Rating: 
Summary: humorous gay amateur sleuth tale
Review: Could there actually be justice in the universal scheme as Robert Willsop has finally met the man of his dreams? No one since the Brownings is a bigger romantic then Robert, a believer in forever-true love, though he rarely scores a fleeting relationship. Perhaps German Count Siegfried von Schmidt shares that same hopeless feeling. Even when wealthy charismatic Michael Starks tries to steal the boyfriend from his best friend, the count remains true to his beloved Robert.Siegfried takes Robert back to Berlin where they plan to marry. However, strange happenings in Seigfried's mansion scare Robert, who calls across the ocean to gain advice from his amazonian lesbian buddy Monette. Michael flies to Europe and Monette follows him as someone has killed Robert's fiancé. The German police believe the visiting gay American murdered his lover in a domestic rage incident. Thus, once again the trio tries to ferret out the identity of SOMEONE KILLED HIS BOYFRIEND as they once did for Michael.
The second tale in David Stukas' humorous gay trio of amateur sleuths is a fun story that much like the first novel concentrates on the cross-Atlantic lifestyle of the heroes. The who-done-it is fun to observe, but also as with the debut novel takes a back seat (but not quite as much) to Robert and cohorts as they romp through Germany. Fans of gay amateur sleuths will enjoy GOING DOWN FOR THE COUNT, want to read the first tale SOMEONE KILLED HIS BOYFRIEND and expect David Stukas to tell the story of the murder of Monette's lover next. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: humorous gay amateur sleuth tale
Review: Could there actually be justice in the universal scheme as Robert Willsop has finally met the man of his dreams? No one since the Brownings is a bigger romantic then Robert, a believer in forever-true love, though he rarely scores a fleeting relationship. Perhaps German Count Siegfried von Schmidt shares that same hopeless feeling. Even when wealthy charismatic Michael Starks tries to steal the boyfriend from his best friend, the count remains true to his beloved Robert. Siegfried takes Robert back to Berlin where they plan to marry. However, strange happenings in Seigfried's mansion scare Robert, who calls across the ocean to gain advice from his amazonian lesbian buddy Monette. Michael flies to Europe and Monette follows him as someone has killed Robert's fiancé. The German police believe the visiting gay American murdered his lover in a domestic rage incident. Thus, once again the trio tries to ferret out the identity of SOMEONE KILLED HIS BOYFRIEND as they once did for Michael.
The second tale in David Stukas' humorous gay trio of amateur sleuths is a fun story that much like the first novel concentrates on the cross-Atlantic lifestyle of the heroes. The who-done-it is fun to observe, but also as with the debut novel takes a back seat (but not quite as much) to Robert and cohorts as they romp through Germany. Fans of gay amateur sleuths will enjoy GOING DOWN FOR THE COUNT, want to read the first tale SOMEONE KILLED HIS BOYFRIEND and expect David Stukas to tell the story of the murder of Monette's lover next. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Insipid
Review: I couldn't get past 30 pages of this vapid book. In the first chapter, the main character Robert falls madly in love with a German Count and soon the two are planning their wedding, after only having met a few days before! They have brunch at an exclusive, hard-to-get-into restaurant, but somehow Robert's friend gets a table to spy on them?? The plot only gets more ludicrous, and unfortunately none of the characters are even likeable (let alone more than caricatures), so I just tossed this book.
Rating:
Summary: GOING BACK FOR MORE!
Review: I was extremely disappointed by this book. One of the worst things one can say about a comedy or a "humorous" book, is that it lacks humor. The "humor" in the book is not funny; coming across as a strained attempt to be funny but failing. ...
Rating:
Summary: Outrageous Fun
Review: Once again Stukas has struck!...This book is great beach/poolside reading. Silly, witty, sarcastic, and clever are words which describe the antics in this whodunit. Don't miss this one. It is PURE ENTERTAINMENT.
Rating: 
Summary: More fun and campy murder from Stukas...
