Snowball in Hell (Doyle and Spain, #1)

Snowball in Hell (Doyle and Spain #1)

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4.16 of 5 stars 4.16  ·  rating details  ·  906 ratings  ·  121 reviews
Los Angeles, 1943
Reporter Nathan Doyle had his reasons to want Phil Arlen dead, but when he sees the man's body pulled from the La Brea tar pit, he knows he'll be the prime suspect. He also knows that his life won't stand up to intense police scrutiny, so he sets out to crack the case himself.

Lieutenant Matthew Spain's official inquiries soon lead him to believe that Natha...more
ebook, 191 pages
Published 2007 by Aspen Mountain Press

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Community Reviews

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Laura

Josh Lanyon has done it again! Just a week before Christmas and all through LA, all the creatures were stirring, scurrying, murdering, and causing all sorts of trouble and hubbub for our heroes Doyle and Spain. Mr. Lanyon completely charmed me with a mystery wrapped up in 1943 Los Angeles, kidnappings, alligator farms, fear, love, and an overwhelming bittersweet-make-my-heart-ache emotion. Oh, don’t forget the dead body. :D

A body in the La Brea tar pits sets the town a buzz with gossip, rumors,...more
Lauraadriana
Perfection...this book was perfect...for me.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record...Josh Lanyon is BRILLIANT!

This book had everything that I love in a mystery. Glamorous people doing suspicious things, blackmail, missing people, tragic heroes, dark dark characters, foolish boys and silly women who make all kinds of trouble, and webs that kept on spinning and spinning until every damn person looked liked the killer.

It's LA in the 40s, a rich man's son turns up dead in a tar pit...Lt. Matt...more
Paola
This is the first “period” novel by Josh that I’ve read. And it’s a gem. A compelling, moving story, in which the authenticity of the time setting (early 1940’s LA) never overshadows the characters’ development, their emotional struggles and the murder mystery they’re both investigating though from different perspectives. All these elements are carefully balanced and help create a story that sensitively re-creates a time period when sex between men was illegal and homosexuality a social and pers...more
Sarah
On holiday at the moment and loving being lazy bint and doing much reading. The other night I finished Josh Lanyon’s Snowball in Hell at some god-awful hour. I was so engrossed I did not even realise the time and had to make sure I was very quiet and did not wake the other bed occupant.

I really liked this book, a lot. Mind you, thus far I have thoroughly enjoyed all of Josh Lanyon’s work and have given my credit card a work out in the last wee while!

Nathan is kinda lonely and all in his head a...more
Heather C
I just finished this and I'm still emotionally torn apart. I really, really felt for Matt and Nathan deep down in my heart! Josh's work always does this to me and I know I won't be able to find the words to describe why I loved this book or how it made me feel. It was dark and beautiful and heart-wrenching and the ending left me filled with hope the somehow everything will work out.

I was also really into the mystery. I was pretty sure I had it figured out early on, but the revelation was still...more
Dina
Wow, oh wow! What a great read!

Review to come later...


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Note: I received this eARC from Carina Press via NetGalley. That had no influence on my review/rating.
Jess the Romanceaholic
This is a Quickie Review. For the full review, please visit The Romanceaholic.

To start off this review, an important point should be made. This is not a traditional romance, in the sense of Happily Ever Afters. It is much more of a mystery novel, with Nathan and Matt’s romance playing a beautiful subtext to the whodunit behind Phil Arlen’s murder.

Josh Lanyon is probably my favorite m/m writer of all time. His mysteries are thoughtful, entertaining, and incredibly well-written, and his ability to...more
chanceofbooks
May 24, 2012 chanceofbooks rated it 5 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: All detective noir lovers, m/m romance lovers
[This is a re-edited re-release from Carina] Simply one of the best pieces of Detective Noir fiction I have read. I took a course in college that included some classic Detective Noir pieces, and I have to say that I enjoyed this far more, mainly due to Lanyon's superb characterization skills and careful balance of plot and setting. He keeps the pace crisp while still managing to maintain an authentic atmosphere throughout the story. The police detective/reporter crime solving duo is one of myste...more
Norma
"I don't know how we're going to work it out. I just know...it's worth working out. It's worth it to me anyway."

What an amazing and beautiful story. Nathan and Matt are such beautifully written characters.

This story is a very pulp noir feeling mystery set during war-time in the 1940's. Nathan is a reporter and Matt is a cop investigating a murder.

