Customer Reviews

His Name Is John (Elliott Smith Mystery, No. 1)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"His Name Is John - An Elliott Smith Mystery" is the first book in a great new mystery series written by Dorien Grey. I have been a big fan of Dorien Grey's first (and continuing) mystery series that features Private Investigator Dick Hardesty. The Dream Ender (A Dick Hardesty Mystery)

In this new series, Grey introduces us to Elliott Smith, a Chicago real estate developer who becomes deeply involved in the investigation of the murder of John (Doe), a man Elliott makes a quick connection with as they briefly share a hospital room before John dies. Elliott becomes determined to discover John's identity and find his killer for a whole slew of reasons that sneak up on Elliott and his friends from all directions.

This was a fun book to read but I hesitate to discuss the plot much because you should enjoy this book like I did -- not knowing what to expect and getting more than you can imagine.

Elliott Smith and his supporting cast of characters enjoy living their lives even as they try to solve the early end of John's life. Elliott's sister Cessy is married to a Chicago Homicide Cop who gives Elliott some valuable assistance. Cessy takes care of their two children but is also determined to get Elliott to settle down and "find the right man." Yes, Elliott is gay, but you don't have to be gay to like Elliott! There is a great mix of characters involved in this story, some nice and others not so nice, but together they will keep you involved to the end. I was up past 3:00 AM because I had to find out who dunnit before I could go to sleep. Warning:This may keep you up for late evenings, too.

I really like Grey's books because even though they always involve a murder, they are not slow, dark or too gloomy. If you love reading a good mystery, meet Elliott Smith -- you will love reading "His Name Is John."

Dorien Grey, the prolific author of the Dick Hardesty mysteries returns with a new effort that sets up a potential new series. After being in an accident, Elliot Smith wakes up to find he is haunted by the amnesiac ghost of a dead man who was brought into the emergency room at the same time. The story follows Smith as he uncovers the identity of this ghostly companion and his killer. Along the way, we get to know a lot about Smith, his family and his new tentative love interest. The book is a quick, light-hearted read that doesn't tax the brain too heavily. The core mystery of John Doe's identity and his murderer was pretty easy to figure out but Grey throws in some nice character development to keep things relatively interesting. Thankfully, Grey continues to produce quality work in the thinning ranks of the once thriving subgenre of gay mystery novels. One small complaint is the manuscript is in dire need of a careful editor to clean up the grammatical errors. The problems aren't so endemic as to be distracting but enough to be noticeable despite being a small publisher.

Elliott Smith has a new roommate, who happens to be dead. Well, not really dead, since he "talks" to Elliott frequently, but Elliott knows he isn't alive because he saw him dead, on a gurney next to him in the emergency room at the hospital, when being treated there after being hit by a car while walking in downtown Chicago. Police found the dead man, who they have named "John Doe" for now, dead from gunshot wounds in an alley, about the time of Elliott's accident. Somehow, Elliott feels a connection to this individual, even though he doesn't recognize him as anyone he met while he was alive. And John's spirit becomes a presence that follows Elliott around, agreeing that his name is John, but he doesn't know anything else about who he might be. Once out of the hospital, Elliott tries to go back to his usual routine, working on the renovation of a beautiful older Chicago apartment building, but senses John's presence at unpredictable intervals, drawing his attention to certain details (such as a body buried in the basement of the house he was renovating!) With some help from Brad, his brother-in-law who is a police detective, Elliott tries to find out more about John's past, as a way to help him find out who he was, and perhaps lead to some clues as to who may have killed him. Not knowing how to explain John's presence in his life, Elliott has to be creative in explaining his leads to Brad, and doesn't want to scare away a new man in his life by admitting he regularly speaks to a ghost. A family's turmoil, a mysterious connection to a photographer in California, and a former bully turned mobster are among the factors that Elliott confronts to try to give John his identity back.

The book is a well-written light read, featuring an interesting premise with paranormal implications, likeable and realistic characters that quickly involve the reader in the story. Maybe I was just lucky, but I was able to figure out most of the mystery early on, from the information presented by the author, which I almost never can do; I'd suggest a few more "red herrings" be thrown in, for future installments. Looking forward to the next in the series. I give this one four stars out of five.

His Name Is John An Elliott Smith Mystery is another fine example of the fertile talent of writer Dorien Grey. I have long read, reviewed and enjoyed Grey's writing. Grey's PI Dick Hardesty novels packed with an abundance of charismatic players are good reading for those who enjoy succinct PI novels crafted in resolute, hard hitting style by a master novelist.

