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50 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gay American hunk, seducer and crime solver, 19 Mar 2007
This review is from: The Back Passage (Paperback)
The hot summer of 1925, and a twenty-two year old randy Bostonian hunk, Edward "Mitch" Mitchell, in England following postgraduate studies at Cambridge, has been invited to Drekeham Hall, Norfolk, home of Sir James Eagle, MP, for the weekend by his best friend and fellow student, Harry "Boy" Morgan, handsome muscular athlete and rowing blue. Boy is set to marry Belinda, the daughter of the house, but this minor inconvenience does not deter Mitch, the narrator, from his aim of seducing him by the end of the day.
While playing the game of Sardines, and incidentally during which Mitch begins his seduction of Boy, a dead body tumbles from a cupboard, and so begins a weekend of action, drama and amateur sleuthing. Immediatley a servant of the house is arrested for the murder, but Mitch suspects things are not quite so simple and sets out, with Boy's help, to find the real culprit. Mitch's attempts at detective work are hampered only by his sex drive, for he meets temptation at every turn. Apart from his ongoing seduction of Boy, Mitch also enjoys other diversionary assignations with among others Sir James' flamboyant and sinister brother, a handsome young policeman and an investigating journalist. He also encounters sadistic and corrupt policemen, a couple of naked male servants on horseback and cavorting in the long grass, an oversexed chauffeur, a voyeuristic butler, and a compliant young house boy, plus a few surprises.
Well written, with smooth flowing prose, this is a most enjoyable, if unlikely mystery; very funny and with plenty of twists and surprises in the plot. More vividly described sexual encounters than one could ever hope for in an average weekend, but then this is no average weekend.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Oh So Entertaining, 14 Mar 2007
This review is from: The Back Passage (Paperback)
"Graphic" is the first word that springs to mind, and indeed the second and third. Well-written, good continuity, consistently humourous, appealing characters, appalling character twists-- an enjoyable and easy read. Perhaps a must-have, certainly a must-borrow-from-library.
The main character is a randy American college student in England in 1925 relating the murder mystery that began just feet from him while he was rather adamantly "otherwise occupied." Generally the premise feels real, if startlingly unlikely, and the reader will find himself torn between anticipation at the next R-rated moment and curiosity about the identity of the murderer. Not one to leave lying around when children are present, but a smashing good read otherwise.
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36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great sexy romp!, 10 Mar 2007
This review is from: The Back Passage (Paperback)
Thoroughly enjoyable. This book very clearly makes the point that gay historical fiction needn't be po faced, full of deep meaningful literary merit and serious as hell. This is a romp, from start (hero found groping his friend in an understairs cupboard) to the finish which I won't spoil. Imagine how I squeed when I read the first page and found that it was set about 10 miles from where I sit right now, on the North Norfolk coast in 1925.
There's a lot of sex in this book, and I mean a LOT. This is the kind of book where the reader can be happy that there's sex in every chapter and it isn't boringly escalated, you know what a mean, starts with a grope, moves on to a blow job, then a 69 and so on - the Hero "Mitch" takes advantage of every opportunity.
And there's PLENTY of opportunity. Even though you must suspend your belief at the door, although, to be honest, a remote Norfolk aristocratic family - I wouldn't be at all surprised if this house set-up hadn't actually happened, so it's actually quite plausible and the reasons for why everyone seems to be gay are very cleverly explained. It's not just the power of Mitch's sex-appeal that gives him the sex-filled week of his life!
It's a classic who-dunnit, too. Big house in the middle of no-where with a cast of larger than life characters, unexplained murder and it could be any one of the occupants, like all of Christie's stories I was hopelessly led down one blind alley after another, suspecting everyone in turn and happy doing so.
What I particularly liked was the lovely little touches of the language. When Mitch talks he says ass, and when Boy Morgan speaks he says arse. I heartily approve of this.
I also liked the fact that Mitch isn't some Gary-Stu private dick (although his that part of his anatomy is anything but private...) solving everything. He's just nicely curious, and is not averse to asking questions and using other methods to get what he wants. He doesn't get it right all the time too, in fact I loved the fact that when he's listening to one of the witnesses he frankly says "I couldn't help but think that Sherlock would have already grasped the salient point" (paraphrased)
The sex itself is graphic, along the same graphic level as say - Alyson's short story collections.
So all in all, recommended. I dislike asking an author for a sequel, but, in Mitch, he has a character who could cheerfully go on to other gay mysteries. I shall go and seek Lear's other works now, and will look forward to his next. A nice afternoon's read, which got me hot and made me smile too.
And really - any writer who uses whence and glabrous is always going to win my heart...
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