David S. PedersonRecensioner

flamboyant, LGBTQIA, satire, caricatures, situational-humor, historical-fiction, historical-research, 1946, m/m-cozy-mystery, California, friends, friendship, private-investigators, cultural-exploration, journalist, extortion, snarky*****

It's 1946 in the American Southwest and some things are very different than today. Mason Adler is a gay private investigator who recently turned fifty and is a basic nice guy with no illusions. His old friend Walter is a flamboyant gay decorator, self-entitled egoist, and a veritable caricature of a type.
But the investigation into the murders is well done and also a look into the problems of the accused in a homophobic society. A fun read with notable historical education.
It also gives a hard look at what growing up LGBT+ was like in the 20th century.
I requested and received an EARC from Bold Strokes Books via NetGalley. Thanks!

Totally enjoyable who dun it. It honestly wouldn't have been any difference if the guys were straight. Their sexuality doesn't play into the story except for highlighting the way that gays had to hide back in that time.

Real Rating: 3.8* of five, rounded up

The Publisher Says: Phoenix, May 6, 1946

At close to midnight in the Union Station baggage room, the air is hot, still, and thick. The eleven forty-five Golden State Limited to Los Angeles is approaching rapidly when the baggage handler, Alfred Brody, notices a stray hound dog sniffing around one of the steamer trunks. The horrific discovery of a body inside the trunk can mean only one thing: there’s a murderer among them.

The young woman was certainly murdered, but who did it, and why? Suspects and motives abound as Private Detective Mason Adler investigates. He soon realizes that nothing, and no one, are what they seem to be as he races to uncover the truth and bring the real murderer to justice without becoming the next victim.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Oh damn. Walter's back. *shudder*

After the nasty stunt he pulled in the first book, I really don't want to believe it's going to go well for him vis-a-vis this series, if we're going to keep seeing Walter. But the good part is the mystery Author Pederson chose this time is one ripped from the century-old headlines! I was really curious to see what would happen next.

What happens is the requisite amount of banter, a close friendship between a straight woman and a gay guy, bitchy-queen Walter being a complete cow when he wasn't being a tedious crook, oh let's see...hm...oh, Emil the cop being bested by Mason again like Perry Mason beats Hamilton Burger in every contest...um...the murder was done in vain as no one gets away with anything in these books.

I don't think this one took quite as long as the first one, but these aren't propulsive "...and then what happened?!" reads. They're going to take you down the path the detective treads with him, and cause you to get your helper's badge on your efforts and merits. I particularly liked the detail of Mason's car being a 1939 Studebaker Champion, famously a cheap-to-run and stodgy vehicle. The kind of car Uncle Dale drives to Thanksgiving and parks in front of the house despite everyone urging him to take the bus.



By the standards of the day, a real plain-jane-mobile though I myownself would love to have one.

The unmaksing event that Mason stages is very interesting, and not something I expected. Let's just say that Lydia is a useful gal-pal indeed. I was very interested in the book from giddy-up to whoa, and will certainly seek out the next Mason Adler mystery to check in on everyone, make sure they're doing okay.

Real Rating: 3.75* of five

The Publisher Says: It’s 1946, and on a hot spring night in Phoenix, Arizona, things are only beginning to heat up at the Monte Vista Road home of flamboyant decorator Walter Waverly Wingate.

Private detective Mason T. Adler isn’t thrilled to be turning fifty, and the party Walter throws him makes him even more uncomfortable. Walter has arranged a special birthday present for Mason: a private hour with the handsome, young Henry Bowtrickle in Walter’s upstairs bedroom. But the night turns deadly when his birthday gift turns up murdered.

The room was locked, no way in or out, and only Henry and Mason were inside. Mason Adler is on the case, but he is also a suspect, along with the other assorted party guests who were all downstairs at the time of the stabbing. Or were they?