His Name Is John An Elliott Smith Mystery is the introduction offering bringing readers a fresh, innovative mystery series written by Dorien Grey. In this latest series, the reader meets Chicago real estate developer Elliott Smith who almost immediately finds himself entangled in the investigation surrounding the slaying of one John (Doe).

Waking up with a serious headache in addition to an aching shoulder, Elliot Smith wasn't positive just where he was. He came to recognize he was in a hospital room, although, he had no perception just how he got there.

It doesn't take long before Elliot believes he must be going mad - someone, who is not there, is seated in the chair at the side of his bed. Not only that, Elliot hears a voice in his head. Only practical explanation he can come up with; is that it must be a consequence of the brain injury he has suffered.

Even as Elliot knows he is entirely rational; Elliot continues to hear the thought/voice. The voice is that of a baffled fellow branded as a John Doe who has died on the gurney next to Elliot in the Emergency Room. It seems that John hasn't quite understood that he is dead. His mournful statement to Elliot "Will we ever find me?" motivates Elliot into action.

John, a man with whom Elliot makes an unexpected connection as they briefly share a hospital room before John dies is a bit of an enigma. It doesn't take long before Elliott is driven to ascertain John's true identity and establish the killer. His motivations run a gamut of reasons that Elliott and his friends do not at first understand.

Grey's narrative is boosted with the introduction of Elliot's sister Cessy. As always Writer Grey fashions an engaging grouping of recurring secondary characters in addition to the well detailed main characters in addition to the miscellaneous mixture of minor and not so minor players who materialize and often disappear after one or two books.

Elliott Smith actually had never thought himself to be anything particularly out of the ordinary. And, disregarding his affluent, world traveling parents, his career of buying, restoring and reselling small apartment buildings around Chicago, in addition to being single and gay at 38, as well as having a police detective brother-in-law; Elliot IS pretty ordinary.

Loss of memory, diverse relationships, photographs, a sister who is driven to see Elliot in a settled relationship, motor homes, a social worker who is more than a friend, a body hidden behind a wall for more than sixty years, old neighbors and old enemies, and a nun with a secret she does not know she holds, a Homicide Cop who is a relative, property to show and sell, a business to run, childhood buddies and childhood enemies, trickery, a building to be gained through any means, and the secrets it holds; all are part of the account.

Elliott Smith, as are all the characters the reader meets in this debut of the series; are believable characters, detailed, enjoying their lives and for some, filled with resolve to aid in the quest to determine the cause for John's demise.

I like Author Grey's books due large part to his clever character development coupled to the fact that even though Grey mysteries typically focus upon murder of one type or another; the tales are never formula, are not slow, foggy or overly portentous.

His mysteries are fast paced, settings are finely detailed, readers are pulled straight into the action and feel duty-bound to go on with the narrative from opening paragraph to the final sentence. As an added plus; Dorien Grey works are just plain interesting to read. Grey's well plotted work, leads Elliott to resolve the identity of the spirit voice and find out who it was that murdered him. With his always present mischievous sense of tongue-in-cheek humor Grey adds grist to the question surrounding what exactly is real and what is paranormal, plus he questions associations and distinctiveness and magnitude.

As this new series continues; I look forward to learning how the connection between Elliott and John plays out. I am anxious to see how Writer Grey continues to thread together interesting themes and interesting characters into a reasoned tale loaded with stimulating secondary characters.

We do know fairly early on in the novel who's done it. John's murder is linked to others, and knowing who the murderer is does not weaken our interest. It is the investigation itself that is stimulating as Elliot tries to maneuver his brother-in-law in the right direction without revealing that he is getting information from a dead man.

Before the narrative closes John pronounces that he'll hang about inside Elliot's head for a while. I'm pleased to know we can expect more absorbing escapades from this unanticipated duo in the future.

Elliot's life has been going along rather well until he is hit by a car, wakes up in the hospital and realizes that someone who is not there is sitting in the chair beside his bed. Even though he is sure that the voice he hears is not there and is a result only of the blow to his head, Elliott is reluctantly and inexorably, drawn into the situation to learn the name for the murdered John Doe who died next to him in the ER as well as who it was that killed him.

I am looking forward to reading the next in the series, and anticipate more from Grey's PI Dick Hardesty which series has garnered four finalists for a Lambda Literary Award. Well written, work, His Name Is John is an intriguing read, happy to recommend.

