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The Romantical Adventures of Whit & Eddie #8
The Games People Play
Howdy! I'm Eddie Smith and this is the story of my eighth romantical adventure with my husband, Whit Hall.
Well, we're back in Daytona Beach after spending the football season in San Antonio.
Unfortunately, the Matadors came close to winning a lot of games, but ended up near the bottom of the pile in the league.
Whit isn't happy about that, as you can imagine.
On a brighter note, two of our friends stop by to give us the wonderful news that they're getting married!
Yay!
Since he's distracted with the team, Whit isn't his usually affirming and positive self when he gets the news about the upcoming happy event...
So we head over to make amends with our friends and, while we're there...
Let me just say it gets intense!
I don't want to give anything away, but our lives take a hard and unexpected hit.
In order to find out who did the deed, Whit and I end up taking charge of the investigation in our own particular ways.
Along the way, we both begin to seriously question what the heck we're doing as the unprepared and unexpected billionaires we are.
And, as we soon discover, we're not the only ones who feel this way...
Will we chuck it all and start over?
I have no idea!
Well, we're back in Daytona Beach after spending the football season in San Antonio.
Unfortunately, the Matadors came close to winning a lot of games, but ended up near the bottom of the pile in the league.
Whit isn't happy about that, as you can imagine.
On a brighter note, two of our friends stop by to give us the wonderful news that they're getting married!
Yay!
Since he's distracted with the team, Whit isn't his usually affirming and positive self when he gets the news about the upcoming happy event...
So we head over to make amends with our friends and, while we're there...
Let me just say it gets intense!
I don't want to give anything away, but our lives take a hard and unexpected hit.
In order to find out who did the deed, Whit and I end up taking charge of the investigation in our own particular ways.
Along the way, we both begin to seriously question what the heck we're doing as the unprepared and unexpected billionaires we are.
And, as we soon discover, we're not the only ones who feel this way...
Will we chuck it all and start over?
I have no idea!
- GenresMystery
318 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 27, 2021
4 people are currently reading
1 person want to read
About the author
Frank W. Butterfield
123 books106 followersFrank W. Butterfield, not an assumed name, loves old movies, wise-cracking smart guys with hearts of gold, and writing for fun.
Although he worships San Francisco, he lives at the beach on another coast.
Born on a windy day in November of 1966, he was elected President of his high school Spanish Club in the spring of 1983.
After moving across these United States like a rapid-fire pinball, he currently makes his home in a hurricane-proof apartment with superior water pressure that was built in 1926.
While he hasn't met any dolphins personally, that invitation is always open.
Although he worships San Francisco, he lives at the beach on another coast.
Born on a windy day in November of 1966, he was elected President of his high school Spanish Club in the spring of 1983.
After moving across these United States like a rapid-fire pinball, he currently makes his home in a hurricane-proof apartment with superior water pressure that was built in 1926.
While he hasn't met any dolphins personally, that invitation is always open.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 8, 2021
The Games People Play (Whit & Eddie #8)
By Frank W. Butterfield
Published by the author, 2021
Five stars
Change is in the wind. Well, at least, Nick and Carter are in Eddie and Whit’s heads a lot, so SOMETHING is up, right?
Big drama in Daytona beach leads to a wild goose chase across the country. It also signals a return to the “big pile of rocks” on Nob Hill, as Whit and Eddie confront things—emotional, physical, spiritual, and corporate—that underscore just how different the world is from when Nick Williams and Carter Jones launched a little security company that offered jobs and a safe community to marginalized LGBTQ people before the idea of LGBTQ existed.
The “cursed” emerald necklace reappears, making this retired jewelry curator cringe at the careless treatment of fragile Colombian emeralds at the hands of unthinking humans. However, somehow Frank Butterfield manages to expand on the notion of that necklace, insinuating it into the plot in a very clever way. What’s important is the way this oddball moment in a fairly busy plot arc demonstrates exactly how much Eddie Smith has grown into his position as co-owner of one of the largest corporations on earth.
And therein lies the rub. Both Eddie and Whit are feeling conflicted about where they are in life. Their still-young marriage has its own share of bumps to smooth out; but in this book they become suddenly hyper-aware of how much pressure they’re under as co-owners of WilliamsJones, Inc., a corporation that has, (thanks to a convenient fact sheet inserted by the author), $778 billion in assets and 34,200 employees worldwide. In spite of all the friendships these two men have made in their whirlwind rise to wealth and power, they are still just two guys, distanced by time and space and history from most of the people who work for them. They want to be normal.
Good luck with that, is all I have to say.
