2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Exceptional Reflection, 26 Aug 2007
By J. Hartfield - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Dream Ender (A Dick Hardesty Mystery) (Paperback)
For Dick Hardesty fans, this book will add another chapter in the maturing family life of the heroes. However, the most significant and chilling part of this novel is the reflection on the emergence of HIV/AIDS and how our community responded...not very proudly at first, but in light of current management, the past expectations have been justified. The latest resurgence of the disease, based in part upon a smug confidence in therapy, makes the retelling of this early story very timely. Dorien is to be congratulated for tackling a difficult subject and weaving it around his usual community snapshop of characters.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Sobering Look Back, 8 Aug 2007
By Rick R. Reed "Author of IM and Orientation" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Dream Ender (A Dick Hardesty Mystery) (Paperback)
In many ways, Dorien Grey's The Dream Ender is a fairly typical, workmanlike mystery, but Grey gives it a twist that sets it apart from other mysteries: he sets it in the early 80s, when AIDS was a horrifying plague on the gay community. He takes it one step further by imagining a very real villain, who is deliberately spreading the virus to others via a popular leather bar's back room. The murder in the book almost takes a back seat to the intriguing--and horrific--prospect of a very deliberate grim reaper moving through the gay community of an unspecified American city. A very moving and satisfying read.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not just another story, 17 Dec 2007
By Robert E. Keesey "WC Keesey" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Dream Ender (A Dick Hardesty Mystery) (Paperback)
Little was known about it in the 70's; even its name, AIDS, was just beginning to be recognized as a new terror. There was no test to determine its presents. Some are carriers and don't know it, while the medical world searches for answers--men are dying.
Was the rumor that someone was deliberately spreading the disease true? If so it wasn't a crime--to the law at any rate, not yet. Or was the rumor spread only to close a popular gay bar and destroy its owner? Dick Hardesty is hired to find out.
This book has strong overtones and undertones of the gay life. What it was and what it became because of the treat of AIDS. But its more--there's murder and mystery. In truth this is not a book I would normally pick up to read, but maybe because AIDS has touched my family as it has so many others, I found the story compelling and I had to read it to the end. Not for everyone, but it should be.
Review by Wanda C. Keesey (author of Lost In The Mist release date May 2008)