Nothing Gold Can Stay: A Novel [Paperback]

Casey Nelson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2000

For Ray O'Brien, a summer in London as part of his graduate studies in theater was a chance of a lifetime. The presence of a handsome Argentinian fellow student, Eduardo, promises to make it truly extraordinary. It had to be too good to last. When a string of savage, sadistic murders culminates in the bludgeoning death of another student two doors away, a strong line of circumstantial evidence leads directly to Eduardo. Ray's dream summer is suddenly transformed into a desperate odyssey from London to Hampstead to Bath, through seedy gay pubs, West End Theaters, and secret gay bathhouses as he and Eduardo stay one step ahead of Scotland Yard while untangling a web of secrets that masks the killer's identity and threatens to destroy them both.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

While studying English theater at Hyde Hall in London, 35-year-old American Ray O'Brien enjoys the company of other foreign students, including darkly handsome best friend Eduardo (who has a steady boyfriend back in Buenos Aires), "Beautiful Boy" Derrick (the sexually confused son of a diplomat), and others. Although a serial killer dubbed "Prince Bi" has cast a pall over the city, it surprises everyone when Derrick is found viciously murdered. Suspicion falls on Ray and/or Eduardo, so they investigate on their own. Moderately serious in tone, lightly erotic, occasionally humorous, and generally well written, this work is recommended where appropriate.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

A lot of people would be bothered if their summer of graduate study in London coincided with the reign of the serial killer dubbed Prince Bi, but Ray O’Brien, taking time off from his teaching job in Colorado to finish a project on “monstrous constructions” of human sexuality, is so besotted by his fellow-student Eduardo Hausmann-Ortiz that he barely notices. As Prince Bi works his way through the populace, alternately raping and killing young men and young women, Ray has eyes only for Eddy—except, of course, when the two of them are twittering about The Beautiful Boy, pansexual British Canadian Derrick Quince. In most mysteries, Ray’s chaste romance with Eddy, who’s struggling to stay faithful to his lover Luis back in Argentina, would get upstaged when Derrick becomes Prince Bi’s latest victim and the questions come thick and fast. Is his killer really Prince Bi, or is this a copycat crime? Is the murderer one of the students lodged in ill-named Hyde Hall, and if so, does that mean that an intimate of Ray’s is really Prince Bi? But since Casey’s debut is much more interested in establishing Ray and Eddy as “a new generation of homosexual men . . . neither closeted nor militant nor flamboyant, but simply open and free,” than in trifling questions of plot and character, the suspects cavort through the corridors of dormitories and sex clubs like so many dim shades until one of them confesses. As light on thrills as it is on sleuthing -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Alyson Books; 1st edition (June 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555834922
• ISBN-13: 978-1555834920
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,871,421 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, keep-an-eye-out-behind-you, prowl in London, January 14, 2001

By 

Kristen M Hannum (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nothing Gold Can Stay: A Novel (Paperback)

"Nothing Gold Can Stay" is an enormously enjoyable read - suspenseful, funny, sexy, descriptive and thought-provoking. Lovely to say its intelligence is nowhere stuffy, or set up in such as way as to impress the reader, rather than simply to entertain and intrigue. In fact, the first few pages read like an old-fashioned pot-boiler, and Nelson doesn't really hit his best stride until almost a third of the way through.

I'm a regular mystery reader, who did not guess who the murderer was until a few pages before it was revealed. Don't really see how other reviewers knew. It really could have been ....

Nelson keeps his readers concerned about the safety of his protagonist, Ray, who takes on the task of investigator when it becomes apparent that the police are being hounded by the press into possibly settling upon an innocent foreigner -- Ray's more-than-just-a-friend Eduardo -- instead of finding the real serial killer. Or is Eduardo really innocent?

As other reviewers have noted, the story is enhanced by Nelson's descriptive writing and the trip to London that he gives to readers.

I especially liked his descriptions of people. One character, Lily, "betrayed no outward signs of frazzlement on her pretty, 40-ish face. Under her soft,brown, indifferently bobbed hair, Lily always had an air of baffled yet determined self-possession, as if everything connected to her happened by accident. She seemed confident in her ability to shape order out of this chaos, then unsurprised when it slipped back into chaos."

Ray sees one fellow student, Ursina, as a reflection of the "Old World's sour old soul."

"Ursina was Europa herself, sleepwalking across a bedrock of indifference to suffering. She embodied Europe's premedieval tribal darkness, the selfishness it required to survive when your neighbor got bludgeoned by another neighbor in that cool deciduous jungle of ever-contested lands."

This is good stuff. I identified with both these women.

Nelson also does an extraordinary job of describing what the world looks like to a gay man -- a well-adjusted gay man, but one nevertheless who has been buffeted by the loss of so many friends to AIDS. He's also realistically wary of a Western culture whose contempt for "the homosexual lifestyle" is never far away. How long has that been the case? It's a question considered in "Nothing Gold Can Stay."

This really isn't a run-of-the-mill mystery. Recommended for anyone looking for an intelligent, entertaining read -- and a visit to the gay bars and baths of London they might otherwise never see....

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Great First Novel For a First Trip to London, September 20, 2000

By 

Shannon L. Yarbrough "Shannon L. Yarbrough" (St. Louis, MO USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nothing Gold Can Stay: A Novel (Paperback)

I reviewed this book to pick as a possible choice for a book club selection this summer. The characters were amazing and well-written, and Nelson definitely has a talent for detail. However, with this being a murder mystery, I expected a little more from that part of the plot itself. Nelson has done a fabulous job of taking the reader on a "gay tour" through London, and since I have never been there, I thoroughly enjoyed those parts of the book. The love interest he builds between Ray and Eduardo is very strong and gives the reader a sense of belief that these characters might actually exist beyond the page. However, I guessed who the murderer was early in the story, and was left wanting more. This is a great book for anyone who has been or always wanted to go to London, or for anyone who enjoys gay fiction!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Intelligent Mystery, November 9, 2000

By A Customer

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This review is from: Nothing Gold Can Stay: A Novel (Paperback)

I'm not a big mystery fan, so I DIDN'T guess the killer right away (and I'm not sure I believe those who say they did...), but I agree that the real pleasure of this novel is in the writing itself - Nelson's prose is fluid, his metaphors apt, and his insights into the position of the gay male in society at the turn of the millenium simply dead on target. His choice of the first person pulled me right in and made me a part of the experience - I've never been to London until now.