Detective Don Strachey gets an assignment to more or less prevent a gay marriage. Hesitantly he starts to work on the deal, just to find out that nobody is actually who he claims to be. He stops working on this assignment but has to start all over again when one of his former clients gets murdered and the man, he had to look into, is suspected of his murder. Very slowly Donald starts finding out what is and what was going on in this quite city in the US. People's secrets get revealed. Finding out very slowly what is going on and why an elderley queer got murdered (along with his martini sipping dog) keeps you reading in this page turner. This is how what a gay detective should be like. Enjoy your reading! ( )

Gay Marriage is legalized in Massachusetts and PI Don Strachey is called to the Berkshires to investigate the young man a friend of the client wants to marry. But Strachey ends up refusing the job when he discovers the client isn't a friend of the man at all. Then the client ends up murdered and the young man, mysteriously without a past, is implicated. Strachey feels his inquiries might have led to the young man being suspected of murder and accepts the young man's fiance as a client in order to see if he can clear him of the charge.

Hints of sexual extortion or perhaps just questionable lending practices surround the dead man and his partner. As does hints of the mob. Strachey is distracted by the hidden past of the young man, even though he believes in his innocence. Yet there doesn't seem to be any other clear suspects in the murder. The mystery is involved and twisting. The various elements are torn from recent headlines, making the mystery very timely. And there are strong elements of suspense and adventure. I thought it an intriguing, satisfying read. ( )

I'll add to disturbingfurniture's review that the mysteries here are more than "who done it," which makes a good change of pace to the average murder mystery. And I'll second "More, more." ( )

A little background: this review and my rating of this book are most probably influenced by one or more or all of the following…

1) I’ve been reading and enjoying Donald Strachey mysteries since I was a teen (my Dad bought me “On The Other Hand Death” at my college bookstore—no, he didn’t know it was a gay mystery despite the pink triangle on the cover).

2) I recently finished “Tongue Tied” #8 in the series & was sadly certain that despite the successful-enough series of films on here! TV “Tongue Tied” would be the last of the Strachey stories.

3) The pub date on Barnes & Noble says September 28th & I LOVE to read a book before pub date (which is a big reason I love to review books for Kirkus et al. and go to library conferences to get the Advanced Reader Copies).

4) The bad guys really get it good in the end & though orchestrated by Donald, they get it at the hands of other bad guys—and one set of bad guys is a thinly disguised real world bad guy who deserves to be got. (I read once that boys like books where the bad guys get it & I am most definitely a boy in that respect).

I think this is the best of the series. I have enjoyed them all, and think I might re-read a couple of them since I liked this so much. The mystery was twisty and totally believable (well, ok, mostly believable). Don and Timmy were happily themselves. I’m just sad it’s over. (So write more RS (or RL)!)

I’m a little confused by the new publisher—why in the heck would St. Martin’s NOT want to publish this with two of the novels in the series in production (to join two others already on DVD)…but maybe it was Stevenson (Lipez)’s choice. I hope he has plans for more with MLR Press. I’ll let you solve the mystery of MLR Press…it made me chuckle. Go buy this. And if you haven’t bought the others—you’re in luck MLR is putting them back out too! ( )