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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not a Dangerous Buy!, July 2, 2003
What a great read! Light and entertaining, yet riveting and suspenseful, I read "A Dangerous Thing" in just two nights. The story starts with the main character, a bookseller from LA, traveling to his grandmother's old ranch in the Sierra Nevadas. He arrives to find a dead body in the middle of the driveway and no clue as to the cause. The story just takes off from there and never stops. Josh Lanyon has a superb grasp of language and plays subtle word games throughout this first-person narrative. Even at critical moments, the story remains witty and entertaining. I may have been at a slight disadvantage by starting with the second Adrien English book, rather than the first, but the characters still seemed well developed and understandable. My all-time barometer for a mystery is whether I can solve it, but not too quickly. A mystery solved too quickly means the author was sloppy with his clues, and a mystery with a surprise ending often means the author just tricked the reader. I found the pace of the "reveal" to be very well timed and thoroughly enjoyed this book. If you're looking for a good mystery where there are gay characters but their sexual orientation isn't the focus of the book, then this is the story for you. --Andrew Barriger, author of Finding Faith
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Josh Lanyon Does It Again, September 24, 2002
Bookseller Adrien English escapes to his ranch to try to relax and to get over writer's block (he is working on his second novel), as well as to get away from Detective Jake Riordan and their unusual "relationship". As you can well imagine, relaxing is the last thing Adrien does as murder follows. (The man is becoming a virtual Jessica Fletcher - people should run for their lives when they see him coming!). When Adrien gets whacked on the head by an unknown assailant, Detective Riordan come to the rescue. And although Adrien at one point quips that Riordan is "buried so deep in the closet he didn't know where to look for himself", there may still be hope for a relationship (or maybe not). The story is fast-paced, involving a complex plot and colorful set of characters, with a drug connection, a suspicious archeological dig, and ancient Native American secrets. Although I really enjoyed the first book in the series, "Fatal Shadows", I liked this one even more. I am really looking forward to the third book, and hope that we don't have to wait a couple of years for it. Maybe Mr. Lanyon can recluse himself in a ranch somewhere in the hills where he can work undisturbed.......
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Adrien English Is Back And Beter Than Ever!, October 28, 2002
Adrien English is different. He's not your ordinary run of the mill murder mystery sleuth. He's the proprietor of Cloak and Dagger Books, a small mystery bookstore in Los Angeles, and the soon-to-be-published author of Murder Will Out, a mystery novel featuring gay sleuth and Shakespearean actor Jason Leland. As a sleuth Adrien is hardly the rough and tumble action hero that you expect to see portrayed in the movies by Harrison Ford or Steven Seagal. As a matter of fact he has a bad heart, and any time he gets involved in a situation that results in any physical exertion both he and the reader fear that his old ticker will finally go tock. He's also gay, and his diva of choice is not Babs, Donna or Dion but Andrea Bocelli. Finally, he's madly in love with James Patrick Riordan (Jake), a strapping (in more ways than one) LA police detective who is so far in the closet that he can't get past the pores on Adrien's nose to kiss him on the lips. And that's what sets up Adrien second murder mystery adventure. He's suffering from writer's block on his second Jason Leland mystery Death For A Deadly Deed, which is loosely based on Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. (See I told you Adrien was different.) And his affair with Jake isn't really percolating. So he decides to get away from LA and head out to his granny's old place Pine Shadow Ranch thinking the fresh smog free air will clear away his problems. Rest assured that Adrien is equally as adept at finding dead bodies on a ranch as he is on the mean streets of LA. So before long he and Jake end up getting involved not only with dead bodies, but also a lost gold mine, Indian rituals, and things that go bump in the night. With A Dangerous Thing Josh Lanyon has again crafted a refreshing and witty mystery adventure for his hero. And in Adrien he has developed a very believable character, who is complex, winning and totally involves you in his ups, downs and exploits. I enjoyed this book as much as I did Fatal Shadows the first in this series, and I recommend it highly. I'm also looking forward to the next installment.
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