Stood up, mildy hungover and depressed whilst driving home through the back roads from an out-of-town gay bar night-out, semi-closeted middle-aged College Professor Bill Shakespeare Yates (with such a name, of course he teaches literature) … witnesses a body being thrown over a river. He unthinkingly dives in to save the victim (or retrieve the body) and lo – the first meeting between himself and one slim, tall, green eyed blonde nineteen year old Brian Quick. Who threw the unconscious and drugged Brian over the bridge and why? Who called the local police to pin Brian’s murder attempt on Bill himself? Then Brian’s housemate turns up dismembered in that same river….
Fighting all manner of sane reasons as to why he should not follow up on the mutual attraction between himself and Brian (teacher-pupil conflict of interest, the significant age gap between the pair, the possibility that Brian could be part of the whole murder set-up himself), Bill reluctantly assists Brian with following-up clues that lead to darker doings happening to students and teachers in that small college-town; suspects and victims appear closer to Bill than even he can imagine!
I have to admit Bill’s wry and quirky ‘voice’ took a little getting used to at first, but I settled down to enjoy the written action once past the novel’s quarter-mark. I think the author’s intention is to set up Bill to play an older and supposedly worldlier “Watson” to Brian’s supposedly young and dashing “Sherlock” – hence the series being entitled Quick Mysteries; the action is told from Bill’s POV – and we get significant back history to Bill – his struggle for identity, professional validation, personal fulfilment, his deep romantic yearnings and abject failures, his internal and professional conflict over whether to accept or pursue the budding relationship between himself and Brian. I became quite invested in (and fond of) both Bill and Brian.
Laurel provides enough red-herrings and suspects to keep the action-plot moving along; Tony, the head of law enforcement is suitably antagonistic at the start but ends up being something else altogether. Oh – for readers who don’t like their gay whodunnits overwhelmed by man-on-man sex action – this book is for you! The romantic tension-attraction between the MCs is entirely satisfactory IMO. I’d give this book another solid 4-star rating, but I would caution readers to be prepared to push through the first third of the novel before things significantly pick up – it was well worth reading by the end.
I've also read the sequel Quicksand and a short novella Quick Change Artist both of which appear only to be available from Naked Reader Press. But they were well worth the hunt and read. I'm truly hoping for more titles in this series.
Fighting all manner of sane reasons as to why he should not follow up on the mutual attraction between himself and Brian (teacher-pupil conflict of interest, the significant age gap between the pair, the possibility that Brian could be part of the whole murder set-up himself), Bill reluctantly assists Brian with following-up clues that lead to darker doings happening to students and teachers in that small college-town; suspects and victims appear closer to Bill than even he can imagine!
I have to admit Bill’s wry and quirky ‘voice’ took a little getting used to at first, but I settled down to enjoy the written action once past the novel’s quarter-mark. I think the author’s intention is to set up Bill to play an older and supposedly worldlier “Watson” to Brian’s supposedly young and dashing “Sherlock” – hence the series being entitled Quick Mysteries; the action is told from Bill’s POV – and we get significant back history to Bill – his struggle for identity, professional validation, personal fulfilment, his deep romantic yearnings and abject failures, his internal and professional conflict over whether to accept or pursue the budding relationship between himself and Brian. I became quite invested in (and fond of) both Bill and Brian.
Laurel provides enough red-herrings and suspects to keep the action-plot moving along; Tony, the head of law enforcement is suitably antagonistic at the start but ends up being something else altogether. Oh – for readers who don’t like their gay whodunnits overwhelmed by man-on-man sex action – this book is for you! The romantic tension-attraction between the MCs is entirely satisfactory IMO. I’d give this book another solid 4-star rating, but I would caution readers to be prepared to push through the first third of the novel before things significantly pick up – it was well worth reading by the end.
I've also read the sequel Quicksand and a short novella Quick Change Artist both of which appear only to be available from Naked Reader Press. But they were well worth the hunt and read. I'm truly hoping for more titles in this series.