Once I read the synopsis I had very high hopes for this book.

My hopes were definitely met and even exceeded. The story is about an American student from Cambridge, Mitch, who spends a weekend in the English country with his best friend, Boy Morgan, at Morgan’s fiancée’s home. The book starts with Mitch hiding in a closet with Boy and succeeding in his long seduction of his friend. They are unfortunately interrupted by Boy’s fiancée who has rudely screamed the house down at the discovery of a body upstairs. Now, it turns out that Mitch has a bit of a thing for detective fiction and decides to emulate his favorite and greatest, Sherlock Holmes, and discover what exactly happened. Clues begin to turn up, as well as plenty of opportunities for sexual encounters with everyone from the servants to the Lord’s younger brother. Mitch gets plenty of men and in the end, also solves the mystery with the help of his very own Watson and new lover, Boy Morgan.

This story was wonderful. It’s told in the first person and held my attention all the way through. Mitch is a fun character and takes everything, even himself, none too seriously. He is witty and adventurous and smart. And even has quite a heart. What I also liked about him was that he was not infallible. He is portrayed as exactly as he is, a young man enjoying himself as he lives out a boyhood dream. He doesn’t solve the mystery alone and he is quite easily distracted by his libido.

To sum this book up, I’ll quote the author from his MySpace blog:
“All of my books are meant to be very very dirty FIRST AND FOREMOST, offering the reader at least two good wanks per chapter (one, for the older reader). Then (this is the "pretensions" bit) I try and make them entertaining, funny, exciting and touching as a kind of bonus to the loyal reader.

I can't attach a free packet of tissues to the front of every book, so I think that giving a good narrative is the next best thing.”

Really, how can you go wrong with that? The only quibbles I had with the book, was that towards the climax (of the story, of course) it seemed… rushed? There were certain scenes that kind of seemed thrown together just a bit too fast, or perhaps in a distracted way. The staging of certain actions did not flow as smoothly as before, so it was slightly jarring. It certainly did not take away from the story in any way, though, so no worries on that account.

I am very excited to hear that Mr. Lear will be returning to Mitch in the near future. Very happy news to a reader who purposely slowed my devouring of the book as much as I could to make it last as long as possible.