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: What I expect from a first-in-series mystery is simple: Let me know what this world is about; let me in to the characters' interrelatedness; and tell me what kind of crimes we're going to be dealing with.

Can't say I didn't get all those things...a little bit too much of 'em.

The story is of Mason Adler, newly fifty gay man, and his social circle: gal-pal Lydia, long-term frenemy Walter, and cop Emil. Various peripheral people step a measure before us, but no one else really matters. The main thing about a series mystery is the series, not the mystery, and that very much comes true here. By the halfway mark there's no body worth mentioning. Things are slowly unfolding, and the tensions of Mason Adler's life are lying before us prior to a murder accelerating the plot.

Possibly one of the most mean-spirited murders I've ever encountered, spite and envy fueling the circumstances that enable the murder to take place, and then the dead body comes in for a lot of muffled amusement because of how the whole plot evolved. There wasn't much to recommend the dead one, but there was little enough to recommend a lot of these people.

Phoenix, Arizona, is a place I've never, ever wanted to be the few times I've been there. I dislike deserts. I was transported to Phoenix circa 1946 with the author's major characters. It was darn near told in real-time vignettes. I got the sense of the oppressive, horrifying heat, the blasting, battering sunshine, the dreadful helplessness of life in this kind of nightmare before home air conditioning was ubiquitous in the US. (Even with air conditioning I don't want to be in Phoenix or any other desert city. Or town. Or hamlet. Or structure. Or outdoor space.)

So there was that going against the read. The pluses were the economy of the author's characterization. He needn't linger over loving descriptions because he chooses the details that actually matter and doesn't linger on them. He also doesn't clutter up my mental landscape, choosing instead to focus on the telling details. It was a way of bringing me a vivid, textured experience without using a lot of words to do it.

But at the end of the read, I was just...repelled...by the murder's cruel, appalling conception. (Murder will never not be cruel! I'm going on about the *circumstances* not the act.) The person whose life was taken didn't get, in life or after, near enough sympathy. Then there's the person whose idea erected the framework for the murder...I truly do not ever want to see that person in this series again.

I'll certainly move on to the next entry in the series. I won't be likely to revisit this one, though.½

It's 1947 America and Detective Heath Barrington is invited for the weekend to a secluded house with several other guests. Then one of them is found dead.
Took a while for the death to appear in the story, before this there did seem to be a lot of description and not a lot happening. An easy read
A NetGalley book

3.5 *
Well worth a read. I hadn't read the first in the series. This didn't affect my enjoyment at all.
Pros: Good sense of period.
Interesting sparse style which fitted the story and the noir style.
Cons: I figured out what had happened at the half way marker, about 40% before the narrator. For a crack detective he wasn't so hot.
The will he/won't he marry a woman to divert attention made up a big part of Heath's thoughts for the first part of the book, but it then seemed to just get dropped.
Heath and Alan have a lot of their 'private' conversations in public places. And Heath cries when Riker is shot. No wonder people speculate about his predilections.
There was little to no passion between Heath and Alan (in fact the only scene where Heath seems tempted is with Riker). I had trouble believing in their relationship. Just one scene behind closed doors could have changed that.
All in all I enjoyed this as a historical mystery with gay characters. I wasnt sold on the romance though.
I am interested enough to buy the first book.

The year is 1937 and Heath Barrington is 22 years old and sailing across the Atlantic on the Queen Mary. Onboard, he meets the mysterious Lord Simon Quimby, who invites Heath and his aunt to his estate. Heath falls for Simon, but the Quimby family is marred by tragedy and Simon is hiding dark secrets.

This book is a prequel to the Detective Heath Barrington mystery series, which I haven't actually read. In the series, Heath is a detective, and this book shows his first foray into investigating and the beginnings of what will become his career. I enjoyed the book, and it has made me want to read the rest of the series. I can see this being particularly enjoyable if you already know and love Heath, though.