Molly Martin
Reviewer

When I started this book I wasn't expecting to find romance in it, since it was presented as an old classic sleuthing novel, and so you can imagine my surprise when the hero, Elliott, not only has a romance, he has THREE romance, two of them at the same time, and he is not even a slut ;-)

But I will try to start from the beginning. Elliott is a very wealth man without attitude, who chose to work not for necessity but for pleasure. He loves the olf fashioned buildings of Chicago (a thing Chicago is famous for and I can say since I wandered for the city centre searching for them when i was there) and he made a work of them: he buys a building at time, gives it new life to then selling it to trusted hands. And sometime he falls in love for a building so much that he doesn't have the heart to sell it, and so Elliott has a strange collection: where other people collect miniatures, he collects real building. If you find strange that I spend so much time talking of Elliott's hobby, it is since most of Elliott's passion is reserved to his love for those old buildings, on a personal level he is quite aloof, almost detached. Elliott is a real nice guy, he seems to have no problem to find a guy when he wants it, and all his past lovers are still in nice terms with him... also since Elliott is so good that he is never the one to dump, they dumped him, always pleading forgiveness... mmm, I believe that Elliott is real good to not become involved when he doesn't want it.

When the story starts, Elliott is in hospital recovering from an accident and he "feels" that someone else is in the room. Elliott, practical guy he is, soon realizes that the presence is a ghost, and it doesn't take him much to link the ghost, whose first words were, My name is John, to the John Doe who was admitted in the ER at his same time, and who unfortunately died. The ghost is not actually your usual ghost, he is as I said, a presence, he talks in Elliott's mind when said mind is free from any other thought (means when Elliott is asleep), and makes clear his presence giving strange feelings to Elliott regarding objects and pictures. The ghost apparently is suffering from amnesia, and Elliott's quest to find who he is goes pace to pace with his ability to recall little pieces of his past life. So the main mystery, the core of the book, is to find out who was John, and the author is very good in letting the reader catches only little clues here and there. I pretty much soon suspected who John was, but I had an advantage that not many of you will have. Anyway I don't want to say more on it, since as I always say, you can't summarize a mystery without risking to give up the mystery itself.

Let us instead talk of Elliott's personal life, that is for me almost as interest as the mystery itself. At the beginning of the book, Elliott is in an on / off relationship with Rick; Rick is a nice guy, but sincerely I don't feel like Elliott was really involved; and so I was not surprise when Elliott manages to be dumped again... Rick also took the guilty on himself, and Elliott told him to not worry. I was not so disappointed that the first romance in the book ended in such a cold way, since I was already planning the romance between Elliott and John, the ghost. But no, even if I'm sure to have read something more between Elliott and John than a simple utilitarian bond aimed to discover John's identity, the author has someone else in mind for Elliott. Enter Steve, a young, hot and nice latin american guy who Elliott meets in a club and the same night takes to bed. The relationship between Elliott and Steve is more interesting than the one with Rick, but still I feel like Elliott is not entirely involved, I always feel as if he is taking back something. It's strange Elliott is quite a "physical" man, he has sex both with Rick than with Steve (but not at the same time!), even if the author adopts the the "behind closed door"'s rule, the reader knows that Elliott is not shy or antisocial, but truth be told, I felt a real emotional involvement only with John, and John is not even corporeal!

In the end, maybe I'm wrong but for me the real couple here are Elliott and John; Steve is a really nice guy, even John tells so to Elliott, and the reader can't really resent him, since being John a ghost, and an incorporeal ghost, you can't pretend for Elliott to be a monk. And so here my idea that Elliott has two relationship at the same time, one with Steve involving his mind and body, and one with Elliott involving his heart; till the day mind, heart and body will devoted to the same man, Elliott for me remains an on the edge man, still waiting for something.