Review: The second wonderful David Stukas humour-mystery series about two gay men and a lesbian, this one was just as much campy, snarky fun!
Very much in the style of the first book, 'Someone Killed His Boyfriend,' the fun in this book is certainly not in taking it seriously, but in revelling in the characterizations of the trio: Strong-Like-Dumptruck (and Smart-Like-Dumptruck) Michael, Gosh-Darned-Naive Robert, and the towering Amazon (and mystery novel loving) Monette.
Monette is stealing my heart as the best literary fun lesbian ever written (At one point, she's got it all figured out, but won't tell anyone because there's a storm front moving in and she wants to gather all the possible individuals around a dinner table and announce the killer that way - just like in mystery books! You gotta love it).
This time, Robert, the ne'er love well voice from the first novel, gets a chance at a gosh-darned real relationshp: a rich and wonderful German Count seems to fall for him, hard, and whisks him away from life, work, and other dreary events. It's the lap of luxury, with a possessive German Count that loves him with a fiery passion (and leather and other costume accoutrements), and it all seems too good to be true. The count seems willing to do anything for Robert... And gets killed.
Robert is left as suspect number one in the murder. Alas, his rich Count might have had a few skelletons (or at least rubber priest outfits and riding saddles) in his closet, and obviously, one of them is worth killing him over... So what's a gay man like Robert Wislop to do in a fabulous German Palace, dead lover growing cold, and suspician growing hotter? Call in his lesbian friend Monette to figure it out (and hope that his imfamous gay friend Michael doesn't end up sleeping with every policeman who is supposed to be finding the real killer)...
These are a blast, and there's a new one on the way! I, for one, can't wait. I fear that too many take the series too seriously. Turn up your camp sensors and just enjoy.
'Nathan
Rating:
Summary: Not worth the effort or the price
Review: The slight double entendre of Stukas' sophomoric novel "Going Down for the Count," should have been a portent of the type of unfunny humor that the novel strained to spark and to maintain. It features what seem to be Stukas' trio of main characters, vapid Michael, giantess (6'4") Monette, and waspish, bland Robert. Hedonistic Michael is rich and handsome (despite the fact that his good looks are largely the result of plastic surgery and steriods; Monette is a love-starved lesbian given to stalking Ellen Degeneres and other celebrity lesbian types. She is the "brains" of the outfit; Robert is just There. Beyond having no depth, these characters don't seem to like each other, which makes it hard for me to generate any empathy for them. It seems to be Stukas' narrative device to start his stories in Manhattan and then to transport his characters elsewhere for the "action." In "Boyfriend" this setting was Provincetown; in "Down for the Count" the setting is -- improbably -- Germany. Well! At least Stukas' tells us the characters are in Germany. As we see nothing beyond the gay ghetto of sex clubs and bars, the setting might as well have stayed in Stukas' version of Manhattan. Another annoying aspect of his narrative is the male characters are all (save Robert) described as being "handsome" or having "blond, chiseled features." Perhaps Stukas is allowing his personal taste in the male aesthetic to rule his attempts at fictional writing. In any case, the result is to make every character indistinguishable from, and interchangeable with, each other. I have read reviews putting Stukas' writing in the category of "easy, summer" reading. I finished the novel in about six hours, not because I enjoyed the story but because I was aghast at what was on paper and wondering where it would all lead. Seems it only leads from page one to page 230 or so. I hated this book so much that I returned it to the shop where I purchased it. It may be noted that I don't dwell on the mystery of this egregious novel. The real mystery is why it was published.
Rating:
Summary: Breezy Summer Reading
Review: This book is perfect for summer: light, airy, and thoroughly enjoyable. I read "Somebody Killed His Boyfriend" last summer and loved it. I was not disappointed in my longing for Stukas' next mystery. This book is pure fun, though sometimes in a very biting way, and so tongue-in-cheek it's amazing they don't stick together! You will laugh out loud, sometimes hysterically, at the witty reparte and over-the-top characterizations. Still, it can get you to thinking and there are many relateable elements in the story despite it's preposterous circumstances. It's an easy read, only a handful of hours for a speed reader like me. I officially adore David Stukas and can't wait for next summer and the next mystery!
