The Case of the Severed Head

Rating:
Summary: Different strokes for different folks.
Review: Yikes! Unlikable characters and scenes of S & M (sorry, SM to the initiated) compose this L.A. story of gay-bashing and murder during the 1992 riots which followed the Rodney King trial acquittals.

Rather than a mystery this novel is devoted to rationalizing the appeal sado-masochism holds for some homosexual men. And to gratifying that -- er -- need.

I've read Townsend's Bruce MacLeod mysteries and found them mildly amusing, but I'm not comfortable with the the SM gig. Better drawn or more appealing characters would have made this more palatable. But the essentail missing ingredients are suspense and mystery.