Murder at Willow Slough

by Josh Thomas

A Gay reporter, a Straight cop and thirteen dead will the good guys get the killers, or will the killers get them?

Jamie Foster has a lot going for himhes young, blond and handsome, with an exciting career as a journalist. Then his life falls apart.

Kent Kessler is a winner, too, a good-looking athlete and the youngest sergeant in state police history. Assigned to investigate a Gay murder, he comes up clueless. He teams with Jamie to track down the killer, and soon confronts a mind-boggling conspiracy.

Murder at Willow Slough is simultaneously terrifying, tough and tender, as two very different men stare down danger and discover the the only defense against evil is people who care for each other.

"A gripping mystery that will keep fans of the genre enthralled from first page to last. Added to the mix is a warm romance... (Jamie) Foster finds himself face to face with the enemy in a heart-stopping scene that will have you on the edge of your seat... You'll find yourself often holding your breath."The Letter (Louisville, KY)

"For those who enjoy a good suspense book, this is it. And for those who enjoy a nice romance book (along the lines of The Front Runner), this is it."Columbus Alive

"The novel is a solid mystery, with believable characters and tremendous suspense. Readers will appreciate Thomas' wit and the characters he creates--as well as a story that will stay with them long after the novel ends."Nuvo Newsweekly

"There are distinct flashes of Thomas Harris-like brilliance here, bringing to mind the evil exuding from the pages when Hannibal Lecter did something naughty. There are twists and turns aplenty. There are secrets within conspiracies, and many of the characters are not what they seem to be."Gay Peoples Chronicle

Genres: M M Romance, Mystery, Suspense, Crime, Contemporary, Romance, Gay For You

542 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 20, 2000

About the author

Smalltown boy, native of Basketball Land. Became a cityboy in New York, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Columbus and Indianapolis. Literary heroes: Jane Austen, Joseph Hansen; diehard fan of the Purdue Boilermakers.

Former editor of Gaybeat, Ohio's Gay Newspaper. Three-time GLPA award-winner, including Best Investigative Reporter in America. Co-founder of AIDS Volunteers of Cincinnati, one of the world's first AIDS organizations, 1983.

Reviews

[Trix · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's some leeway given to the book as it was originally published in the year 2000. But that still doesn't excuse some of the things in the book.

Awful writing with various POV thrown in together, so much I had to re-read countless paragraphs to figure out who was talking. A lot (and I mean a looooooot) of local information (geography, streets, schools, athletes, sports). Half the time I didn't understand what they were talking about and I gave up trying to google the translation (and by that, I mean try to understand the geographical pointers given or find out who the star athletes were exactly, even figure out what some of the local jargon meant). But most of all, I got sick and tired of all the praise. Jamie and Kent praised each other constantly. About looks, personality, behaviour. You name it. I was close to damaging my eyes from all the eye-rolling. Thank God I managed to finish it.

[Nemesis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally in ebook format!

The combination of mystery, crimes investigation, beautiful romance and endearing characters makes it a great read!

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent story of a gay serial killer on the loose for 14 years and the lone gay activist reporter who doggedly pressures the police to move on the murders, and becomes a prime informant and target for the killer.
Jamie foster is the most positive and unlifting gay character I have read about in a long time. Openly gay, outwardly beautiful, upwardly mobile,obscenely wealthy and an ex-model. He lost his first and only love to AIDS and is not one for physical relationships, so he feels lonely. He is a wonderful son to his mother too.

Enter a straight cop with looks and talent to head up the crime unit. Jamie educates our cop and he takes it all in in order to get into the mind of a killer of gays.

Wonderful story of a young man who has it all and has nothing. He fights for the rights of gays and never backs down. Everyone loves him.

But Jamie finds himself drawn to the straight cop with the beautiful eyes. What is a gay man to do?

I couldn't put this book down. Fast-paced, great story, uplifting. Didn't miss no sex it reads so well. The characters of the cop and Jamie are very hot.

[Jonathan Treadway · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an outstanding book. I read way too late at night and actually got up early to finish this a.m. because I was only about 20 pages from the end. It got a little sappy at the end, but overall I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's nice and long and very detailed. I believe it won an award from Lamda for police procedures and it definitely deserved it. I can't say enough about how great it was. Best book I've read in a while.

[Vero]

DNF at 30%.

I didn't enjoy this one - found it incredibly boring and dislike the protag a bit. He is TGTBT, so georgeous he could stop traffic with his face, totally butch and overall awesome - not. Besides his often mentioned looks he is simply uninteresting. His counterpart, the butch, "straight" guy is also extremely gorgeous.

The writing doesn't sit right with me - it feels somehow disconnected, I didn't get into the story, and some editing issues, e.g. gay is always written with capital G. Same with straight and lesbian - it looks real weird, mostly because the word "gay" appears VERY often.

[Kelly (Maybedog) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think my status updates explain pretty much what you need to know.