The poised, mysterious Simon and the naive commoner Heath make for a compelling pairing. At first, I felt like Simon was just a bit of a dick, but he did grow on me as the book progressed. He's a complicated man, and I enjoyed finding out more about his history. The Quimby curse makes for a really good mystery plot. Heath on the other hand feels so young! It makes me remember that I'm no longer in my early twenties... His dramatic, first infatuation with an older man makes for fun reading, although at times I felt like yelling 'just back off and forget about Simon!' I also really liked the side characters, especially the banter between Verbina and Myrtle.

What fell short for me was the amount of exposition given through dialogue, especially near the beginning of the book. I just wanted the story to hurry up and start! The amount of background historical detail did really flesh out the setting, but I felt a bit overloaded with it all at times. The story does move faster once Heath arrives at Heatherwick, though, and there is a satisfying conclusion to the puzzle, as well as the delightfully bittersweet feeling of a first love.

3.5 *
Well worth a read. I hadn't read the first in the series. This didn't affect my enjoyment at all.
Pros: Good sense of period.
Interesting sparse style which fitted the story and the noir style.
Cons: I figured out what had happened at the half way marker, about 40% before the narrator. For a crack detective he wasn't so hot.
The will he/won't he marry a woman to divert attention made up a big part of Heath's thoughts for the first part of the book, but it then seemed to just get dropped.
Heath and Alan have a lot of their 'private' conversations in public places. And Heath cries when Riker is shot. No wonder people speculate about his predilections.
There was little to no passion between Heath and Alan (in fact the only scene where Heath seems tempted is with Riker). I had trouble believing in their relationship. Just one scene behind closed doors could have changed that.
All in all I enjoyed this as a historical mystery with gay characters. I wasnt sold on the romance though.
I am interested enough to buy the first book.

Wow! These books are really expensive. Nearly £10 for an ebook.

This book is like a wreath knot of Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie. It’s been a long time since I read a good, well-crafted murder mystery. The only thing that makes this book one step above your average murder mystery is that the two main characters… a Detective and a Police Officer are a gay couple. This book is the fourth in the Detective Heath Barrington Mystery series. I read it as a stand-alone and it was easy to follow.

This is a mystery in its purest form. The book is primarily the dialogue and procedure of solving a mystery. Detective Heath Barrington is a laid back guy, but his attention to detail is amazing. And, in spite of the fact that he seems to be comfortable with his relationship with Officer Alan Keys, he’s a little jealous about Alan’s new friendship with a handsome actor. It’s Alan’s involvement in the theatre which leads to the two men being in the theatre the very night a murder is committed.

This book falls into one of my favorite categories; this is a story … with queer characters. Queer is not the focus of the story, it’s just a facet of what is going on. The fact that Heath and Alan are a couple is definitely an integral part of the story, but it’s subtle and well-written… it’s… just another relationship. And what a wonderful way to read about a queer couple!

The murder occurring in the theatre brings Heath and Alan into contact with a snarky, colorful cast. What a delightfully bitchy and back-stabby crew of folks! Some of the supporting characters are equally as interesting as the mains!

If you like murder mysteries and are particularly interested in the old-school type, you’ll love this book!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books in exchange for a honest review.

My first book by this author and first MM book I’ve read through Bold Strokes Books.

I was going to add a comment about how I normally read lesbian romance fiction through Bold Strokes Books, both in relation to the MM nature of the book, and to the mystery. But then I looked it up. I’ve read at least 14 mysteries through Bold Strokes Books – granted the vast majority of those books are in one series, the Micky Knight series.

The Characters
The book is from the point of view of one Heath Barrington. If this was a romance I’d probably include a large amount of information about each character. Though, I’d probably just be talking about two characters, not all of them of importance. But since this is a mystery, and each little fact might be an important clue, my character descriptions will have to be relatively bare bones.