I love gay sleuths and have followed Hardesty mystery series for years and Dorien Grey has never failed to deliver a great mystery story. But His Name is John is Dorien's best to date. I finished it in the same day as I was simply caught up by Elliot's intriguing situation from the start (what an amazing beginning) and could not put it down until the last sentence. The plot is highly original, well crafted and layered with suspense and intrigues and the underlying sad tone throughout lend a sense of credibility to the story itself. As for the characters what can I say. I love Elliot Smith's character. Disciplined, dependable, rich and smart, it is almost impossible to get this seemingly ordinary guy to lose his cool. And Elliot does have all his work cut out for him as he ponders about his own sanity as one lingering and persistent spirit refuses to leave him until Elliot helps him out. The supporting characters of Elliot's caring sister, brother-in-law and Elliot's new found artist lover are well developed too. As for the ghost John, he is as much the spirit of the story itself and I find myself liking this tragic character as much as Elliot.
I really have a great time reading this one as each time a layer is peeled away more intrigues and surprises await. As printed on the cover, this is an Elliot Smith mystery which means there is more to come. I hope Dorien Grey delivers soon as I wish to know how it pans out for our hero, his ghost and his artist lover as much as their next mystery. Read this!

I have just finished "His Name is John" and can't praise it highly
enough. I have read all of Dorien Grey's mysteries and this is by far
my favorite. I hope he continues with this new series. His Name Is John

This latest from Dorien Grey, "His Name is John" is a terrific read with characters impossible not to like. The story is completely engrossing and you won't want to put it down until the end. You can never waste money buying anything by Dorien Grey, and this book is no exception.

For the last several years reading the ongoing installments of Dorien Grey's Dick Hardesty detective series has been one of life's pleasures. Since Hardesty's character arc was ending in a safe domesticity, it was time for a new detective series.

The new protagonist is a contractor who fixes up vintage Chicago apartment buildings for resale at their restored best, not the normal route for taking on murder cases. Elliott Smith comes from a well-to-do local family which finds his willingness to be associated with manual labor incongruous. More helpfully, his brother-in-law, Brad Priebe, is a detective for the Chicago police department. All the pieces are in place for Elliott to act.

The first case comes to him strangely. Elliott has an accident, hurting his head and putting him in the hospital. He become aware of an emerging, independent voice inside, knowing only that it is called `John' and wanting to find out about itself. Elliott is vaguely aware that another person had been present in the emergency room with him and later learns that the person had been shot repeatedly and had died quickly as a `John Doe.' Elliott questions his own sanity and wonders what he can do to help the alien presence, `John'.

The mystery brings in Chicago's Prohibition-era past, today's preservationist ethic, dynastic politics, memory recovery, photographic art, ruthless competition, and revenge. Viewed sympathetically, the final solution isn't that difficult but the need to overcome a series of barriers and a few surprises keep the story exciting.

Elliott has his own life to attend to. His younger sister, Cessy, always has the time to tell him about her life and to press him to settle down. Busy Elliott does try to get a steady boyfriend, first with a social worker and then with a handsome, Hispanic painter artist from Southern California. Elliott's rich parents jet about attending events. And what about `John'? Elliott has a lot of personal work to attend to as well.

This is a promising new series. If it's as good as the Dick Hardesty one, you shouldn't miss it.

HIS NAME IS JOHN was my introduction to the fictional works of Dorien Grey. Never having read any of his books before, I decided to give it a go based on the recommendations of friends whose opinions I value highly. I opted to start with the smaller of his two series, THE ELLIOTT SMITH MYSTERIES, rather than jumping into his much more prolific DICK HARDESTY MYSTERIES. I made this decision solely because my reading time is very constricted at the current time and I was hesitant to make such a time commitment. From the first page, however, he had me ... and by the time I was finished, a hardcore fan I had become. I won't go into plot details here because so many of the other reviews on this page and other book-related websites do a thorough enough job of that. Rather, I want to focus on the quality of the material. First, and foremost, Dorien Grey is wonderful writer, not only from the technical knows-his-grammar perspective, but also because he knows how to tell a great story, create suspense, and build a tight plot. His characters are three-dimensional and, therefore, incredibly believable. His dialogue is natural. What I found most compelling, however, is the way he was able to create a mystery, and then walk you through, step-by-step to its resolution, without resorting to clichés and cheap plot devices. Very skillfully, he places clues in front of you without a big, flashing, red arrow screaming at you, "This is a clue!" I also thoroughly enjoyed the blending of three genres: murder mystery, ghost story, and m/m romance. In fact, I was so enthralled with HIS NAME IS JOHN that I immediately set about reading the other books in the Elliott Smith series: AARON'S WAIT and CAESAR'S FALL. I won't go into detail here about those two wonderful books (I'll post my comments on the appropriate pages), but suffice it to say the whole series is 5-star worthy. And now, despite the ongoing constraints on my reading time, I plan to move full steam ahead with THE DICK HARDESTY MYSTERIES. I just know I won't be disappointed.