A Simple Suburban Murder

4.5 stars
Tom works as a high school teacher, and one morning he comes in to find a dead body in his classroom. He becomes a suspect, and wants to work to clear his name. With the help of his paramour of several years, Scott, Tom investigates the crime. It leads them to underage prostitution rings, gambling rings, smut rings, the one ring to rule them all, etc, etc.
Okay, was there anyone that wasn’t involved in the criminal activities that were uncovered by the murder? I honestly can’t think of…well, the police, I guess. And Tom’s friend Neil. Other than that, I think everyone had some kind of criminal iron in the fire. This was well written, and kept me guessing up until the denouement as to who was the perpetrator of the show more original crime. I really appreciated the fact that, even though Scott is waaayyy back in the closet, he doesn’t hate himself or think of their relationship as wrong. They are just two guys who love each other, going about their lives, trying to solve a series of mysteries. show less

I'd have to check to make sure, but I believe this is the first M-M book I've read that I've been able to give as much as 4 stars to. It's not the first non-sexual/erotic M-M book I've read, that would probably be that China Mountain Zhang book. I believe it's the first M-M mystery I've read, though.

The book is fairly straight forward as far as plot/story. As in as far as an amateur detective type book. It did include the lead having a partner. That doesn't always happen in amateur detective stories. Mostly tends to be a secretary or the like in those other stories. Actually, those wouldn't be amateur detective stories. Hmms. Well, at least in this case it's an amateur detective and his gay lover who just happens to be a star baseball show more player. One who 1) had thrown two no-hitters in the World Series, and 2) has a name I recognize as a real life baseball player. That part I found vaguely odd (looked the name up. Guess I was wrong as there's no listing of a baseball player having that name).

I also looked up the books on my gay shelf. I was wrong there as well. I have one previous book rated 4 stars that involves a main character who happens to be gay. The other three 4 star books on that shelf are only there because the writer won and or was nominated for the Lambda award. May or may not be gay characters in those three Steven Saylor books, but none main characters. So the long and short of it is that this is the second four star book I've read that includes main character gay men. The other is Fogtown. And, judging by its average rating of 2.91, I might be the only one who liked that book.

Right. Distracted myself there. I was mentioning the plot/story. Teacher arrives at school to begin his daily teacher chores. Notices a person sitting way in the back. Goes to investigate. Finds a dead body, that of a man, a fellow teacher he barely knew. One thing leads to another and the teacher who found the dead body begins investigating and searching for the murderer. Twists and turns lead to gay bars, prostitution rings, and porno films. Strong plot.

Stronger characterization than I was lead to believe. Yes, I did something I rarely do - looked at other reviews before reading this book. Lead me to believe the characters were lacking. Were paper thin. I found them fully formed. From lead characters down to the kids. The only ones who appeared paper thin, for the most part, where the cops, and they didn't really play that big of a role in the book.

In terms of relationships - you could tell that Scott and Tom were a couple, and were romantically involved. But most action occurred off the page. Beyond some kissing and massaging.

One of the things that normally drive me insane with gay books, and I do not know if it's just the books I previously chose to try, or if it is a common theme in gay books, and I've lost this sentence. A common theme I've found in gay books is an overly emotional group of people, filled with angst. I don't care who the characters are, I don't particularly like reading that. And, fortunately, that didn't occur in this book.

I like and would recommend this book. show less

While I don't like works in First Person, some pieces intrigue me. This was one of those; the plot was interesting, and I liked the characters. Depressing ending, but not unexpected. Glad I read it though - I'll move on to the other books in the series.

A typical murder mystery, more mystery, less character development and personal lives. This book was very much like a Hardy Boy book, only instead of brothers, the murder is solved by lovers. Not the worst murder mystery I’ve read, but genre mysteries are usually too mundane for my tastes.

The main characters are pretty cool and I’m sure once you get into the series, you grow to like them even more. This is a mystery series, like the Hardy Boys.

On a scale of 1 to 10, it’s a 6.

Sadly, not a good book. Not even a tolerable book. The characters do silly things to create great tension, but to no effect. Skip it.

First of the Tom and Scott mysteries. A teacher is killed and dumped in Tom's school room. As he's the one who found the body he's a prime suspect. This put him to investigating. He uncovers a gambling ring at the school. He also learns that some of his former students are involved in prostitution.