Customer Reviews

Murder Most Gay

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

 

 

Pat St. James is a 23 year old gay man, a police rookie fresh out of the academy, who lucks into a special assignment going undercover to catch a serial killer going after young gay men. Closeted at work, and under the supervision of a rather homophobic senior officer, Pat and another closeted gay cop, Hank, hit gay cruising spots and bars, wearing microphones through which they can alert their backups if needed. When it is revealed that this is much more than the work of one deranged sicko, but an organized attempt to kill as many gays as possible, Pat and Hank become the centerpiece of a joint police and FBI investigation that puts them in personal danger every night as they try to "bait" the killers, while at the same time trying to hide the fact that they are not exactly rookies at trying to pick up guys in a gay bar. At the same time, Pat is juggling the attentions of a long time but newly-single friend who is courting him, calls from a hot guy he met at a bar before all this went down, and obvious flirting from his patrol partner Hank, who is clearly attracted to him as well.

This is the first novel by author Simpson, whose bio reveals that his knowledge of police procedure and federal agents come from past experience. Would have liked to see the two main characters fleshed out a bit more, in terms of their past and families, which I think he could have done a good job with, based on how he developed the characters in this relatively short novel. There are sexually explicit passages, justifying the categorization as an "erotic novel," but those passages actually add to the development of the character and aren't the slightest excessive in context of the storyline. An impressive debut, and I am looking forward to the follow-up novel (which his website says is "Task Force," out next month). Four stars out of five.

Serial killer, Maryland, gay cop... I wanted to like this. I wanted to, but I couldn't. Ignoring the fact that two completely green rookies would be put on a high profile case and allowed to make high-level decisions and requests (because like the CSI tv shows, the truth would make a boring story), the writing needed work.

The dialogue was stilted and unnatural sounding, the humour was forced, and the sex was so mechanical and overdescribed it was boring. There were also times when it felt like there were two authors at work and they were only barely communicating with each other because of inconsistencies in the characters. There were a ton of places where some nice plot twists could have happen, but they never did.

I think a good editor could have tightened things up quite a bit. There was potential, but no polish.

while I enjoyed the plot ideas behind this story and I think it has a lot of potential, I also found myself disagreeing with a lot of what Mr Simpson wrote. At first, Pat seems like a very nice, average rookie, a little unsure of himself, but cute none the less. But as the story progressed, I found myself becoming more and more dissatisfied with the plot. Growing up in a police family, I was slightly offended by the way Simpson protrayed his officers, as homophobic pigs. I am not saying all cops are all for gays and lesbians, but I know more than a few homosexual officers who are well respected by their peers.
While this book was entertaining to an extent, I think it would greatly benefit from a well trained editor. All in all, I'd give it a 2.5 out of 5.

This is a good read. I was drawn into the story and my interest was kept. I wanted to know what happened and who did it. However, there was a major inconsistancy in the main character development that was unbelieveable and that detracted from the story. The main character is depicted/described strongly as one kind of sexual being in the beginning of the book and then BOOM!, for no explainable reason he's suddenly changed. The whole being of the character has changed dramatically and you're left wondering why. The author should have provided a more fluid transition to explain the change. It really reduced my enjoyment of the story.

This book is so bad, I don't know where to begin. The writing is, simply put, dreadful. The dialogue is stilted, the characters are sterotypes, and the plot is hackneyed, not to mention, not at all plausible. I've never written a review for Amazon, but this book was so bad that I had to warn others away. Oh, by the way, the sex scenes are plentiful, though passionless and tepid.

Warning: This review might contain what some people consider SPOILERS.

Rating: 6/10

PROS:
- The plot is better in this book than in either of the Simpson books I've read before, Condor One and Def Con One. I guess I'd classify this as a mystery, although the identity of the murderer is revealed a lot sooner than the next-to-last chapter. But even after they figure out who the murderer is, the details of finding the guy and catching him are pretty exciting.
- One scene in particular is beautiful and heart-gushingly romantic. Almost, but not quite, over-the-top. And it's not just a sex scene: the narrator goes on a date where he is given the royal treatment from front door to restaurant to bedroom, and all I can say is, I want one.
- There's a lot of interesting, authentic-sounding police jargon thrown in, especially in the dialogue. (I assume that all of it IS authentic, since according to the short bio at the end of the book, Simpson was a police officer at one time.) I must admit, though, that I don't remember when the narrator and his partner changed from being "Adam 5" to "Adam 25." Maybe that's an editing error, but probably there's an explanation for it that I missed.

CONS:
- Some of the dialogue is a little difficult to wade through. At times it's stilted and wooden-sounding. For example, after performing oral sex on the narrator, one character says, "Thank you, Pat, I've wanted to do that since I first met you. I hope you enjoyed it." I don't find the CONTENT of that unbelievable, but the way it's stated so politely is a bit odd to me. There are also times when several lines of dialogue will occur and we don't find out who said them until the end of that paragraph.
- Lots of unnecessary telling, which is characteristic of Simpson's writing. (He'll write "I was nervous," for example, after the narrator has already explained in detail a situation in which he was so uncomfortable that "I felt sick to my stomach." You SHOWED me that you were nervous; you don't have to tell me.)
- The narrator bottoms for the first time early on in the book, but not with the guy he ends up with at the end. I was pretty disappointed that he gave up what he calls his "prize," which he acknowledges should be given to "someone you cared about," to some random guy instead of the one who ends up sweeping him off his feet.

Overall comments: Simpson's just an okay WRITER, but he's a pretty good STORYTELLER. The plot of this book is really decent, as is the romantic element, late-blooming and sparse though it may be. If you're a brilliant writer yourself, you'll probably find this book subpar, but if you're looking for a reasonably good action storyline, this one fits the bill.

I have always been fond of police procedural stories but I hadn't seen this genre. I wasn't sure how the two went together. It all fit together very well. The gay part of the story line was interesting and made me want to know more about the future exploits of the men involved. The police story by itself really held my interest. I didn't want to put it down. I was very impressed with this story and intend to get more of John Simpson's books.

This book was fantastic! I couldn't put it down once I started reading it...the author gave a lot of attention to writing a thrilling, suspenseful and erotic story. The characters, dialogue and situations were very engaging and well-written. This book stands well on its own. I've read that there will be a sequel and I am definitely looking forward to reading more about these great characters. I highly recommend this book!

I think I was spoiled from my first Simpson experience, that being the 5 books in the Condor series. Loved them all.

Simpson's first story, Murder Most Gay, is so completely different. I'm not a gay, literary snob and don't get off trying to come across as anyone other than a guy-next-door who loves reading and getting into stories. My father was a cop for a few years and then a fireman, where he retired. I didn't doubt Simpson's story line. And to the other commentor who was raised in a police officers home and challenged the snarky and discriminating comments from other officers in this book...may not have been your experience to know what went on in your city's PD, but is typical in others. Hell, the same second-class treatment is in the armed force, read the news. Sad, but true (& not only homophobia!).

I enjoyed the story, and for a first, think Simpson wrote well. Don't want to spoil the story, but I kept anticipating Dean to be major creep, lol.

Pat St. James is the rookie fresh on the field. He is trying to hide that he is gay. He gets put on the case of the gay serial killer and works his magic to find the killer. There are some spots that gets a little wordy however the book as a whole was very good. I have found there is a second book so can not wait to read it. This comes recommended as a good summer book.