Customer Reviews

L. A. Mischief (A David Lane and Chris Bellamere Mystery)

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

 

 

Let me just say up front that I loved LA Mischief by P.A. Brown. I have rarely read a book with two such contrary and stubborn characters. Both flawed and very different from one another.
This story starts after the breakup of Chris and David. You are introduced to Chris as he is falling apart at the seams. He is on a self destructive bent. Drugs, alcohol, and sex are all things that he is using to try and deal with the loss and guilt he feels. David is not doing much better. Having outed himself by a phone call and wanting to fight being gay, he struggles with his needs. He also cannot forget Chris even though they have broken up. When these two met again, the sexual tension is fantastic. The struggle on both of their parts to try and connect is almost painful to read but it draws you in. You want them to succeed in overcoming their flaws and differences.
I admit that I thought at the beginning that I wouldn't like Chris. Having grown up with an alcoholic, I have problems with those who use it as a crutch. I was astounded by my change of heart through the book. By the end, I had fallen for him. Chris made me want him to make it. David was struggling just as much but in a different way. All too aware of the differences between them, he tries to stay away from Chris. The continued back and forth of these two men was a compelling read.
This is a book I would highly recommend to those who like their M/M romance with a little more grit. An excellent read and one that I highly recommend.

As a sequel, this novella was disappointing. As a novella, the plot was disappointingly thin to the point of being invisible.

Two minor crime mysteries involving a hacked up body or two and a gang shooting were desultory, boring, and inserted into the story as a way to enable the book to be tagged as a crime romance. They were neither interesting on their own merits nor serve any character development function. When a reader can completely skip the crime sections of a crime romance, the author has failed at plotting.

Of more concern to me was that the love story was contrived in that as we never 'saw' the break up, it felt forced, unbelievable, and unlikely -- especially given that the last book ended with them happily spending Christmas together. As a reader, I was utterly confused initially that the last time I had seen the two men it was Christmas and Chris' friend Des was doing well and now it's fall and Des is falling apart. It took me a while to understand that I was reading of events that happened in between the last two chapters of the first book. An author's note might have been more than helpful here -- it was essential.

In re the breakup, it felt as though the author was trying to avoid the "Moonlighting curse" and keeping the two characters apart because that was the only way to keep them interesting. Unfortunately, that is not only a fallacy, I found the characters less interesting when they were apart. Chris was nothing more than a drunken slut and frankly, that's just boring. David was interesting only in that he seemed to morph into another person -- I truly found it hard to believe that David suddenly had the guts and inclination to become an habituee of leather bars and pick up a regular sex partner; I was given no insight or reason to believe this apparent change of behavior and attitude and so I did not believe it. The reader should not have to fill in this many blanks because the author did not or could not show the reader WHY her characters behaved in these ways.

When Chris and David reunited, I had no idea why they did so, beyond the notion that they, inexplicably, loved each other and since that's a given in any romance, more character development or plotting is necessary to show us why. Neither their time broken up nor their eventual reconciliation was written in such a way as to illuminate them as individuals or a couple.

The two short stories at the end of the book were simply porn -- well-written porn and there is a place for that, to be sure -- but it felt as though they were tacked on to try and make this book worth the price. They were also disappointingly similar to each other in plot and tone.

I have been looking forward to a sequel to L.A.Heat not for more police or murder stories but more on Chris and David. PA Brown certainly does not disappoint. I have to say I am very surprised with the change in tone in this sequel, which is emotional, sexy and heartfelt. Never thought PA Brown has it in her!
The violent LAPD world is secondary in the tightly paced and engrossing plot as this sequel focuses on the 3 men, Chris, David and Des at the most difficult points in their lives. The story starts off really well even if I am shocked by the turn of events since the end of LA Heat. The emotional relationship development between Chris and David is deeply explored and I find myself once again rooting for these 2 completely opposite men to be together. And Des' life is just sad and touching and I love his friendship with Chris and David. PA Brown breathes life into her 3 characters and their stories simply hold me spellbound. As for the last two bonus stories, they are just steaming hot, with a dose of BDSM too. Highly recommended for all M/M romance fans.

Although I enjoyed this book, I can't say I would put it in the same category as LA HEAT, which I read about 4 years ago. Of course, this may, to a degree, be my poor recollection. The main thing I recall about LA HEAT was that it was virtually "unputdownable". I felt that to a certain degree with LA MISCHIEF but the story didn't seem quite as sound. Also, I don't recall the first one being quite so sexually graphic--maybe I just need to go back and reread. In any event, this novella again joins Chris and David as they not only work on solving a mystery but also further explore and develop their relationship. It seems to me that these two have it made in bed but I'm not sure how much they have in common outside the bedroom--or what will become of the relationship when the "fireworks" start to fade. I certainly got the impression this was more lust than love. Don't get me wrong. The story is quite good albeit a little thin. There were two short stories that followed the novella. Both very graphic. They took it from M/M romance to definite erotica. As long as the author is traveling down this path, I probably will not read the next installment. But for those who are into erotica, this author is pretty good...

