Moth and Flame: A Benjamin Justice Novel (Benjamin Justice Mysteries) [Hardcover]

John Morgan Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Series: Benjamin Justice Mysteries | Publication Date: November 25, 2004

Benjamin Justice used to be one of Los Angeles's most respected journalists, but a scandal over invented sources cost him the Pulitzer, his job and his reputation. With his life in ruins, he's spent much of the past decade slowly piecing it back together. Now he's under contract to write his biography, but the writing is going slowly and he's in need of a job to tide him over financially. So when Bruce Bibby, a freelance writer, is murdered during an apparent burglary, Bibby's uncompleted assignment for the city of West Hollywood is a much needed opportunity for Justice. Hired to complete the dead man's assignment-researching and writing a booklet on the city's historically relevant buildings - Justice resists becoming involved in the murder investigation, wanting only to maintain his quiet, stable life.

But it's not going to be that easy. There's a fight brewing over the fate of a set of rundown cottages - some believe them historically significant and wish to preserve them, others want them torn down to make way for a new condo project and both sides see Justice's pamphlet as the key to winning the fight. As Justice tries to go about his business, he finds himself intrigued by the complexities of the murder case - the young Russian immigrant tied to the Bibby murder scene may be damned by his father's notorious crimes; the detective leading the murder investigation is quietly searching for her own long missing father; the owner of the houses in question, the would-be developer, and their main opposition all share a secret connection that dates back nearly three decades. When the leader of the local preservation group is found murdered on the grounds of the controversial cottages, Justice must unravel the secrets that surround the murders or let an innocent suffer for another's crimes.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The sights and sounds of contemporary Hollywood lift Wilson's well-plotted sixth Benjamin Justice mystery (after 2003's Blind Eye). When actor-turned-writer Bruce Bibby is brutally murdered in his apartment, journalist-sleuth Justice takes on the task of finishing a booklet Bibby was working on that celebrates the 20th anniversary of the City of West Hollywood. It seems a simple enough task, but proves to be only the tip of the iceberg. Bibby's murder is somehow connected to a shady condominium development deal, as well as to the still-mysterious, decades-old disappearance of a local handyman. The advantages of the glitzy L.A. setting include glimpses of the rich and famous: Robert Duvall makes a cameo appearance, as does the Chateau Marmont, where John Belushi died of an overdose. The ghosts of Hollywood past hang heavy over all, despite the aggressively up-to-the-minute detail. Justice, for example, is gay, uses Prozac, is HIV-positive and is minus an eye, giving a whole new meaning to the term "private eye."
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Wilson turns in another first-rate, increasingly engrossing, multilayered novel in the acclaimed Benjamin Justice series, one that meditates on the changes within friendship and community--in every sense of the word--while serving up another compelling West Hollywood crime read. Disgraced prizewinning journalist Justice is temporarily laboring as a civil servant, completing text and captions for an important twentieth-anniversary booklet on historic West Hollywood sites, when the writer who preceded him on the job is found murdered. Stacks of notes and old photos lead Justice on a trail that involves him not only with the investigation of his predecessor's demise but also with the decades-old disappearance of a hunky heartthrob who was as irresistible to both sexes as a flame is to moths. Along the way, the amateur sleuth's longtime friendship with newswoman Alex Templeton is severely tested, in deeply disturbing ways, as she is poised on a slippery slope of journalistic ethics during her quest for a story. Her actions and the spin of the news story itself call into question the underpinnings of her relationship with Justice, bringing forth feelings of betrayal and even jealousy in Justice, whose heart aches for humanity's imperfections. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (November 25, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312309848
• ISBN-13: 978-0312309848
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,152,571 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Justice Is Back And On Prozac, January 8, 2005

By 

H. F. Corbin "Foster Corbin" (ATLANTA, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Moth and Flame: A Benjamin Justice Novel (Benjamin Justice Mysteries) (Hardcover)

In John Morgan Wilson's sixth novel in this series Benjamin Justice is back with not much libido because of the Prozac he is taking to help him get through the day with less dread and apprehension. When the writer working on a booklet on West Hollywood's historically important buildings is murdered, Justice steps in to complete the assignment. Of course, never one to leave well enough alone, he gets intangled in that murder and subsequent murder as only he can. Justice is still renting from his beloved landlords, Maurice and Fred--Maurice takes a much larger role in this story than he has previously-- and he is still friends with Templeton, whose own private life takes an interesting twist here. Justice, too prozacked out for much else, delves into late night cybersex here, surfing the many porn sites, an endeavor that ultimately helps him with his murder investigation.

Wilson has the geography of West Hollywood down; as we have grown to expect from him, there are references all around to live actors and writers-- and the usual tribute to Walter Mosley: "I continued on past Book Soup, where the latest Walter Mosley mystery was displayed in the window, with Tower Records just across the street." Additionally he names a fictional street after the deceased gay writer Paul Monette, a fitting memorial to him.

As always, Mr. Wilson comes across as the most decent of individuals, letting his characters speak poignantly and sometimes wisely about what living is all about. For example, here's Maurice on long relationships: "'Fred is the great gift of my life, Benjamin. That probably sounds funny, especially to those who see Fred as an old grump, a stick-in-the-mud who's not that much fun to be around at times. But I know him differently, you see. . . the way only two people who have devoted themselves to each other for most of a lifetime can. That's the beauty of growing old, you know. The chance to experience a special kind of love that only comes with time.'" I can name a half dozen writers of "serious" gay fiction who cannot hold a candle to this author. His novels always rise about the mystery novel formula to become serious, thoughtful and often very moving commentaries on what it means to be gay in America.

