Daniel Valentine, gay bartender and his glamorous friend Clarisse Lovelace, the pair we first encountered in Nathan Aldyne’s Vermillion, move from Boston to Provincetown for the summer season. It’s not long before Clarisse stumbles across a dead body on the beach. While the police are content the death was an accident, and Val is inclined to agree, Clarisse suspects foul play. The discovery of further bodies however raises suspicion, and the intrepid pair are soon playing amateur sleuths again.

Very much in the same vein as Vermillion, with plenty of humour and perhaps a little more plot this time, Cobalt makes for an entertaining and amusing read. A wide range of characters from handsome hunks to raging queens, jealous lovers and dubious suitors, populate the proceedings. Plus there is plenty of additional action for Val and Clarisse as they each find someone good enough to make the other envious. ( )