I'm no prude. I really enjoyed the first book in this series because it mostly focused on character development. This book "feels" different, riddled with stereotypes and boring sex. You'd think the extreme level of physical intimacy in this book would make it more enticing, but no. That kind of superficial, let's-have-sex-so-we-can-forget-all-the-bad-stuff-in-our-lives intimacy is not even slightly interesting to me. I began to dislike one of the main characters because after basically ignorning a scheduled activity with his best friend (a man in deep depression after the brutal slaying of his lover) to have basically meaningless sex with some guy he doesn't even care much about, that main character went right back and did the same thing AGAIN, except for the part about dumping his best friend at a terrible time. Jiminy Cricket. How can I respect a character who is so utterly selfish? Add to that the lovely fact that this same character used poppers like they were going out of style, and I ended up wishing the book was finished long before that last page came up on my PC. Sheesh.

Then there's the issue of the extremely poor job of proofreading that was done for the Kindle edition of this book. I hope that the printed version isn't as bad, but I suspect it's identical to the version I have. An error or two wouldn't be a big deal, but this is ridiculous. I stopped counting after a while. I'm not talking about a run-on or a fragment or the kind of stuff that's sheer poetic license. No, I mean the errors you get when someone isn't checking spelling or punctuation (quotation marks, etc.). Maybe that doesn't matter to most readers, but I tend to look at problems like that as indicators of how much the written work meant to both author and publisher. In this case, the message I get is "not much."

I hope the next book in the series is better written and proofread.

Read this book and everything that P. A. Brown writes - you won't be disappointed. The stories involving David and Chris, situated in LA (of which this is one), are wonderful - compelling mysteries combined with realistic character relationships that will draw you into the stories - but everything this author puts out is excellent. The other reviews go into detail about this particular story; I'm just writing this to recommend anything that P. A. Brown writes - her stuff is really, really good.

L.A. MISCHIEF
by P. A. Brown
(Cheyenne Publishing, March 2009, $13.99 softcover)

Readers who enjoyed P. A. Brown's earlier "L.A. Heat" will especially want to check this one out, as it continues the lives and rocky relationship of hardnosed Det. David Laine (LAPD) and twinkish computer guru Chris Bellamere. Having decided their lives are just too incompatible, David and Chris hit the gay bars for casual pickups, but their minds/hearts don't stray far from each other. Chris is also busy helping his best friend, Des, who is an emotional mess after the murder of his boyfriend (from the earlier book), while David is investigating a murder of a young man left dismembered in a cemetery as well as a drive-by shooting of a young mother and her daughter.

While it is possible to enjoy this book without having read the first in the series, it would be a lot tougher, since this isn't so much as a sequel as it is a continuation of the couple's exploring whether they can both feel comfortable being together, or if it is simply not meant to be. This self-described "novella" is only 145 pages long, with the rest of the book "fleshed out" (pun intended, due to the erotic content) with two bonus David & Chris short stories, for a total of 161 pages in the book. I would have preferred Ms. Brown develop the original story a bit more, perhaps by expanding their "dating" period a bit, while letting a bit more time and detail also pass in making the solving of the crimes a bit more realistic. But this is well written, including the erotic passages (In her Acknowledgements, Ms. Brown admits her daughter thinks she is "weird" for writing this stuff. I'm amazed she does it so well, without the heavy-handed approach many female writers seem to have in writing gay male erotica), and I give it four handcuffed stars out of five.

I have just finished reading this sequel and I must say that it was worth buying. I fell in love with Christopher and David in "L.A. Heat" and I really enjoyed watching them come together as a couple. I like the way that P.A. Brown writes and I am eagerly awaiting the next title in the series - to be published next year.

The eagerly anticipated sequel to L.A. Heat. You really have to read the first one before this one. This is a sequel with a difference - it's more like an extended epilogue to the first book, in a way, it completes the book L.A Heat.

As a novella, LA Mischief is tight and fast paced. I agree with the other reviewer, the crime itself takes a back seat this time. The author spends more time getting into the characters minds and their emotional struggles.

Readers of LA Heat are already emotionally invested in the major characters David and Chris, the sequel opens with a bang - with the brutal fact that they are not having their "Happily Ever After" after readers would have thought after the first book. And it makes perfect sense, because the David and Chris we knew from the first book are far from perfect, nor were they perfectly matched (in fact, far from it). In this book, they have to overcome a lots of struggles, make compromises. And these are all real conflicts.

It's a great read, P.A. Brown gives a great sense of the place and environment the characters in. I see this as the final piece to build up solid characterization of this series, to path way for further adventures in the series. And I am looking forward to them.