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208th out of 306 books
—
134 voters
Shock to the System (Donald Strachey #5)
Donald Strachey is asked to investigate the suspicious death of Paul Haig by three different people-Haig's homophobic mother, his ex-lover, and the psychiatrist hired to "cure" him of his homosexuality. Just as he gets started, however, all three remove him from the case, leaving Strachey with a brutal murderer that now everyone wants left alone.
ebook
Published
2008
by MLR Press, LLC
(first published 1995)
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Not bad, but certainly not as good as the last two in the series. Stevenson picks a hot, controversial topic (ex gay programs) but somehow the story just never quite reaches the page turning intensity of Third Man Out. Strachey's dry cynicism is as entertaining as ever, and Timmy's characterization gets better with every book. The same can't be said of the suspects-they are pretty colorless and stereotypical. The "ex-gay" therapist is so over the top homophobic he makes Rick Santorum look modera...more
Mar 26, 2009
Jane
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Jane by:
fandom osmosis
I'm not too keen about the whole "I've got a terrible secret, true, but it's not relevant to the case, honest, you've got to believe/trust me" spiel half the characters in Shock to the System are sprouting so that was one determent for me to fully enjoy the book.
The new MLR Press editions, at least the ebook versions, have a disappointing number of typographical problems, both minor and major.
Wow. I don't know how I feel about the tone of this book--it seemed even more cynical than the others to me--and there's a lot of the plot that was completely excised when they went to do the movie, which I can't really argue with. Still, watching Don Strachey's brain work is always an interesting time, and I love how Timmy as his conscience continues to develop, to the point where he doesn't even need Tim in the room to know what he's thinking.
This is the second title I received in the series and even if it's the fifth book in the series, I couldn't wait. I just went ahead and started to read. It's a good read too. A complex web of intrigue centered on the death of Paul Haigh, who may or may not have committed suicide 8 months after going thru and quitting a controversial therapy curing homosexuals. You follow the plot and just go along for the ride. Pretty nice ride.
Another quick read, with a reasonably good story. It was all investigative, though, no action sequences, so it was kind of dull.
Good gay mystery in which Don tries to figure why a guy who'd dropped out of an ex-gay program ended up dead.
Excellent detective work, wit, and one of the most charming romantic duos in GLBT mystery.
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Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Richard Stevenson is the pseudonym of Richard Lipez, the author of nine books, including the Don Strachey private eye series. The Strachey books are being filmed by here!, the first gay television network. Lipez also co-wrote Grand Scam with Peter Stein, and contributed to C...more
More about Richard Stevenson...
Richard Stevenson is the pseudonym of Richard Lipez, the author of nine books, including the Don Strachey private eye series. The Strachey books are being filmed by here!, the first gay television network. Lipez also co-wrote Grand Scam with Peter Stein, and contributed to C...more
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