Pretense ... of Innocence

Rating:
Summary: That's what they ALL say.
Review: I'm curious when a writer drops off the page after one novel. What gives? Do they hide out in another genre using a different pen name? So they just have the one story to tell? There is so little gay escapist fiction (mystery/adventure/romance) that I'm always sorry when it's a case of 'that's all he wrote.'

Not that PRETENSE OF INNOCENCE is a good mystery novel . A kind of Who-is-Killing-the-Gay-Men-of-Shreveport, PRETENSE OF INNOCENCE breaks one of the supreme "play fair with the reader" rules (no, not that one--the other one). But it's not a totally bad mystery novel either. Shreveport, Louisiana makes a nice change from overused Los Angeles, the characters are distinct (from each other anyway), and there are a number of attention-getting subplots (in particular the romance of bookseller Charles and the fresh out of the closet book thief Brett). King intelligently handles issues of prejudice, infidelity, and self-acceptance, but the pacing is disjointed, clumsy: an example is the inexplicable declarations of love from both Brett and Charles (Did I miss something? One minute they're betraying each other to the cops, the next it's l'amour, l'amour).

There are lots of rough patches. The peculiar thing is I did enjoy PRETENSE OF INNOCENCE. Story and characters stayed in my mind--along with all those unanswered questions. Chief among them is when is Atticus King going to take another stab at mystery writing?

Rating:
Summary: That's what they ALL say.
Review: I'm curious when a writer drops off the page after one novel. What gives? Do they hide out in another genre using a different pen name? So they just have the one story to tell? There is so little gay escapist fiction (mystery/adventure/romance) that I'm always sorry when it's a case of 'that's all he wrote.'

Not that PRETENSE OF INNOCENCE is a good mystery novel . A kind of Who-is-Killing-the-Gay-Men-of-Shreveport, PRETENSE OF INNOCENCE breaks one of the supreme "play fair with the reader" rules (no, not that one--the other one). But it's not a totally bad mystery novel either. Shreveport, Louisiana makes a nice change from overused Los Angeles, the characters are distinct (from each other anyway), and there are a number of attention-getting subplots (in particular the romance of bookseller Charles and the fresh out of the closet book thief Brett). King intelligently handles issues of prejudice, infidelity, and self-acceptance, but the pacing is disjointed, clumsy: an example is the inexplicable declarations of love from both Brett and Charles (Did I miss something? One minute they're betraying each other to the cops, the next it's l'amour, l'amour).

There are lots of rough patches. The peculiar thing is I did enjoy PRETENSE OF INNOCENCE. Story and characters stayed in my mind--along with all those unanswered questions. Chief among them is when is Atticus King going to take another stab at mystery writing?