Heath Barrington - a police detective from Milwaukee. The reader learns relatively early on that Heath: (1) missed WWII because a) flat foot; b) was in the police force during the war; (2) is a gay man who is a) not out to his family or others; but b) has had homosexual relationships; and c) really, and I mean really, enjoys gazing lustfully upon the features of other men. The book opens with Heath in the last stages of getting ready to head off to Lake Geneva – he had been invited to go there by a rich stranger who indicated that he wanted to meet Heath – implication being that it’s related to Heath’s one police investigation, which he had just completed.
Significant other connections: Talks with his mother on the phone; father alive as well, though he is only mentioned; there’s an aunt – sister of his mother, who the reader is given to understand is more sophisticated than her sister; and there’s a boyfriend named Alan Keyes. But he’ll have his own little paragraph.

Alan Keyes - police officer in Milwaukee. Is, apparently, dating Heath Barrington, though the relationship is new-ish (they seemed to have a longer term relationship at the start of the book, but then things started popping up indicating that their relationship was actually of a much more recent occurrence). He gets his own little paragraph because he makes an appearance in Lake Geneva – he’s Heath’s plus one.

Dexter Darkly - a rich old man who has invited a bunch of people to his lake house for a weekend. He is, in his way, this books Mr. Boddy – the host in the film Clue who invited a bunch of people to his house, though all his visitors, it would appear, hate their host. In this case, Dexter’s invitations went to family members, and to a police detective. Everyone, though, but for the police, the butler, and the cook know each other. Unlike in Clue.
Significant other connections: Basically everyone he invited, plus Nigel Darkly – his favorite offspring; Constance Darkly – his first wife.

Harwood ‘Woody’ Acres - a young man who had been a ‘special’ friend of Nigel Darkly – Dexter’s son. Dexter drove off Woody as he didn’t think he was a good influence on his son. He received an invitation, like some of the others, and decided to attend the weekend festivities.
Significant other connections: Nigel Darkly – his dead gay lover (well, they were lovers when Nigel was alive; I didn’t mean to imply that Nigel was a vampire or anything like that, because he isn’t).

Lorraine Darkly - Dexter’s second wife. They divorced about 2 or so years ago. Received an invitation to attend the weekend events.

Violet Darkly Atwater - Dexter’s bitter daughter who had spent ten years on earth before her brother Nigel appeared. She was never in her father’s ‘good graces’, since she’s a girl, but she definitely got displaced completely when Nigel came along. She has kids and is married to Dr. Acres. Dexter didn’t attend the wedding, and it isn’t super clear, but I think Dexter has never met his daughter’s children.

Dr. Preston Atwater - Violet’s husband, a medical doctor, and not formally invited by Dexter to visit during the weekend (the invitation was to Violet Darkly, not Violet Atwater).

Mr. Donovan Doubleday - Dexter Darkly’s brother-in-law, brother of Dexter’s first wife Constance. Was not formally invited to the weekend events by Dexter, but by his niece Violet.

Henry and Nora Bishop - somewhat elderly butler and cook, who had just joined Darkly’s employee shortly before winterizing the house. In which they also lived during the winter, by themselves, to ‘watch over it’.

The Setting
The year is 1947. The place is Lake Geneva. I’m not exactly sure where that is located, though it appears to be within shortish train rides from Milwaukee and Chicago (possibly Lake Geneva Wisconsin). The ‘summer people’ normally turn up in the summer, specifically on or after Memorial Day.

Dexter Darkly, though, has invited a group of people for a weekend visit before the official start of the season. So things are, as would be expected, colder than normal. And the house wasn’t built to be a year round house. Most of the action in the book takes place in that house (or surrounding it).

The Mystery
With the set-up being the way it is, the murder victim should be clear as day, eh? There is a gathering of people at a lake house. Everyone, except supposedly the butler, cook, and the two police officers, has a motive – and a hatred of the owner of that house. Naturally, that means that the owner is the one who died. And everyone had opportunity and means.

