Romance and other things

Can a detective and a policeman find love amidst murder? Heath Barrington is an attractive, clever, big city detective, confident, strong, and crazy about police officer Alan Keyes. Down-to-earth, noble, and naïve, Alan struggles with his desires for Heath versus 1940s America and his guilty conscience. Heath’s skills of deduction and reasoning are put to the test as he and Alan work together to solve the murder of an eccentric millionaire in his mysterious, isolated estate. They search for clues and uncover long buried secrets of the weekend guests while keeping secrets of their own. It’s up to Heath to solve the mystery and convince Alan that some secrets aren’t worth keeping, and lust can lead to love.

Dear David S. Pederson,

One clicking on your book on Amazon was me being interested in the blurb and trying to be a conscientious reviewer who wants to introduce the authors to the readers. Overall I do not regret spending ten dollars on this book, however after finishing the story I have to warn Romance readers – there is not much of that in this story. And *much less* than I thought based on the blurb.

 I am perfectly happy to read a gay mystery with romantic elements (which is what this book was as far as I am concerned), but *no* Alan and Heath do not struggle over their relationship in the story. I am ot sure which Heath convinces Alan were not worth keeping because the story takes place in April 1947 and both guys are very aware that they have to be extremely careful in public or they could be fired from their jobs or even arrested, there is no guilty conscience Adam struggles with – or if it was I did not notice. Alan and Heath are a couple, they are in the beginning of their relationship when the book begins, they have known each other for several weeks, but there are no problems they have to overcome where the relationship is concerned. What they are primarily occupied with in this book is the investigation of the murder. It is all very sweet and no sexy times – just few kisses and Heath commenting on Allan’s looks and overall awesomeness, yes more than once. But as Heath comments once – murders tend to kill his romantic aspirations, so there are no sexy times on page or off the page. I am guessing after they finished with murder they would engage in sexy times. I was very pleased about this, but readers who want Romance, just beware that there is an underlying love connection between the couple and that’s about it.

So let’s talk about mystery storyline which I thought was the front and center storyline. The eccentric millionaire Dexter C. Darkly invited Heath to spend the weekend in his estate in Lake Geneva, Wisconcin. Now I don’t know about you, but I would think that something was up if the eccentric millionaire writes me a letter and issues an invitation because he wants to thank for solving the murder of another difficult millionaire, but Heath seems to think that it is good to accept the invitation. Okay, he was not being a complete idiot, he did a check on Dexter Darkly and found out that he is indeed well known eccentric but still, to think that he would want to issue a personal thanks to the police detective for something that has no relation to him? I do not know. I guess Heath was so very proud of his first major case that he decided to ignore the warning bells in his head, but I think Allan had more bells than him.

Bottom line is that for the story to start Heath needed to get there and whether you would find the premise believable would be up to every reader’s perspective. I was able to move with the flow, but it was not super easy. Allan promises to join Heath eventually since he is allowed to bring a guest.

Of course no thanks for solving the previous murder would be forthcoming if you did not realize that yet. Instead poor Heath will get a new murder on his hands. When he comes to the estate he learns that there are four more guests invited (and not invited) besides him – the guy who loved Mr. Darkly’s favorite son Nigel who committed suicide (or not) several years ago and whom Mr. Darkly ordered to stay away from Nigel about a year before he committed suicide or not. We also have the brother of Mr. Darkly’s first ex-wife who died in a freaky accident (or was it really an accident). We have Mr. Darkly’s estranged daughter who was invited to spend the weekend and her husband who did not receive such invitation. Oh and the second ex –wife who thinks Mr. Darkly majorly screwed her over the money is also invited. Supposedly Mr. Darkly wants to make amends or so he says. Only he ends up dead.

I liked how the investigation part was executed – I thought the guys were very thorough and did a good job with asking questions and trying to find out the truth. Apparently Allan is set up to be Heath’s side kick and sounding board, and Heath was doing most brain work, but I hope Allan would show more smarts in the next book (if it will come, I have no idea, but I so want to). Overall I did like them together quite a lot. I thought that setting up the stage for the murder took a very long time – body is discovered around the middle of the book. I got a little bored while getting there – not very bored, but a little bit. I also want to note that while the attempt is certainly made to write ‘who dun it” a la Agatha Christie, it was not quite there yet. What I meant was that I did not think that all the characters had equally strong motivations to kill Mr. Darkly. Out of six (including the housekeeper and his wife), only two were biggest contenders in my mind and one of them ended up being a murderer. The author sure tried to give motive to everybody, but for me it just did not work as well as it should have been. Kuddos for the twist though – I did not guess that.

Grade: B-/B