[Lila · Rating 3 out of 5]

First things first: I was recommended this book last year. Last year! :|
I looked for ebook edition to buy, but there is no eformat in sale- at one point apparently there was, but not now. This is where GR friends come in handy since my friend L. sent me his PB copy. Thanks! <3

The title on one hand and the cover on other present a perfect dichotomy of this novel, since first 60% of it was crime/procedural novel and rest of it was romance through and through. The reason I mention it here, is because not just that focus was changed- the writing style changed so dramatically I felt like I was reading 2 different novels. This is not particularly a critique, but expect a change of narrative and slower pace once the killer is stopped. ;)

The story opens with a death of serial killer who murdered 21 gay men in span of 10+ years. Jaime Foster, young, brilliant journalist and gay activist, who works for Gay Ohio Times covered the story and became almost as popular because of it since he connected murders from different counties, got in touch with local and federal authorities and publicly criticized lack of interest police showed in stopping this killer. The killer admitted he was guilty for some murders, but not all implying he didn't work alone. Jaime believed every word he said, but gay victims are nobody's priority.
When he goes to his hometown to care for his sick mother, the body of young man near his home, at Willow Slough is found. He is immediately on alert, afraid it's another victim of group of serial killers he believes are targeting gay community, and goes to visit local police officer in charge of murder. What he find is the most attractive man he ever saw and a man willing to listen what he has to say and take it seriously. Kent Kessler is specifically put on this assignment and has to work close to Jaime, but things get complicated between them since murderer is actually after blond journalist.

Let me be clear: there is no mystery per se, since we know, Jaime knows and Kent and everyone else know who is the killer- the guy who died at the beginning named several other men. It's all about catching them. That's why I wrote this is a procedural- the story is focused on Jaime working as CI and trying to bring attention to this problem because police doesn't want to put effort in investigation when victim is gay. He and Kent end up working together and forming a special task force to catch them- there is a coordination between several agencies, different police officers since bodies were thrown in several counties- it's the ugly,bureaucracy side of murder investigation that's often invisible.
Considering that this was published almost 15y ago, you can expect that some things are outdated like technology, current news and murder investigation procedures. First two, especially technology, just doesn't play that big of a part in story to be distracting (everyone has mobile phones and such) and latter is too specific to notice by anyone else who is not familiar with investigation process (sorry, professional deformation).
You know where this book does feel dated to me, but I am scared that maybe it isn't so? In some parts where prejudices were so severe and misguided and showing lack of information I came to think of them as ancient; part of history. I know equality is still far cry from perfect, but I'll try to explain on an example: when Jaime who is gay is hurt, Kent keeps his wound closed, so he wouldn't bleed to death. So, later other officers are all looking at Kent and telling him he has to do test because Jaime is homosexual (hmm, now it's a common thing whenever someone comes in contact in blood, no matter whose blood it is) and later Jaime thinks: "Oh, he had his hands in my blood! He held his hand in homosexual blood! What a man!"
0_0
So, here it is something I was learned to think of as normal human behavior-to save somebody's life- celebrated as great act of heroism because he dared to keep hands in a blood of successful, respected journalist who happens to be gay. Taking in consideration that there is still life long ban on blood donations for gay men constituted in 1985. I am aware that discrimination based on sexual preference is very much present in real life, but I realized i haven't used to seeing it in fiction in such a degree, especially romance. Thank god for those idealistic towns like Tucker Springs or St. Nacho's in mm romance novels where people don't give flying fuck who are you sleeping with- it's not just a fantasy, it's how it's supposed to be. I don't know... Frankly this blatant disregard of basic human rights from police refusing to investigate murders because victims were gay-even when they were underage (which, ffs, should trump sexual preference) to newspapers not interested in publishing story on serial murders for same reason is mind-boggling to me and it made me angry. If you checked author's bio you can see that he is a gay activist and journalist for gay oriented newspaper as well as investigative crime reporter (and yes, I believe Jaime is very much projection), so I guess he came close to real state of things and knows better.
Speaking of procedural part of novel, the writing could have been much, much better. We have jumping from one character's head to another in same scene, sometimes few times during one conversation. It's also hard to differentiate things that characters thinks in his head from things he actually voiced. This can be partly blamed on bad formatting, but not all. This jumping action, investigation report-like writing does considerably fasten the pace but whole thing just come of as jerky, like a camera work in "found footage horror" movies. Some smoothing over would do the job.
I don't think Jaime is everyone's cup of tea. Jaime is hollywood-face stunning. Breathtakingly beautiful. But behind that face, he hides a sharp mind. I am mentioning this because his beauty is important for story. He is an activist, a firm believer in equal rights and unafraid to criticize bigots, but he can also be judgmental, pushy and oblivious in some other things. The reason I believe some readers had troubles with Jaime is because sometimes he just feel too righteous, every sentence that comes out of his mouth is a statement; in best case scenario he will sound as Bill Pullman in Independence Day; in worst- like a Sorkin going particularly crazy writing hyperarticulate episode of West Wing- you can't even catch everything he says. It's like every time an opening in conversation shows up, it's his opportunity to preach and blame straight guys for things bigots did. Even if a guy is doing right, like Kent, Jaime is preaching. It goes something like this:
Jaime: "...homosexual is derogatory term for gay people, we are not treated as equal...." - it goes for 1 page.
Kent: "I never discriminate victims in any way, my job is to enforce law and protect human rights."
Jaime: "I know, Kent, I am grateful to you, gay men are grateful to you,...but homosexual is derogatory term for gay people, we are not treated as equal...."
So, yeah, it takes some time to get used to Jaime and expect he will probably make a declaration out of soap ingredients, but since he was the only one who made sense when it comes to murders in this novel, I am inclined to overlook. Entire police force thinks boys deserved to be killed because they are gay- I am on a side of one sane guy who thinks nobody deserves to be killed for being gay. Go, Jaime, preach away, as much as you like...
The other hero, Kent is a very nice, good man. It's almost too much of a farm boy since he use words like Gosh. and Darn! or the one I really, really hate when it comes to love interest: boy. You are 27 he is 26. STOP THIS. Kent is handpicked to catch this killer because he has the best results, but also because he is particularly good looking and not afraid to take that as an advantage. So, here we have two beautiful men, working closely together, one gay one straight and they developed feelings for each other. That part of novel, romance part was done much better and it only accentuated what was bad in first part. Somewhere, behind reporter, we have a decent writer in Thomas and I am sorry he didn't combine these two better. Metaphors were great, romance was sweet, feelings were shown and I ended up cheering for Jaime and Kent.
Now bad parts:
I was particularly ticked by some things in investigation taken for granted and some stereotypical things: like guy had pasta salad in his stomach it means he is not poor, because hamburgers are food for poor. 0_0 Don't get me even started on generalization.
Then the old Evil Smurfette thing in gay novel- we have one female character and she is a terrible person.
For some inexplicable reason words gay, straight, black and white were written with capital letter. Just...wth?! Is this publisher thing? Author's choice? It's completely confusing as well, since it's often used in novel. :|
Then, at the end author went completely over the top: So, ok, if by stretch of imagination I can buy that FBI had a file on Jaime tagging him as the most dangerous homosexual in the country, the part where they sent individuals to deliberately give him or his lover aids and get rid of him that way, was.... just crazy.

