The first of the Valentine/Lovelace series (followed by "Cobalt", "Slate", and "Canary"), "Vermilion" is my favorite so far. (It's also considerably darker, and with a more complex mystery, than the books that follow it.) Gay bartender Daniel Valentine and straight real-estate agent Clarisse Lovelace live in Boston, pal around together, make acid comments on each other's boyfriends, and drink and smoke like Nick and Nora Charles. When dark, brooding police detective Searcy comes into Val's bar asking about a young hustler who was found dead - in the yard of a homophobic local politician - both Val and Clarisse find Searcy intriguing, and while both claim to be uninterested in him, they do speculate as to which of them would actually have more of a chance with him. But Searcy's investigation takes some odd turns, and as the outraged politician exerts pressure for a solution to the case, the gay community is targeted, so Val and Clarisse start to do some investigating of their own.

I liked the interactions between the characters in this one, and the local color of Boston in winter; and the mystery seemed nicely obscure yet logical. I assumed that the rest of the series would continue to be a bit noir-ish, but that didn't turn out to be the case... Still, "Vermilion" is worth the read, and if you try the others without assuming they're anything like this one, they can be enjoyable as well.

[I'm keeping my copy of this; it's one of the earlier edition paperbacks. But the book's been reissued recently and should be readily available.]

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

This has been on my shelves for long enough; time to let it go! I'm putting this book into Scoobs-buddy's GLBT bookbox. It will be on its way Monday to BCer oldbroad in Washington. Enjoy!

Thanks!