The book opens with private investigator Russell Quant receiving a macabre invitation in the mail to witness/attend the death of one Nayan Gupta at the Saskatoon Airport. Shades of Agatha Christie! The plot progressively thickens as the author skilfully takes readers alongside a determined Quant to investigate the demise of a young South Asian gay man.
As with many of Bidulka’s previous titles in his Quant Mysteries series – the scene locales are foreign and exotic, the characters sometimes larger than life, the plot action frenetic and driving. Side-stepping foreboding messages that attempt to warn him off the investigation, Russell finds himself trading in a frozen Saskatchewan wintry landscape for the blinding heat and glamorous buildings of modern day Dubai (and other Arabian/emirates cities). Russell’s family and friends are understandably concerned for his safety and well-being as he heads into a DADT society/culture where being gay can and do indeed lead to brutal violence, incarceration, flogging and death.
Will danger, death and deceit come from an assassin’s knife lurking within a dark alleyway of a spice market, from money-hungry double crossing carpet merchants or from the slow suffocation from a sudden sandstorm? How far can Russell trust his newfound middle-eastern Friends of Dorothy and which of these many ex-lovers of the deceased Nayan are complicit in his death? Bidulka weaves a secondary theme through the aforementioned suspected murder of a gay man with that of sourcing and acquiring precious and antique carpets for a permanent display at the University of Saskatoon; I learnt a lot more about precious carpets than I imagined I would!
The author brings back all the familiar Quant series characters I so love … acerbic hotshot lawyer Errall, wacky psychic Alberta, men-about-town and debonair A-List gays Anthony and Jared, the alluring and divine world-travelling Sereena Orion Smith, lesbian café owners Mary and Maroushka and of course the one and only irrepressible food-bearing mama-Quant (Kay). The courses of Russell’s love-lives have never run simple in previous books and this book stays true to course … our PI is just not sure he’s ready to settle down to a contented domestic existence even when his dreamy boyfriend Ethan Ash is more than willing to do so. Karma can be a bitch and she comes back with a big bite this time for Russell – especially in light of how things ended with the previous book in the series (Aloha Candy Hearts).
Readers should be warned there is no sex-content in this book – it falls firmly within the gay mystery/sleuth/whodunnit trope. I have not yet been disappointed by a Bidulka title to date I’m pleased to say – this book has all the ingredients that appeal to me – fabulous food references, funny repartee and dialogue, highly amusing mother-son interactions between Russell and Kay (that scene where mama-Quant was picking up gay books entitled ‘Big Beef’ and ‘Hot Buns’ thinking they were cookery titles had me rolling on the floor in tears), travelogue passages that take me to faraway exotic places that I can only dream of going in person. References are even made in the storyline to works by Michael Thomas Ford and Greg Herren. And whilst this title may not be my favourite title in the series – that would be a tie between Sundowner Ubuntu and Stain of the Berry – this was still a thoroughly rewarding read.
As with many of Bidulka’s previous titles in his Quant Mysteries series – the scene locales are foreign and exotic, the characters sometimes larger than life, the plot action frenetic and driving. Side-stepping foreboding messages that attempt to warn him off the investigation, Russell finds himself trading in a frozen Saskatchewan wintry landscape for the blinding heat and glamorous buildings of modern day Dubai (and other Arabian/emirates cities). Russell’s family and friends are understandably concerned for his safety and well-being as he heads into a DADT society/culture where being gay can and do indeed lead to brutal violence, incarceration, flogging and death.
Will danger, death and deceit come from an assassin’s knife lurking within a dark alleyway of a spice market, from money-hungry double crossing carpet merchants or from the slow suffocation from a sudden sandstorm? How far can Russell trust his newfound middle-eastern Friends of Dorothy and which of these many ex-lovers of the deceased Nayan are complicit in his death? Bidulka weaves a secondary theme through the aforementioned suspected murder of a gay man with that of sourcing and acquiring precious and antique carpets for a permanent display at the University of Saskatoon; I learnt a lot more about precious carpets than I imagined I would!
The author brings back all the familiar Quant series characters I so love … acerbic hotshot lawyer Errall, wacky psychic Alberta, men-about-town and debonair A-List gays Anthony and Jared, the alluring and divine world-travelling Sereena Orion Smith, lesbian café owners Mary and Maroushka and of course the one and only irrepressible food-bearing mama-Quant (Kay). The courses of Russell’s love-lives have never run simple in previous books and this book stays true to course … our PI is just not sure he’s ready to settle down to a contented domestic existence even when his dreamy boyfriend Ethan Ash is more than willing to do so. Karma can be a bitch and she comes back with a big bite this time for Russell – especially in light of how things ended with the previous book in the series (Aloha Candy Hearts).
Readers should be warned there is no sex-content in this book – it falls firmly within the gay mystery/sleuth/whodunnit trope. I have not yet been disappointed by a Bidulka title to date I’m pleased to say – this book has all the ingredients that appeal to me – fabulous food references, funny repartee and dialogue, highly amusing mother-son interactions between Russell and Kay (that scene where mama-Quant was picking up gay books entitled ‘Big Beef’ and ‘Hot Buns’ thinking they were cookery titles had me rolling on the floor in tears), travelogue passages that take me to faraway exotic places that I can only dream of going in person. References are even made in the storyline to works by Michael Thomas Ford and Greg Herren. And whilst this title may not be my favourite title in the series – that would be a tie between Sundowner Ubuntu and Stain of the Berry – this was still a thoroughly rewarding read.