With the recent death of Joseph Hansen and the apparent retirement of Michael Nava I know of no writer of gay mysteries better than Mr. Wilson.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Old places, they remind us where we came from", February 9, 2005

By 

M. J Leonard "MikeonAlpha" (Silver Lake, Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Moth and Flame: A Benjamin Justice Novel (Benjamin Justice Mysteries) (Hardcover)

We last met the resourceful Benjamin Justice just six months ago in Blind Eye where he suffered a terrible beating and was violently blinded in one eye. In Moth and Flame, Benjamin is on the mend, but he continues to be haunted by the scandal, which long ago cost him the Pulitzer Prize and his job as a journalist. Approaching middle age, HIV positive, and existing hand to mouth, Ben is still living in the studio apartment behind his older friends Maurice and Fred in West Hollywood, and relying on the support of his best friend, Los Angeles Times journalist Alexandra Templeton.

Forced to rely on Prozac to give him some emotional stability, Ben has had six months of peace, but his creative drive has been dulled along with his libido. He's just "a washed up reporter who's facing middle-age, with a receding hairline and a bank account." But when Bruce Bibby, a West Hollywood city worker and paraplegic is brutally murdered in his apartment, Ben is given the opportunity of taking over his job. Bruce was writing and researching a controversial booklet on the city's historically relevant buildings, and Ben throws himself into the task of finishing the booklet with all the enthusiasm he can muster.

Initially, he is reluctant to get caught up in Bruce's murder inquiry, but as usual he can't resist delving into the mystery, and is soon drawn into an investigation that involves shady real estate deals, dirty local politics, the Russian Immigrant community, and the fate of a series of run-down cottages. Some members of the community - led by a local activist woman - think the cottages are historically worth preserving, while others, in particular a couple of wealthy local gay businessmen, want to tear them down to make way for a new condominium project.

Lots of wonderfully three-dimensional characters are woven into the narrative, as Ben, along with Alexandra Templeton, and Mira De Marco, a feisty gay cop, work against time to uncover the murder and stop the young, impressionable Victor Androvic from being framed for Bruce's murder. Author, John Morgan Wilson just keeps getting better and better with this series. Moth and Flame is marvelously structured with a terrific sense of pacing as it tells an often-enthralling story of the rootlessness of families and neighborhoods, and the sometimes-tenuous alliances that different members of the community engage in for survival.

Moth and Flame is just as violent, emotionally honest, and sexually frank as the other books in the Benjamin Justice series, but now Justice is getting a bit too old to be beaten up and thrown around. Ben's a rough, troubled, contradictory, and sometimes complex guy who lives in a tough world, and Wilson doesn't mince words in writing about his life. Ben is still trying to come to terms with his violent murder of his father and also make sense of the complex web of issues that have had to do with the relationships he has fallen into.

Moth and Flame is also a novel about West Hollywood, and its often-disparate, mismatched community. Ben has been having a love-hate relationship with this city, but by the end of the novel, he seems to have come to terms with his hesitations and uncertainties. Maybe in the next installment, Justice - at forty-five, who views himself as middle aged and balding - may even find true love again. But he is going to have to watch himself and stay away from the conflicted and troubled young men that have so often plagued his life. Mike Leonard February 05.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WeHo mystery is Wilson's best!, December 14, 2004

By 

Bob Lind "camelwest" (Phoenix, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Moth and Flame: A Benjamin Justice Novel (Benjamin Justice Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Benjamin Justice, a semi-retired journalist who often becomes a reluctant amateur private eye, is hired by the City of West Hollywood to finish a brochure about its historical buildings, following the apparent murder of the man originally entrusted with that job. Since his last run-in with crime, which cost him severe injuries including loss of one eye, Justice has vowed not to "get involved" in investigations, and relies on his daily dose of Prozac to keep him minding his own business.

But, as regular readers of the series are well aware, circumstances involve him. His best friend, LA Times reporter Alexandra Templeton, gets an exclusive with a scientist who presents a study that the police's suspect, a 20 year old Russian immigrant, may have beeen genetically predisposed to become a murderer. Benjamin meets the young man, and believes him to be innocent, although circumstancial evidence and his presence at a second murder seems to indicate otherwise. As Justice researches the brochure, he becomes deeply involved in the politically-charged battle between historical preservationists vs real estate developers, with both sides aggresively soliciting his support, and gets a deeper sense that these groups are somehow involved in the murders. He also keeps coming across the name of a handsome bisexual drifter who was involved with some of these people, and who disappeared thirty years before. When Alexandra stubbornly refuses to believe his theories, largely due to her involvement with the scientist who believes the young man is the murderer, Justice becomes an intentional thorn-in-the-side of some of these dangerous characters, to see if they reveal their roles.

With this, his sixth Benjamin Justice mystery novel, John Morgan Wilson seems to just get better and better. His books are uniformly well-written, original, intelligent in tone, offering realistic characters in first-rate mysteries. Author Wilson has a guest column in a current issue of the Advocate, commenting on the 20th anniversary of the incorporation of the City of West Hollywood, his place of residence which is featured almost like a character in many of his Benjamin Justice novels, especially this one. His writing, both in the column and this book, reveal a genuine respect for the city's history, diversity and tolerance, as well as a wink at the colorful characters and celebrities who frequent its streets, shops and cafes. I consider this book his best in the series, and give it a plump five stars out of five.