Rating:
Summary: DATING ROYALITY CAN BE MURDER AND FUN, TOO!
Review: Welcome the return of Robert, everyone's gay (but somewhat schlumppy and Midwestern) best friend and totally underpaid copywriter (gads, it sounds like I'm describing myself) in David Stukas' follow up to his 2001 SOMEONE KILLED HIS BOYFRIEND comic mystery. I had a couple of reservations in regard to that book, in that I felt that the characters of Michael, a fabulously wealthy and totally obnoxious megaslut and Monette, your typical stereotypical lesbian were somewhat one dimensional. In the latest book Stukas has grown more comfortable with has characters and as a result they've become more defined with the early rough edges now polished. Actually, I am now convinced that Michael is intended to be totally one dimensional, which makes him like people we have all known and still loved in spite of it all. In this book it's Robert's turn to find true love in the person of Count Siegfried von Schmidt, which naturally sends the rejected and dejected Michael into outrageous fits of jealously inspired one-upmanship. But as they say love is blind, and as the count whisks Robert off in his Lear jet, we (along with Michael and Monette) know that something is rotten in Denmark which is strange since the count has taken Robert to his castle in Germany. Anyway, the plot twists and thickens in a Marxian fun sort of way, and we all know what's going to happen long before it does, or before Robert finally realizes it. It isn't often that you want to shout at a character in a book warning him not to open that door or some such thing. But, look what audience participation did for The Rocky Horror Movie! Rest assured that Michael [surpasses] his previous performances, and Robert and Monette's practical jokes reach new slapstick lows. Hey, what can I say? If you were looking for great literature, you'd never pick up this book with its typical Kensington Kartoon Kover. But since we all need something to laugh about these days, you won't go wrong with this book. (And the next one, since Sutkas is hard at work on his followup.)
Rating:
Summary: DATING ROYALITY CAN BE MURDER AND FUN, TOO!
Review: Welcome the return of Robert, everyone�s gay (but somewhat schlumppy and Midwestern) best friend and totally underpaid copywriter (gads, it sounds like I�m describing myself) in David Stukas� follow up to his 2001 SOMEONE KILLED HIS BOYFRIEND comic mystery. I had a couple of reservations in regard to that book, in that I felt that the characters of Michael, a fabulously wealthy and totally obnoxious megaslut and Monette, your typical stereotypical lesbian were somewhat one dimensional. In the latest book Stukas has grown more comfortable with has characters and as a result they�ve become more defined with the early rough edges now polished. Actually, I am now convinced that Michael is intended to be totally one dimensional, which makes him like people we have all known and still loved in spite of it all. In this book it�s Robert�s turn to find true love in the person of Count Siegfried von Schmidt, which naturally sends the rejected and dejected Michael into outrageous fits of jealously inspired one-upmanship. But as they say love is blind, and as the count whisks Robert off in his Lear jet, we (along with Michael and Monette) know that something is rotten in Denmark which is strange since the count has taken Robert to his castle in Germany. Anyway, the plot twists and thickens in a Marxian fun sort of way, and we all know what�s going to happen long before it does, or before Robert finally realizes it. It isn�t often that you want to shout at a character in a book warning him not to open that door or some such thing. But, look what audience participation did for The Rocky Horror Movie! Rest assured that Michael [surpasses] his previous performances, and Robert and Monette�s practical jokes reach new slapstick lows. Hey, what can I say? If you were looking for great literature, you�d never pick up this book with its typical Kensington Kartoon Kover. But since we all need something to laugh about these days, you won�t go wrong with this book. (And the next one, since Sutkas is hard at work on his followup.)
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