Through it all, Butterfield manages not only to keep exploring what it means to be not-straight in modern America, even as he copes quite wonderfully with the realities of an extended pandemic. For all his disclaimer at the beginning, I think the author has done a wonderful job of trying to show what it has been like for all of us to live in a world with COVID-19. None of us have quite experienced this pandemic in the same way, but we’ve all been through it together.
This is a particularly rich episode in this ongoing series, especially with the greater-than-average presence of ghostly characters. A final thought struck me as I was finishing up: I have always been able to imagine Nick and Carter as my friends—my parents’ generation, but familiar and relatable somehow, even though their lives were well along by the time I was born. Eddie and Whit are younger than I am (Whit young enough to be my child), and I realize that I am old enough to be somewhat puzzled by them. They’re not simple, and they’re not easy. But, Nick and Carter seem to love them, and I guess do, too.
By Frank W. Butterfield
Published by the author, 2021
Five stars
Change is in the wind. Well, at least, Nick and Carter are in Eddie and Whit’s heads a lot, so SOMETHING is up, right?
Big drama in Daytona beach leads to a wild goose chase across the country. It also signals a return to the “big pile of rocks” on Nob Hill, as Whit and Eddie confront things—emotional, physical, spiritual, and corporate—that underscore just how different the world is from when Nick Williams and Carter Jones launched a little security company that offered jobs and a safe community to marginalized LGBTQ people before the idea of LGBTQ existed.
The “cursed” emerald necklace reappears, making this retired jewelry curator cringe at the careless treatment of fragile Colombian emeralds at the hands of unthinking humans. However, somehow Frank Butterfield manages to expand on the notion of that necklace, insinuating it into the plot in a very clever way. What’s important is the way this oddball moment in a fairly busy plot arc demonstrates exactly how much Eddie Smith has grown into his position as co-owner of one of the largest corporations on earth.
And therein lies the rub. Both Eddie and Whit are feeling conflicted about where they are in life. Their still-young marriage has its own share of bumps to smooth out; but in this book they become suddenly hyper-aware of how much pressure they’re under as co-owners of WilliamsJones, Inc., a corporation that has, (thanks to a convenient fact sheet inserted by the author), $778 billion in assets and 34,200 employees worldwide. In spite of all the friendships these two men have made in their whirlwind rise to wealth and power, they are still just two guys, distanced by time and space and history from most of the people who work for them. They want to be normal.
Good luck with that, is all I have to say.
Through it all, Butterfield manages not only to keep exploring what it means to be not-straight in modern America, even as he copes quite wonderfully with the realities of an extended pandemic. For all his disclaimer at the beginning, I think the author has done a wonderful job of trying to show what it has been like for all of us to live in a world with COVID-19. None of us have quite experienced this pandemic in the same way, but we’ve all been through it together.
This is a particularly rich episode in this ongoing series, especially with the greater-than-average presence of ghostly characters. A final thought struck me as I was finishing up: I have always been able to imagine Nick and Carter as my friends—my parents’ generation, but familiar and relatable somehow, even though their lives were well along by the time I was born. Eddie and Whit are younger than I am (Whit young enough to be my child), and I realize that I am old enough to be somewhat puzzled by them. They’re not simple, and they’re not easy. But, Nick and Carter seem to love them, and I guess do, too.
March 2, 2021
I think this was one of the best stories about Whit and Eddie--they appeared more human and lovable. It caught my attention and kept it throughout the book. I have read every book that Mr. Butterfield has written and have enjoyed them all.
March 10, 2021
Epub; 206 pages
I think this is the best in this series so far. Slightly more action(!)-oriented than normal (take that as you will) there are moments of concern (is this the end of a relationship?) and also pure joy - leavened with references to the past that aficionados will recognise but will not deter the newcomer (who is recommended to go back and start from the beginning of the Nick Williams mysteries - but if that is daunting then track down the first of this Whit and Eddie series to start). There are particularly clever references back to the first book as well as both later series and cameos from all the usual suspects - and one or two unusual ones to boot.
I was enjoying this book so much that I forced myself to take it deliberately slowly in order to savour the fun for longer!
I think this is the best in this series so far. Slightly more action(!)-oriented than normal (take that as you will) there are moments of concern (is this the end of a relationship?) and also pure joy - leavened with references to the past that aficionados will recognise but will not deter the newcomer (who is recommended to go back and start from the beginning of the Nick Williams mysteries - but if that is daunting then track down the first of this Whit and Eddie series to start). There are particularly clever references back to the first book as well as both later series and cameos from all the usual suspects - and one or two unusual ones to boot.
I was enjoying this book so much that I forced myself to take it deliberately slowly in order to savour the fun for longer!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews