Ladymol's Review

We bought the second (A Dangerous Thing) in this series by Josh Lanyon many, many months ago, but had trouble tracking down a copy of this one, the first. I’m so glad I resisted reading the second because much of the delightful tension of this one would have been spoilt.

The crime story in the novel isn’t revolutionary, and it’s quite light reading, but what really struck me about this book and had me read it avidly in one day is its “hero” and his love life (or lack of it).

Adrien English owns a bookstore specialising in crime fiction, especially gay crime (he stocks the whole of the Joseph Hansen Brandstetter series!). He’s educated and rich, coming into an inheritance when he was only eight. Pretty, tall and slim, he lives his life on a knife’s edge due to rheumatic fever when he was sixteen. He copes with his weak heart, and doesn’t let it rule his life, but he is detached and remote from people.

When his best friend and employee is found brutally murdered, Adrien becomes the police’s number one suspect—mainly because they are both gay, and to the homophobic detectives that are running the case, gay men must be sleeping together and that leads to murder! Adrien sets out to clear his name by investigating the case. That he’s writing his own detective series, based around a gay detective, is entirely coincidental to his passion for sleuthing!!

One of the detectives, Jake, seems to be particularly suspicious of Adrien. Utterly stunning, he’s openly homophobic, which confuses Adrien and sends him into the arms of the first man he’s felt attracted to for a long time: the enigmatic Bruce, a reporter who wants to cover the case.

I was so taken with the end of this book that I immediately picked up the second and started it, and believe me, it’s even more delightful. I can’t say too much because it would utterly ruin the ending of this one. I think you’ll like these books… very much!

Cerisaye's Review

If you’re looking for a quick and entertaining read this novel should do it.  It’s a fairly light mystery compared with Hansen or Stevenson, but I enjoyed it, for characters more than murder plot.  It easily sustained my interest through to an exciting, sexy dénouement.  Yes, I guessed the identity of the killer but hadn’t worked out details that make convincing motivation for serial murder. 

Though it’s easy reading, Lanyon has good literary style.  I didn’t notice typos other reviewers have complained about.  There are a few mistakes but perhaps the GMP edition we read has been tidied up.  I was never taken out of the story, so don’t let that put you off.

Adrien English, 32 year-old owner of a gay mystery bookstore in Pasadena, awakens one fine morning to find two policemen on his doorstep.  They bring bad news.  Old school friend and recent employee, Rob Hersey, was found stabbed to death in a back alley.  Adrien is chief suspect because he had dinner with Rob the previous evening and a very public quarrel.

Someone’s out to get Adrien- a break-in, threatening phonecalls, anonymous gifts of flowers.  The police think he’s just a hysterical ‘faggot’ drama queen.  Well, except for hunky detective Riordan, tall blond macho man with intense tawny eyes.  Riordan’s interest in the case convinces Adrien his arrest is imminent.  He turns detective to clear his name, except it’s not like in the mystery novels.

Adrien has a heart problem that causes nervous collapse.  His grandmother’s legacy bought the store and he’s comfortably off, with time to run a writer’s group, and a first novel about to be published.  Bookish Adrien could’ve been stereotypical, but Lanyon makes him likeable company, charming, witty and wry, with sarcastic and self-deprecating humour.  I warmed to him straight away.

Bruce Green, freelance writer for a local gay newspaper, wants to know Adrien better.  Is he out to dig dirt, or is he lonely, like Adrien, celibate since boyfriend Mel left?  Bruce is persistent and Adrien finds company better than solitary nights with disturbing fantasies involving a handsome cop with long legs and big shoulders.

When Adrien discovers more of his former classmates are dead, he figures he’s next on the list, unless he solves the puzzle, the only clue a chess piece left with some of the bodies.  Is Riordan out to help Adrien or hang him?  He’s a fascinating character, a man with his own secrets to hide.  There’s an interesting dynamic between the two, an electric attraction both feel but try to pretend isn’t there.  Riordan dates women after all.  Lanyon strings us along with will they/won’t they? tension to the end. 

That we can never truly know other people is a theme of the book.  Rob was gay but he married and had a family who still don’t accept his sexuality.  Adrien’s flamboyant friend Claude affects a French accent and a campy persona.  Riordan’s tough guy appearance is at odds with his protective attitude to Adrien.  Sex is sticking plaster and it’s good but we can’t pretend intimacy we don’t feel, as Adrien discovers.  This novel is a promising start to a series.  I’ve heard Lanyon is struggling to find a publisher for his third book, like too many gay fic writers (Jack Dickson, James Lear).  I really hope he succeeds.