There’s a storm that hit around the time the murder occurred, and outside communication, as it tends to do in these types of books, has been cut off for a short period of time (a night? Longer?).

So there is a murder. Due to the circumstances of the events, there are a limited number of possible suspects. All but four have stated motives (the husband of Violet, Dr. Acres, has a less visible motive but is the husband of Dexter’s daughter (implication being that whatever motive that Violet might have could conceivably be stretched to include the husband; or, you know, being the husband of the rich Dexter Darkly’s only living offspring could be a motive in and of itself). Those four without obvious motives being Heath Barrington, Alan Keyes, Nora & Henry Bishop. Those with obvious motives include Woody Acres, Violet Atwater, and Lorraine Darkly. Those with slightly less obvious motives would include Dr. Atwater, and Mr. Donovan Doubleday.

Just like I mentioned the film Clue in another section, there’s a vaguely strong vibe coming off the book for various reasons. Gathering of people who hate the host. Storm outside. Certain identity questions. Etc. But then again, there was also a vague vibe of Ten Little Indians by Agatha Christie, at least there was before I started. A gathering of people to a remote location. Cut off for a certain amount of time. Death descends . . . except there’s less death here than I’d expect so that wipes that connection, eh?

The Police Work
Fiction of a certain era, the 1920s Golden Age, had a tendency to include a scene wherein the police talk in front of a crowd of suspects. Various ways that can come about, but they tended to do that when they wished to ‘reveal’ what happened, or – more often, wished to get a suspect to do or say something revealing. The point is that they already have the facts. There is a purpose to their madness, so to speak.

The idea of interviewing witnesses/suspects separate from one another was a concept known by 1947. At least in fiction. I know, because I’ve read books from before then (written before then; not referring to books set before then) that made a point of having separate interviews.

I mention because the very first interview, if I recall the sequence right, was a joint one. Involving both Nora and Henry Bishop (butler and cook – married to each other). Then some separate interviews, then an interview conducted before all parties during dinner – including in said interview those who had not yet had a discussion with the out-of-jurisdiction police (Heath Barrington and Alan Keyes are police in Milwaukee not Lake Geneva). And the thing you would expect to happen, happened – well, one of the things, a conflict broke out with people pointing fingers and the like. What do you expect if you start a discussion like that at dinner? (note: I mentioned that dramatic ‘reveal’ in the drawing room type of thing that occurred in 1920s books, well I didn’t mean to imply, by mentioning the dinner group interview, that the dramatic reveal did or didn’t occur. I think I’m being pointlessly cryptic there.)

Poor police work there. *shrugs* I don’t know, there’s a point of mentioning that Barrington has had only one case as a detective. Maybe he’s just really green?

That group interview thing gets repeated more than once. Annoying that. More police work appears much more in line with what I expect. That group interview thing, though, reads like something someone saw in a film or read in an old book (‘I strode about the room amongst them as I spoke. I’d seen a detective do that in a movie once.’ – location 2753 of 3140). Mmphs.

Overall
The book didn’t immediately pull me in, but there were definitely moments when I felt drawn into the action/events. Vaguely confusing about the number of gay men bouncing around in the book. Heath’s there because he’s the star of the show; Alan gets pulled in because he’s Heath’s ‘plus one’ for the weekend vacation at Lake Geneva. But then there’s also the dead son Nigel, and Nigel’s ‘special friend’ Woody Acres. I believe that’s four more than I usually encounter in mysteries set in the early part of the 20th century.

Moving on to the mystery – it’s well written for what it is. Intriguing even. It’s relatively thin, but still, you don’t need a whole lot to create a mystery novel. Some odd choices by the guy unofficially playing detective, sure he is a police detective, but not in that jurisdiction.

Overall . . . . you know how I keep mentioning the film Clue? Well, I have good reason for doing so. Complicated book, it was. Interesting. Enjoyable. Readable and entertaining. And if this actually is a start to a series, I’d read the next.

March 8 2016