Customer Reviews

The Back Passage

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Cleverly done, THE BACK PASSAGE explores relations between upstairs and downstairs at Drekeham Hall, a British country estate near Norfolk in the year 1925, on the eve of the General Strike that solidified labor and brought globalism to a halt for a few brief, ecstatic weeks. Like a Henry James heroine, young Edward Mitchell is an American student at Cambridge, is the "heiress to all the ages." At Cambridge he has been taken up by Harry "Boy" Morgan, his college roommate, an aristocrat bred to the bone who has been engaged to Lady Belinda for a year and a half. Mitchell (who insists his new UK friends call him "Mitch," with breezy American familiarity) accompanies his mate to a weekend party and soon finds himself face to face with a corpse in the stately home. Thus begins one of the more eccentric Golden Age mysteries I've read in some time, and I've read a zillion of `em.

The working class men of England need protection both from the upper classes who exploit them sexually, and from the police system, in which an avaricious sergeant takes money from Sir James Eagle to keep the common people in line and to whip up false charges should any of them complain. "Mitch" can't imagine similar injustices occurring in his home town of Boston, but we note that this is during the same period in which the governor of Massachusetts ordered the execution of two convicted anarchists, Sacco and Vanzetti, despite an international uproar protesting this injustice.

Whopper Hunt, a sleek Englishwoman with pots of money, is engaged to Sir James' handsome son Rex, who flees the mansion as soon as Boy and Mitch discover the body of Reginald Walworth. Naturally, our suspicions turn to Rex, then to Whopper, then to other members of the Eagle family, including Lady Caroline, the Judi Dench-like matriarch of the whole family who has a bad temper and who bullies the butler, Burroughs, and his "sister," the housekeeper Mrs. Ramage. There are so many suspects it's definitely difficult to tell them apart without a scorecard. Author Lear has challenged himself by adding modern spice to an age-old Agatha Christie landscape, and now and then he stumbles: was the word Mitch uses for a certain preliminary seminal fluid really lingua franca in 1925, no I don't think so. But outside of that he's good at men's trousers and underwear and you will definitely feel you're in the hands of a master as Mitch pursues his culprits through cupboards, swimming holes, armchairs and Bentleys. He thinks of a unique hiding place for a roll of film that will leave you sitting up rather more gingerly than ever before. In short, he is a fine writer with touch of the genius, or at any rate the sui generis which, in 2006 means just about the same thing. If ever he comes to San Francisco I invite him to investigate my cupboard, my rosewood chair, my bog or my many, many, my positive heap of film canisters.

A outrageous romp! If you enjoyed the movie Gosford Park, or like Agatha Christie novels with a twist, this is for you. A tongue-in-cheek mystery set in 1925, in England. Mitch is a handsome wannabe sleuth who's attempt to solve a mystery nets him sex around every corner! Witty, fast-paced. Read it in one night.

Ridiculously fun.

Fun, fast and frantic - there is a ridiculous amount of sex and SO much of it, but somehow still well-written and always maintaining a very nice level of heat.

Featuring the seemingly ridiculous character of 'Mitch' Mitchell, this quick read is immensely satisfying and hits a surprisingly emotional note as it ends.

Because there's a catch.

The catch is Mitch himself. With the exception of 'Boy' Morgan, Mitch, despite initial impressions, is conveyed with a certain depth and shading which I absolutely had not expected when I began reading.

When an author is able to make you love a character who cuts more than just a swathe (a crevasse? canyon, perhaps?) through multiple partners and then grasp firm hold of your heart by the end (as opposed to grasping other things, but there is plenty of that, as well) - THAT is writing well-done.

I usually enjoy a certain amount of pain and soul-searching in whatever genre I read - but 'The Back Passage' throws all that aside as having already been done or as being almost completely immaterial, and rushes gleefully to its ending.

HIGHLY recommended.

Usually I find that gay 'erotic' novels are a series of sex scenes built around a theme rather than being a 'novel' built around a story line. Lear manages to not only include a great range of very hot scenes, he does it totally in the context of a plot line. Sure, the plot may seem to have some gaps, but the author manages those with his tounge placed firmly in his cheek. In other words, you have a book with great sex, a plot, and humor. And the humor even infiltrates the sex scenes, not as a distraction, but to make them all the more real, interesting, and fun - and the best sex always includes a few laughs, not just who put what where "oh baby oh baby feels so good..."

The authors ability to mix the genres of the English Country House Mystery and the Erotic Novel is impressive. This book could have been a mess, but his skill creates a structure to hold it all together. (Another great, fun book that manages this is "Hardball" by T. Hitman - a great mix of baseball, sex and humor!)

I had expected one more sex scene to help tie up the plot, but my hope is that the absence is in indicator that this fun story with well drawn characters will continue!