I don't think I've met many characters like Nathan. He's dark and broken and beaufiful and he has no idea about any of it. Matt is kind of lost too. H...more
Kati
May 24, 2012 Kati rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: gay mysteries fans
This book is excellent, I kid you not. The mystery part is engaging, the characters are very likable and the gay romance is very good too. The sex is hot without overwhelming the plot which is not common in gay books/ebooks these days.

For me, the best part were the characters. Nathan and Matt are very well-plotted characters but not everything is told about them, making it possible for the author to write a sequel that would delve deeper into their personalities.

I'm also happy that these two c...more
Cynthia (aka Artemis)

Reviewed at Bitten By Paranormal Romance


I was transported back to the days of Sergeant Joe Friday of Dragnet and Humphrey Bogart while reading SNOWBALL IN HELL. The story starts out with a noir-esque feel to it, but the tone subtly changes about a quarter of the way through to a more contemporary nature. Either that or I just got used to Mr. Lanyon’s writing style.

A smartly written murder mystery that places the characters front and center, while the romance aspect of the story stays somewhat in...more
Emanuela ~plastic duck~
May 24, 2012 Emanuela ~plastic duck~ rated it 5 of 5 stars
Recommended to Emanuela ~plastic duck~ by: pita288
Don't get me wrong, I adored Matt, his compassion, support, delicacy, strength, but this is Nathan's book. He came alive in my hands and his struggle became real, his desperation was so raw you could almost touch it. He is depressed, he drinks too much and doesn't eat enough and he has a painful death wish. His sexuality is a burden. He is a good man - everyone in the book says so - but he is lonely, he sets himself apart, he feels flawed.

In this book Nathan is one of the suspects of the murder...more
Mel
I don't know what it is about Josh Lanyon's books and yours truly...
Most of his stories are not the "I'll forsake sleep to finish this"- kind of page turners for me. There is a mellowness to the books that keeps me from that. Also: I still wouldn't want to classify mystery as a genre I particularly like. But still: I love his books. The whodunit is interesting but what Lanyon excels at are his characters. They're deep, layered, engaging. And the angst... Love it! Major drama with a subdued qual...more
Fani
Well, this is more romantic suspense than romance and I wasn't expecting that for one. I liked the 'noir' atmosphere though and enjoyed it a lot. I also liked Nathan very much, he was a very sweet hero. On the other hand I don't know why, but I didn't feel I got to know Matt as well as I'd like. And I so desperately needed an epilogue! The ending was way too abrupt for my tastes, especially considering how many difficulties those two have to face. Still, a very nice & emotional read and very...more
Jordan Price
Snowball in Hell is an m/m mystery set in WWII wartime California. I loved the historical aspects. They felt authentic without being explained, or overexplained. The worldbuilding was very fluid, in other words. I'd like to go back and read this more slowly to savor the detail, like the war rationing, the train ride, and the stuff in Nathan's mom's house. On the first readthrough I was mainly focused on the romance -- how horribly dangerous it seemed, how realistic, how thrilling. Definitely a r...more
Tasha
Well that ending was rather abrupt. Somehow left feeling doubtful these two worked it out.
Judith
4.75 out of 5

Another stellar effort by Josh Lanyon set during WWII and dealing with a corpse found in the Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. The seasoned LAPD homicide lieutenant is widowed having buried his wife, his high school sweetheart, just months previously. Nathan Doyle is a war correspondent who has come home to the States after sustaining a very serious injury and is now working at the Los Angeles Tribune-Herald. Their attraction to each other is instant but because of the times, almost imp...more
orannia
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Christine
I'm a new reader to Mr. Lanyon, but I've quickly become hooked. This noir romance was fascinating, and very reminiscent of the old Bogart films. Atmospheric and gritty, I was pulled in from the reveal of the body and not let go until the final act. The mystery kept me guessing (and I'm normally one to figure things out quickly)and the push-pull relationship between Matthew and Nathan kept me going.

I know some people might not like the pace of the romance of this story, but I thought it worked....more
Erin (PT)
This is less a romance than a mystery with romance elements...and I think I'm glad that I read it now, when I know Lanyon will be carrying forth with the characters as a series than if I'd read it when it was a standalone.

There's an incredible sadness to this story, one that's not completely resolved by the hook-up between the protagonists, but that adds an incredible poignancy to it all. I'd recently been musing about romance--or the improbability of--in historical times due to the difficultie...more
Lightreads
[Advance reader copy. The title was released several years ago, but is being re-released in extended form, I think to launch a series.]

A murder mystery and gay romance in early 1940’s Los Angeles, in which a widowed cop teams up with a reporter just home from the front.

