@JokeKoolloos I appreciate your dismay. As a writer, I'm tempted never to let bad things happen to my characters. Yet, those weak, humiliating, and undesirable aspects of their personalities force them to examine themselves and improve their behaviour over time. Without problems and conflict, there's no character-building to be done. That said, I've only got Ryan doing this one more time in the whole series and it's at the start of the chapter called '0700hrs' in this second book. The chapter is divided into three parts separated by sets of centred dashes that look like this:
- - -
It might help to know that there's nothing like as much raw description as the horrible encounter at the nightclub in 'Sixteenth Grave'. It's just Ryan – lonely and distressed by his behaviour – getting out of bed at a seedy motel, putting on his clothes, and heading off. However, if that still triggers you, then rather than abandon what might be a very enjoyable read as a whole, I suggest simply skipping the opening paragraphs of the chapter called '0700hrs'. There's no further bedroom activity in 'Racing The Tide', and you don't need to have read that part to understand the rest of the story. You can safely rejoin straight after the - - - marker, where Ryan arrives in the office, to be greeted by a constable called Bonnie Morrison, who tells him about the new case. Thereafter, Ryan's focus is right back on the case, and of course, his faithful pal Jake!
