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The Bottle Ghosts (Dick Hardesty Mysteries)

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When a new client arrives in his office reporting a missing lover, Dick Hardesty's first reaction is that the guy has taken off for whatever reason. He begins his search by visiting the bars the missing man frequented. Soon Dick learns that police triage missing persons; and they relegate alcoholic, gay men to the bottom of the heap. When he questions his police contacts regarding police procedure with missing person cases, Dick gets unexpected results.

Desk rookie Marty Gresham is working on a master's degree in criminology and decides to use his work for his thesis. Gresham went back several years looking at missing persons, and discovered an unexpected pattern. Single men, ages 26 to 40, that were heavy drinkers or acknowledged alcoholics have been disappearing. Indeed, four have disappeared within the last six months. Suddenly Dick once again finds himself confronted with a crime far bigger than his initial investigation; one he cannot walk away from.

On the surface, Dick simply investigates yet another series of murders. But the subtext of the gay lifestyle, of relationships and desires, of hidden motives and concealed pain, lends THE BOTTLE GHOSTS remarkable depth. While readers will identify with secret demons, most find help or learn to live with the pain of our individual bottle ghosts. Each scene is carefully crafted with hints and red herrings enough to delight the most demanding mystery lover. Moreover, Grey's prose absolutely resonates with powerful emotion and tragic decisions, with painful need and dangerous desire.

THE BOTTLE GHOSTS provides powerful reading on a number of levels. In addition to a terrific mystery, readers are privy to Dick's personal world. As Dick's relationship with Jonathan plays out, readers are given a glimpse at a different side of gay relationships not previously explored by Grey's work. Dick no long allows, well, little dick to run his life although we are still privy to intimate thoughts of lust at times. Instead, Dick explores the world of a monogamous relationship structured by love and trust. Such a transformation does not mirror a heterosexual's expectation, and yet the similarities and differences will be as surprising and as enlightening as Dick's previous sojourns through clubs and baths. Furthermore, Dick has never had first hand experience with alcoholism. Grey's treatment of the subject is remarkably insightful. And it is these remarkable complexes that lend varied layers to this fascinating text. Consequently, THE BOTTLE GHOSTS earns the WordWeaving Award for Excellence.

Number six in the series sees our hero ever more grateful that he has a life partner. Jonathan continues to be sweet, innocent and just plain loveable. Not only can he cook, is kind to fish and houseplants, he also has an uncanny knack of accidentally stumbling across evidence that helps Dick solve his cases. Last but probably not least to Dick, he's also great in bed.

Alas Dick's crotch is still a little behind the times, wanting to play with all the cute men Dick encounters during the course of his investigations. Thankfully our hero is able to overrule his libido and stay true to Jonathan.

Phil, Tim, Mark and many other old friends reappear in this story. Alas although the totally gorgeous Jared is mentioned, he only gets a very minor role.

As always Grey gives us all the clues we need to solve the case ourselves. However, with so many victims and an almost equal number of suspects, all with similar motives, it isn't easy to make a guess as to who had done it. Eventually the evidence against one individual becomes overwhelming, but this only serves to ratchet things up another notch or three. A most thrilling and nail-biting conclusion results.

I admit I bought this book because the title was catchy and the story description sounded interesting. The name the author uses is interesting as well, if it's real. That said, it turns out that the title actually is the best thing about the book.

I'm truly sorry that the book didn't live up to it's description. Had it, we would have had an interesting story that addressed a problem of importance to gay people - alcoholism.

Alcoholism and "bar culture" are largely the byproduct of gay culture's historical emphasis on bars and nightclubs - that's been well discussed elsewhere. It's also the simple conceit that is used as the underlying subject of this book. Unfortunately, it fails. Spectacularly, I'm sorry to say.