you don’t realise quite how much until you’re almost crying over a scene two thirds of the way through (this is not an exaggeration). Because in a way, it’s about grief, and coming to terms with that grief (even if the actual coming to terms bit in this is less generalisable). But that grief is a kind of quiet underlying motif. Which is kind of what I loved about this book. It’s a story with action but with those quiet threads of something more throughout as well.

But while it is a grower as a book, it also does hook you from early on. It opens with a bang and doesn’t let up the whole time. You find yourself constantly on edge about what’s going to happen next, and hoping the whole time that nothing bad happens to Andrew.

And then, when you’re done, what you’re left with is that kind of hollowness that comes from having had your feelings wrecked by a good book.

Wow, what an amazing debut from Tim MacGabhann. Set against the backdrop of Mexico’s drugs cartels, corrupt politics and police, and the powerful oil industry this novel grabs you from the first page. It is gritty, violent, sometimes funny and often tragic.

Journalist, Andrew and his lover Carlos, a photographer, come across the body of a young man, who, they later discover, is a student activist involved in protests against the corruption rife in the country which is bringing misery and death to the Mexican population. As they observe and photograph the body the police arrive to take it away. Whilst Andrew wants to walk away, Carlos wants answers and is murdered. Grief stricken, Andrew begins to delve deeper into the web of immorality and dishonesty which leads from local politics to the manipulation of the economy by businesses in the USA. He has to decide how far he will go to uncover Carlos’ killers.

This is powerful and poetic writing which evokes a tangible sense of Mexico and its environment. The characters are really well developed and the sense of injustice leaps from the page. Whilst this is fiction it is clearly based on the true nature of power and authority, money and control which affects the everyday life of many Mexicans. It is an unflinching indictment of aspects of Mexican society.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orion Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This isn’t my usual type of book. I read MacGabhann's debut offering because of the Lee Child recommendation. I am so very glad I did because it is bl**dy brilliant. Within the first few pages I was hooked.

The story of two journalists caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and what unfolds is addictive, hideous and all too grimly real.

For lovers of the Mexican drug narc films Sicario the same adrenalin fuelled, oppressive, nail-biting tension pierces through every page.

The descriptions of polluted, sultry, religion obsessed Mexico electrify - the writing is simply superb.

It is a grim story of corruption in Mexico but one that, as the author explains at the end, is all too real.

This is one of those novels that will stay with me for a long time.