Another in the Alex Reynold's series. I got this and National Nancys on sale at Little Sisters Bookstore during a recent trip to Vancouver.

This is another in the series of Alex Rynolds Mysteries by the author.

An improbable duo of hunky guys who are part time detectives for the CIA. This time they are in Los Angeles when one of them reunites with an old freind after discovering him in a porn movie he rents while the boyfriend is away for the day. Feeling that his movie star friend must be suffering if he is in the porn business he meets manages to find him and meet him only to have him turn up dead the next day.

The ensuing chase for the killer(s) takes the reader into a light version of the porn industry and a tiny brush with organized crime and the drug scene before we learn precisely "who done it" and why.

The thing I like most about the Fred Hunter mysteries is not the detective work. The clues are broad and obvious and the suspense is moderately gripping. But the humour is nice and the relationship between the two partners is unashamedly romantic without being over the top gushy.

RELEASE NOTES:

On its way to a member of a bookring I had for two gay roMENtics novels. Yhis is a bit of a romance-detective story.

What a lovely surprise! Found this in the mailbox when I got home from the BookCrossing convention in Fort Worth [of which I shall be nattering in the forums eventually]; nothing like a book with a buff torso on the cover to pique my interest {grin}. I've read some of Hunter's other Alex Reynolds books and enjoyed them, and am looking forward to this one. Thanks so much, Bill!

I'd agree that it's the relationship between narrator Alex and his long-suffering (but remarkably good-humored) lover Peter - plus some byplay with Alex's mother and the hunky-but-straight CIA guy - that makes this series entertaining; the actual mysteries are secondary, at least for me. [This one was a bit darker than most, both in the fact that Alex's muddle-headed interfering has tragic consequences - that might have occurred anyway, but were certainly triggered by his actions - and that he managed to get Peter into a nastily dangerous spot as well.] I liked this book a lot better than the first in the series, though; Government Gay was stodgier, and I think the author was still working up his characters then. [My favorite of the series so far is the last one, Chicken Asylum, which has an eerily timely plot featuring a runaway Iraqi soldier, and is funny and sexy as well as suspenseful.]

Thanks for sharing this one, Bill!

Controlled release: this poor book's been languishing on my shelves for too long, so when I saw this forum thread from BCer LeishaCamden requesting books for a gay and lesbian film festival in Oslo during Pride Week, I thought that I'd send it overseas, in company with Gay Cinematherapy. Hope that BookCrossing's a hit at the festival!

[I'm enclosing a wonderful Edward Gorey postcard - see photo - from the delightful online store www.GoreyDetails.net (no relation!).]

This arrived in LeishaCamden's mailbox today. Thank you so much, Gory!! Your help is very much appreciated by all of us involved with this project. This book looks like fun and with any luck it will attract attention during our mass release at the festival. :-)

LeishaCamden's taken the liberty of reading this while it's been in her possession. :-) April 19th through 26th.

This was an entertaining read and not much more, but fun to read while I was sunning myself on my balcony last week (we had some unseasonably warm weather). I was not at all familiar with this author but he was a pleasant acquaintance. The story doesn't have a whole lot of depth, I don't think ... it moves along quickly and is a little sketchy on the details, and the biggest strength is like the other readers have said the characters and the byplay between them. I would actually have liked the relationships between them to be explored more, but then again, this is not the first book in the series, so who knows what I've missed. :-)

Overall a light and entertaining read which I'm sure would appeal to a lot of readers. Hope it finds some of those in June. :-)

Back to the shelf in LC's basement ... :-)

RELEASE NOTES:

Somewhere in the Pridepark area on City Hall Square. :-)