I think, to the extent Lanyon’s usual readership may be dissatisfied with this long novella, it may be because it’s not an easy read. One of our protagonists has been driven to the brink of suicide; they are both all but choking o...more
Jeri
May 24, 2012 Jeri rated it 4 of 5 stars
Shelves: mm
I enjoyed this mystery set in 1940s Los Angeles. Nathan Doyle, a journalist recently home from the war, meets homicide detective Matthew Spain literally over a body. Given that Nathan knew the victim, and that he definitely has something to hide, he has a strong motive to help find the murderer before he is either accused of the crime and/or has his own secrets uncovered.

The strong attraction between Nathan and Matthew (a source of unease to both) keeps things interesting, and while I found myse...more
Sath
Another brilliant story by Josh Lanyon! Lanyon clearly has a thing for old fashion private detectives, which comes through in many of his other novels and series, Adrian English for instance a series of myster books, about a guy who owns a mystery novel bookshop, and then experiences a murder mystery, always loved wrapping my head around that!
But anyway, I knew I would find Lanyon would write an old style mystery novel, and that he'd be good at it, and I wasn't wrong.
Brilliantly set and characte...more
Erin
There's a lot to like in this story, and I was most especially impressed by the setting and the pacing of the mystery, both of which are well done. On the other hand, the whodunnit is not especially surprising and, more frustratingly, the romance felt rushed and tacked on. Here's this nice slow build of detail and tension, and then, in the last quarter of the book, Nathan and Matt hook up and fall in love in the space of a few hours/pages. I almost wonder if this is a story that would have been...more
Salome Wilde
This is my first Josh Lanyon book, read on-whim after Kaje Harper recommended it to me when I mentioned interest in reading a hard-boiled m/m romance novel. I read it in one sitting, and enjoyed both the detective plot and romance. I felt the mystery provided a loving homage to B noir films, which is enjoyable as it was what I sought as a reader. (Those seeking a truly complex mystery or hardcore hard-boiled lingo might be a bit disappointed.) Best of all was the focus on the tensions of the WWI...more
Megan
In 1943 Los Angeles, former war journalist Nathan Doyle and detective Matthew Spain meet over the body of poor-little-rich-boy Phil Arlen, shot and dumped at the La Brea tar pits. Nathan happens to be both reporting on the death and a likely suspect; he's a good Catholic and also a homosexual, and Phil had been blackmailing him over the latter. To keep his secret safe and to avoid being arrested, Nathan conducts his own investigation into the murder, but this keeps putting him in the path of Mat...more
Clerah
Maybe it was because I really wasn't in the mood to read this book that it didn't "do" it for me. So needless to say it my rating is probably a little skewed. What was interesting about the premise of the story is seeing two men attracted to each other in a period where one man could be arrested for PDA with another man. So lots of secret meetings, furtive looks, etc. I also felt like this book ended in a way that you would expect a second book to come out.

Btw the scenes were very tame.
Sally
A solid 4 1/2 tending towards a five. I might yet upgrade it. The characters well well drawn the story clear and the setting poingnantly written. I loved it! It's a very worthwhile book to read.

Though it's a short story it was good enough that I've suffered a bout of book drop since reading it. I take heart that there's (Doyle and Spain #1) following the title on here. I look forward to more of this world.
Tony S.
I loved it! This was an awesome story line and the author did an amazing job developing the characters and describing the time period. I actually saw the book playing out in black and white in my mind.

I would recommend this book and would consider it for a re-read
(Tim)
This story was great. It was set in the 40s when homosexuality could've got you arrested or worse. The MCs Nathan and Matt were very good together and I loved the Noir feeling to the story. I couldn't figure who the killer was until the end which is a good sign too!
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Snowball in Hell (ebook)
Snowball in Hell (Doyle and Spain, #1)
Snowball in Hell (Doyle and Spain, #1)
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A distinct voice in gay fiction, multi-award-winning author JOSH LANYON has been writing gay mystery, adventure and romance for over a decade. In addition to numerous short stories, novellas, and novels, Josh is the author of the critically acclaimed Adrien English series, including The Hell You Say, winner of the 2006 USABookNews awards for GLBT Fiction. Josh is an Eppie Award winner and a three-...more
More about Josh Lanyon...
Fatal Shadows (Adrien English Mystery, #1) The Dark Tide (Adrien English Mystery, #5) A Dangerous Thing (Adrien English Mystery, #2) Death of a Pirate King (Adrien English Mystery, #4) Fair Game

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