Customer Reviews

Amuse Bouche (Russell Quant Mysteries)

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The title at first made me wonder, what kind of mystery is this? And I was right to wonder. Although this story (about a groom gone missing from a gay wedding) is a first rate mystery all the way,I sometimes forgot I was reading a mystery. I got to experience the sights and smells, good food and wine of a foreign country. I was immersed in the tale of a tragic love story and later some randy stuff too. I chuckled out loud at some of the hero's quips. Russell Quant is one funny man. I finished Amuse Bouche with the same feeling I get when I've completed a particularly fine meal with a lot of courses and unique flavours. Looking forward to more.

Here is Russell Quant's first adventure. In this book you get not only a wonderful mystery that keeps the reader involved from beginning to end, but this is where you first meet the friends that will grow with complexity as this series continues. Re-reading Amuse Bouche after finishing the latest RQ mystery I was taken again by how much I like this sleuth and how the author isn't afraid to make his characters evolve - sometimes on the page, sometimes in our minds - and draw us on to the next book, not only for the simple joy of reading a well-written and witty and thoughtful book, but to see what has happened in the lives of Russell and Errall and Anthony and Sereena and all the others.

Amuse Bouche is a witty, inventive, attractive beginning to what is turning out to be a terrificly entertaining series that draws you in with each passing page and each passing book and has you reaching out with anticipation of a few good nights of reading whenever you see the next one. Although seemingly set up with all the regular conventions of the mystery genre, the author goes beyond with a unique hero, a bevy of curious characters, interesting locales and a solid mystery to boot. I was right there with Russell, every step of the way.

Amuse Bouche is aptly titled - amuse me it did.
And much more - the mystery certainly kept my interest, but what really kept the pages turning were the story's affable and engaging hero, Russell Quant and the people and places that surround him.
This is fine story telling by a fine new writer. I look forward to more.

Mr. Bidulka has another fan in California. I love mystery novels and this is the beginning of a really terrific series. Russell Quant and his family and friends are such believable and interesting people the reader feels like he/she is being told a true story...maybe it is, I don't know.
Every time I thought I knew where the author was going, he took a slightly different turn that kept me turning the pages.
I immediately bought the second in the series and it is even better and now I see a third is on its way this fall. I know what I'm taking on holiday this winter...and what gift will end up in many Xmas stockings.

Every so often I like to try a new mystery author, gay or otherwise - to see what I might be missing from my usuals - JM Wilson, Lev Raphael, Kellerman...and with Bidulka I was not disappointed. I just hope that the promised sequel to this first Russell Quant mystery follows up on the promise I see in this writer, his story and his characters. I was a little wary of the story taking place in Saskatchewan, in a city I'd never really heard of - but in the end, that was just one of the things that made this book so appealing and engaging - I felt as if I was discovering a new country.

This book went down like a nice glass of lemonade on a hot day (with a bit of vodka in it as a surprise). I was expecting a gorgeous hero, the sexual innuendos, the drag queen, the fag hag etc etc etc which - not to deride those things which I do enjoy - I was glad to find little of - instead Amuse Bouche is a nice change from all that. Every so often when I least expected it Bidulka interjected in his witty and smooth writing little gems - turns of phrase or descriptions that I fell in love with. Pay attention when Russell is in a little French village and is describing the characters he sees.
I feel as if more is going to happen in this series than just solving mysteries - I feel as if I'm going to want to know more and more about Sereena and the priest and Jared, the model at the end of his career.
I can only hope and await to hear what next Russell is up to in Saskatoon - wherever that is.

Amuse Bouche is about Russell Quant, a young gay man celebrating his first year as a private detective with a bottle of passable champagne he retrieves from the mini fridge that holds up one end of his office desk. He is reminiscing about his less than exciting cases in the first twelve months when along comes the case of a lifetime - murder, deceit, international travel, and a client who may be the bad guy. What follows is an absolutely alluring and amusing romp of a mystery that anyone will enjoy.

Amuse Bouche are little tastes served at the beginning of the meal - but this thriller by Canadian author Anthony Bidulka is a full and hearty meal that will leave you wanting more. Meet Russell Quant and his very real and human cast of friends and foes - someone for eveyone.

Even though this is a mystery about a groom gone missing from a gay wedding, it is way more than that. There is comedy, supense, plot teases and more. Excellent read from a first time author. I hope he goes on to write more about Russell Quant and make it into a series of books, It was wonderful to read another gay themed book (like Mysterious Places... Mysterious Dreams) without all the stereotypical gay stuff. This was just a damn good mystery that happens to be about gay people.

Amuse Bouche was as surprising and different as it's title. Once I got that this was a mystery, a gay mystery and a gay mystery set in small town Canada - I was expecting something I did not get. But happy to get it. The story was inventive; a nice wry turn on regular mystery; the gay aspects were plentiful and satisfying, at times a subtle, gentle revelation - as if Bidulka was succeeding without really trying to educate his audience about what it can be like to be a regular Joe gay man in Canada. And boy did I laugh. Sometimes right out loud at Russell's little quips. And sometimes I was amazed at these unexpected literary paragraphs that somehow snuck into this little mystery genre story that blew me away. I like this new writer. He's a raw talent that I think will get better and better as his writing matures. Keep em coming.