If you read The Maintenance Man and thought “Hmm, what an interesting life this man is going to have in the next book” ….i suggest you put this down.
Honestly, this book felt like Michael Baisden got a little too excited about writing his own “Bourne Identity” thriller and forgot that this was supposed to be a second book about a successful, gigolo navigating relationships and life in a high-stakes, low-profile business.
First, how are you going to change the entire location of the story? The first book was primarily based in LA, Atlanta and Chicago with the infamous Melvin’s residing in LA. This was established several times over in the first book. Melvin even died in a Compton hospital! However, for some reason he wants us to forget that and pretend that Melvin’s has always been in Miami and that Miami has always been “home”. Incorrect. Malcom is from Soufside Chicago, primarily lived in LA, visited ATL for Simon’s club. At bare minimum, I could have bought him moving to MIA after leaving Toni BUT nothing is explained in regard to that situation i.e what happened to them, where they lived, what attempts were made by Malcom to “adjust”. Also, Toni pretty much being written out for reasons I guess. To say “he wasn’t made for the suburban life” totally contradicts his character’s transition at the end of the first book.
Secondly, the characters we enjoyed in the first book have all been watered down to basically nothing. They have no true purpose throughout the book and really just serve as a way to stroke Malcom when he is in a mood. Simon was blah and lost all his eccentricity but at least his move to MIA was justified from the previous book. Poor Ariel 🥱 Baisden did her so dirty in this second book. She was a feisty, independent woman, who was not going to let any man diminish her….except this book she is a young piece of ass who gets to talk…oh but she is the manager of the club still. That’s bout all we get with her the entire story.
And finally, my biggest issue with this stupid book! Why tf did this have to become a “money, sex and politics, James Bond” book. No where in the first book was it mentioned that Malcom possessed any special forces training. But out of nowhere this book starts talking about how this man was essentially a well-behaved Rambo. Very little “Gigoloing” is happening in this book. The AWFUL sub-plot of the radically, racist Senator hell bent on world conquest was boring, predictable and uneventful. And the grammatical errors almost took me out, the plot was a mess, the ending was so 🤮. I despise a “hops in car with hot girl, quippy one-liner, drive off in the sunset” ending…okay 007! 😴