Only in Key West (Nick and Norm 2), by Kenneth D. Michaels

[Ulysses]

Only in Key West (Nick and Norm Gay Detective Series 2)
BY Kenneth D. Michaels
La Mancha Press, 2017
Fours stars

As I re-read my review of Kenneth Michaels’s first novel, “The Gay Detective,” I finally found the word that best describes the author’s overall tone in both of these books: antic.

It’s a good thing that the antic quality of the action and the narrative tone in “Only in Key West” suits the book much better. Sure, there is murder and mayhem, but there is a certain distance from both Nick and Norm’s lives that keep the lightness from jarring with the dark bits. That’s why this book got a full-on four stars from me, rather than an encouraging three-point-five rounded up.

Michaels is a clever writer, and with the chronological and emotional remove from Chicago and its sadness, Nick and Norm finally begin to feel like they really make sense. I especially appreciate that Nick is struggling to come to grips with the loss of his longtime partner, Darren, and feeling all sorts of guilt at his attraction to Key West’s hot Cuban police chief, Rafael Perez.

I also much appreciate Nick’s evolving partnership/friendship with Norm, an older widowed policeman whose family embraced Nick in his grief in the first book. There is all sorts of new awkwardness unleashed in this book, but once more, in the context of a Key West vacation, during which murder is kept at a good arm’s length from the two cops, the sitcom silliness of the awkwardness doesn’t conflict with the genuine pain that both Nick and Norm are feeling over their personal tragedies.

The flip side to an unexpected involvement in a local mystery, is the comic journey of straight old Norman through the back streets of very very gay Key West. As Nick tries to shed his sorrow and guilt, Norm has to try to let go of his hetero expectations and prejudices. The author is surprisingly gentle with this, mostly seen through Nick’s eyes, and that makes it work nicely. The moral of the tale is simply: once you see people for who they really are, then acceptance isn’t much of a leap.

Given that Michaels wrote this book in 2017, I’m wondering if there will be more in the series. I hope so.