Government Gay (Alex Reynolds Mysteries) [Paperback]

Fred Hunter (Author)

Book Description

Series: Alex Reynolds Mysteries | Publication Date: May 1998

With Peter, his longtime lover, busy for the evening, Alex Reynolds decides to stop in for a quick beer at a local Chicago gay bar and survey the nightlife scene he left behind for "married" life years before. Quickly unamused, Alex decides to call it an early evening, stopping off in the men's room before going home. But there he is assaulted by two men who demand of him, "Where is it?" Acting quickly, Alex is able to escape before the situation turns dangerous, and thinking it an unfortunate case of mistaken identity, he only wants to forget the whole evening. Alex, however, is not that lucky. A dead body turns up outside the bar the next morning, and a CIA agent arrives at the door of the house Alex and Peter share with Alex's unflappable mother and begins asking some very confusing questions. To make matters worse, Alex soon discovers that the two men from the bar are shadowing him. With both the government and the "other side" convinced he knows something he isn't revealing, Alex must first discover what he's unwittingly become involved in and then rescue himself, his lover, and his mother from it before they all come to a more permanent conclusion.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

Stopping at a gay bar on the way home to his husband Peter Livesay, freelance commercial artist Alex Reynolds offers a cigarette to the stranger who's just given him a light--and the next thing you know he and his partner are getting threatened with death and worse by foreign hooligans convinced that the stranger passed Alex a matchbook they really want back. Even before he finds the matchbook and tries to appease the killers (by now they've executed the stranger), Alex is not without potential allies: His mother Jean, a stage Brit, is still friendly with Chicago police area commander Frank O'Neil--but she doesn't want to revive her romance with Frank, and while she dithers (dropping her h's and saying ``bloody'' a lot, so you can tell she's the genuine article), Alex's attempt to play ball with James Martin, the CIA agent who's come to Jean's house, are stymied by his finding out that Martin's an imposter. Promising complications, you'd think--but Hunter (Ransom for Our Sins, 1996, etc.) still can't rouse himself to thicken the plot. Alex and Peter have no trouble getting the key to search the suspected killer's hotel room. A staged drop of the mysterious matchbook leaves somebody else dead, but not Alex. Peter is kidnapped, but it's no trouble getting him back. In short, Hunter manages to construct a mystery-thriller in which the hero is never in any serious danger from the killers, an international gang of kidnappers, the phony CIA agent, or the real powers that be. Alex thinks he's in a gay North by Northwest. All that's missing from this sprightly update is laughs, danger, thrills, and paranoia more than an inch deep. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First THUS Edition edition (May 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312187211
• ISBN-13: 978-0312187217
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,274,887 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A whole lot of fun!, May 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Government Gay (Alex Reynolds Mysteries) (Paperback)

This author was new to me, and I didn't know what to expect. I certainly didn't expect what I got: a really playful mystery featuring one of the most engaging sleuthing couples I've seen yet. Alex and Peter are such a wonderfully matched, loving couple they made me jealous! They demonstrate a kind of old-married-couple sensibility that was different from a lot of gay fiction I've come across. And the addition of Alex's mother, Jean, to the mix was a wonderful touch. The plot, involving Russian spies and defectors, was hilariously complicated (and somewhat silly, but that was part of the fun). I'm going to get the rest of the series ASAP.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A thoroughly enjoyable read, November 11, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Government Gay (Hardcover)

This was a thoroughly enjoyable mystery, and very out of the ordinary. Alex Reynolds and his husband, Peter Livesay, join the ranks of happily married sleuthing couples along with such luminaries as Nick and Nora Charles and Agatha Christie's Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. Added to the mix is Jean Reynolds, Alex's mother, an irrepresible Brit with whom the two men live. Jean is a positively delightful character, forever coming up with schemes and devising ways out of the predicament in which the trio find themselves, quite by accident. Believeability is not exactly the matter here, as with most romps. I wonderered if one would actually meet foreign agents in a gay bar, but the story and the prose were so delightful that I really didn't spare much time to worry about it! The best thing about the book was that these characters were so personable and believable (particularly the relationship between Alex and Peter, which was very complementary and compelling) that it made me want to come back and revisit them. I really am looking forward to the next entry in this series.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the funniest books I've read in years., October 30, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Government Gay (Hardcover)

This is probably one of the funniest books I've read in years. It was so refreshing to discover a new series that doesn't take itself so seriously! It was equally refreshing to find a book featuring gay characters in which the leading men are actually happily married and devoted to each other - there is none of the gay-angst that plagues a lot of gay literature. Additionally, the set up is very unusual. Alex Reynolds and his husband, Peter, not only live happily together, they live happily with Alex's mother Jean (and she's a stitch on her own!) This book contains a delightful trio in a mystery that was obviously meant to be more fun than mysterious. The real hallmark of this book was not so much that the mystery was entertaining (though it was), but that the relationships are so alive. These are people you will want to revisit again and again. Buyer beware: if you take yourself too seriously, you will not like this book!