This book has all the elements to keep one entertained from the very beginning until the end; viz., this is a don't-put-me-down book until finished. It is well written and there are some surprises but still believable. I like this author and look forward to reading some of his future titles. It takes place in the 1920s and elucidates all the double-standards that was prevelant for the English "upper & lower crust" during that time period. If you liked Maurice by E. M. Forrester, you will also love this book. It is a good example of today's gay and lesbian literature.

Warning: This review might contain what some people consider SPOILERS.

Disclaimer:
* I read books in every genre, but I have a soft spot for romances that are more about feelings than sex. If a book has lots of lust-filled, dispassionate sex, I'm not impressed. If the sex is a manifestation of love, bring it on.

Rating: 7/10

Pros:
- Good plot. Not quite as twisty-turny as an Agatha Christie novel, but close.
- Funny. As in, FUNNY.
- Several likeable characters, if somewhat simple (this contributes to the story's humor).
- Sex scenes that are (and this is unique, from what I've read in m/m erotica, romance, whatever) integral to the plot.


Cons:
- Lots of sex that didn't do it for me. Again, the sex scenes are used as plot devices--and cleverly done--but they are much more graphic than say, those in Alex Beecroft's Captain's Surrender, and much less affecting. Why? Because they're just sex; there's very little feeling on the part of either character in any of them.
- Possible SPOILERS here: Tries to be a bit of a romance at the end but fails to create enough backstory between the main character and the other guy to fully succeed. Their sex scene is less than a page, for crying out loud (whereas others with despicable characters are several pages long and quite detailed)!
- I saw a few of the plot twists coming.

Overall comments: Worth reading if you like mysteries and either enjoy or don't mind gay sex, sometimes crudely described. Not for you if you're looking for sweet, tender gay romance.

This is the first time I buy a book that is kindda like a softcore porn movie, in book; and I can say I will never do it again. The book promised to have a "detective story" that would keep the plot move, but such story is so unbelievably sloppy and unrealistic that the you cannot take the book seriously. Of course, maybe this book is not supposed to be taken seriously, so if you just want some sex scenes, I guess you could find better books out there. I always want a good story in my books, and unfortunately The Back Passage was not a good choice for that.

Yes, it's entertaining and yes it's arousing and thus fulfils its own brief. But ... oh dear Mr Lear, on page TWO you identify the river that flows through Cambridge as the Isis. It isn't. The Isis flows through Oxford. The "old" name of Cambridge's river Cam is the Granta (like the literary magazine). In a confection such as "Back Passage", it's these details (easily checked on Wikipedia, for God's sake), that make the difference between a genre-subverting delight and a ho-hum "well ... it's sort of OK and ... sort of fun ..."

Louis LaSalle's cover photograph is, as usual with Mr LaSalle, drop-dead sexy.

I read this book several years ago and hated it. I love a good mystery, and, although I prefer not read erotica, I can tolerate it if there is a good story/plot. This book was just one sex scene after another. Although I finished the book, I felt very disappointed by the end. What annoyed me most was in some scenes the main character Mitch used sex to get the clue to the puzzle. It made feel cheated. The mystery was just a backdrop for a porn book; just wasn't my cup of tea. I'm sorry I wasted the money and time.

Have to say I was left somewhat unimpressed with this on the basis of the main character's sexual exploits - oh! I expected full out explicit porn and that in and of itself is not my gripe. The sex scenes were well done and duly hot, but after a while a pattern started to emerge that only dampened them...

The story began to predictably unfold with a small portion of the mystery being divulged, only to go straight into a sex scene whenever a suspect or potential ally came into the picture. Most of it was relevant to the plot, although whenever Mitch wants answers from an unwilling confederate... you got it. Cue sex scene. And it was almost all casual sex, which again, I don't really mind, but an entire book based around that was sort of off-putting for me. I did have hopes there would be some romance with "Boy" Morgan to balance it all out, but what little there was devoted to that didn't seem too fulfilling after Mitch goes on throughout about how he wants something more with "Boy". In that regard, I was disappointed.

The mystery was actually fairly good, and I found myself getting interested in the whodunit more than the porn, at times. But I felt like my attention was being jerked around with that pattern of porn/mystery/porn/mystery, etc. It would have been less annoying if the porn was spaced out better because honestly, the two didn't mix very well. So, you find yourself genuinely wondering what happens next and - WHAM - you're smacked out of the story by the porn. Which again, was very casual, and with so many instances of it just didn't do it for me after a while. Not to mention it was ridiculously unbelievable that a man could perform that many times in one day.

The end result of all this was that I just got bored with both mystery and smut, and was just reading to finish it, not because I actually cared what happened next. This book did have its good points, was witty and had an original, fairly well done plot, but that wasn't enough to keep it afloat and because of that, I can't recommend it.