I love canon Bodie and Doyle, and I like seeing them in a CI5 story. In an AU, I'm willing to read and see if it clicks with me. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. Oh, really definitive! But I find I have to actually read the story (or try to read the story) before I can honestly decide. I've been rec'd some stuff that makes me wonder where Bodie and Doyle are, and others that people seem to dislike that I've been able to buy into. So it is hard to specifically say what works.

I can say that Ray being portrayed as cruel, manipulative and callous doesn't work for me. Neither does Bodie being portrayed as a doormat or a ruthless killer. I don't see that in canon, so I don't want to read that in any type of story, canon-based or AU. No one would ever convince me that Doyle is an assassin unless he was somehow brainwashed and then discovered what was happening somehow, and the story ended with an outcome where he realizes he's been unwillingly corrupted and fixes the problem.