So, there you go. Hate crimes against gay people are still the most common and vicious of all hate crimes, and teens who are thrown out of their homes for being gay are the easiest targets.
Let's hope that in another 15+y this book becomes completely outdated and "from another time when people were not equal".

(Ok, I am biologically incompetent to write concise review.)

[Nightcolors · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, because I liked this book more than 3 stars, but didn't "really like it" (which is what 4 stars says).

The story's set around the year 2000, and there are lots of references to even earlier times. A lot of the sports or period specific types of information, I honestly didn't really get, but (hopefully) understood the general gist of it. Most of the story's written in more of a news report style than story-telling, so it took some getting used to.

I liked the way the main mystery was resolved. But honestly, so many of the characters in this book didn't stand out in any individual way, to me. They were mostly names on a page who served some purpose, but didn't have any particular personalities shown. I liked Jamie a lot because of how driven he was to do the right things. I'd suggest to anyone reading this book to try to gloss over the many descriptions of his perfect appearance. His personality is far more interesting than his looks, imo.

[Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it, could not put it down.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't believe some of the praise this book has received on Goodreads - one person even called it the best book of 2016 when it wasn't even the best of 2000 when it was first published - this is truly dreadful book and it was awful twenty years ago when I first read it. I may be reviewing in it in 2023 but everything I have to say I thought in 2004.

It is appallingly written and way too long and full of utterly extraneous information, most of it of a very localised relevance (possibly only to the author and his friends), but the worst thing is the way the 'gay' hero is so overly good and wholesome, he is a great cop, but was a supermodel, made money, and continues to make masses of money marketing pics of himself, he is blond, good looking, monogamous to a dead partner - he such a 'positive' gay hero you want to have him spend a night in the in a bath tub in Mineshaft having people piss on him. He is so wholesome I want to puke, the only character worse is the straight journalist, they can't stop telling each other how wonderful they are - get a room you scream to this unsubtle and creepy bromance - I could go on forever. This is a terrible detective novel and a embarrassing gay detective novel. I can't imagine why anyone would read this rubbish and I refuse to shelve it as literature of queer interest.

Also there were lots of earlier editions which are not listed on Goodreads and why does this book get a separate listing as a Kindle book separate from the paperback?

[Njoki · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is easily the best book in 2016.
its .March but I'm confident it will be impossible to top this.the story was intense and relevant.I completely loved this couple.talk about compartibility .could easily see. how this relationship would work.otf sure....not the most believable concept at times but here ...my goodness its a meeting of hearts above everything else.Jamie is the most lovable character I have ever read and Kent more than deserved him.be warned the story drags on at the begining but it when it picks. it lifts.more than 10 stars

[Ingrid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. I had a bit of a hard time getting into it because the first chapter is written like a newspaper article.
But after that it was a pleasure to read. I liked both MC's and the solving of the crime was through old fashioned police work.

[Darkm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant.

[Poxie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A 1000 stars for the climax of the book. 2 stars for the Googleplay ereader. Formatting errors made it confusing to follow the story as it switches pov.