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In a period in which both large and small presses seem to be abandoning gay mysteries, one welcomes any that make it into print. I just wish this one had been more original. Its story is the old trusty standby of a serial killer who targets gays and the cop who is forced out of the closet as a result of developments in the case. The author seems to have been influenced by Jonathan Kellerman and similar writers. Still, her novel provides a pleasant enough read for a lazy summer day. The so-called Carpet Killer finds his victims throughout greater Los Angeles. He rapes each man, mutilates him while he is still living, and then kills him. The reader learns late in the story that he also videotapes the whole ordeal. He then sometimes waits days before depositing the body wrapped up in a rug. One evening, obviously beginning to decompensate, he writes ugly slogans about his activities on the side of Chris Bellamere's SUV parked near a gay bar at which several of the victims hung out. Relying less on common sense than on the adage that anyone who attracts the police's attention must be guilty, detectives David Laine and Martinez Diego instantly suspect Chris of being the killer. And indeed, evidence steadily mounts against him, his having spent the evening with at least one of the victims. But inexplicably, 37-year-old David finds himself drawn to the younger man, and when Chris, in a gesture of defiance egged on by his best friend, kisses David, he responds before he can stop himself. He instantly retreats back into the closet. After all, he works within a still homophobic organization with a partner who disdains fags. It is too late. Even when Chris is cleared, David continues to see him professionally when it appears that one of Chris's pickups may be the killer. And soon the professional and the personal are intertwined as he finds himself falling in love. A stereotypical bear, David is anything but Chris's type. Yet he too finds himself being mysteriously drawn to the unusual police officer. Once David is outed by the killer's again writing ugly slogans on the side of Chris's SUV, this time about David's sexual proclivities, his and Chris's relationship necessarily changes. Meanwhile, Chris, an expert computer programmer, begins following cybernetic leads on his own. The tension builds as it becomes obvious that the killings do have some connection with him, the victims now coming from within his innermost circle of friends. Ultimately (as the reader, of course, anticipates), Chris himself becomes the final target, and the killer's identity is revealed. The reader is left, however, with too many unanswered questions. How did the killer learn which victims to target, and how did he pick them up without Chris ever spotting him? Why did he put his snuff video on the web, and why did no one else stumble across the site? And it seems strange that, once David starts trusting Chris, he does not use Chris's knowledge of the gay scene to search for the perpetrator. It seems even odder that Chris does not instantly relay facts he picks up from his searches to David. The reasons are simple. The plot is formula-driven. But once the author learns to trust her characters, she has the makings for a potentially innovative series. The three main characters are all likeable humans. A team composed of a newly out gay bear, his Hispanic partner striving with his wife's help to overcome his innate prejudices against gays, and a computer programmer-hacker working independently of the police could furnish something rather different on the mystery scene.
Reviewed by Drewey Wayne Gunn, July 2006
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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