I wish I could rate this higher, because the parts I liked about it, I really did like! But boy the prose is hard to read through. Like, actually hard, I read it out loud to some friends and it was hard to keep up with what was supposed to be happening sometimes. I didn't have a problem following the story, but I don't blame people who did. I would have liked to know why the cult captured Nigel, why he left, how he got in the basement, why Apollo didn't call the police, why they left him his phone... etc etc.. There's a line where Apollo mentions one off that he borrowed a car from his uncle in case Nigel was hurt. That's irrelevant! That really means nothing to the over all story, it's a cute detail but I wish those details had been used more for what was directly related to the characters.
That said, I love the banter. I love that Apollo is terminally addicted to quipping, and I have to admit it really does just come off like he does that as a coping mechanism, it's charming. The characters are both really good, I just want more cohesive writing, and a little more fleshing out of the things that really matter.