A Slip to Die For: A Stud Draqual Mystery

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Summary: AUTHOR OF DIARY OF A HUSTLER SAYS:
Review: Ever since I ran across my first William Maltese book of erotica, I was taken by his accurate "take" on hustling major-city streets. Reading his erotica was and is, for me, like taking an enjoyable busman's holiday. If this, his latest work, sees him temporarily having abandoned his erotic chronicling of hustling for something less hard-boiled erotic and decidedly more mainstream, those of us who read and enjoy his erotica needed be turned off by this latest offering. A SLIP TO DIE FOR is filled to the brim with erotic/exotic characters and a plot that swings the gamut from high-fashion women's haute-couture underwear, to Mafia kingpins, to New York City gay life. More imporantly, for those of us who are too busy for any book of "War and Peace" word-length, ASTDF is a fast-paced read that holds the reader's attention the whole way. Great book! I, for one, can't wait for the sequel.

Rating:
Summary: A Mystery with Wit and Intelligence
Review: I highly recommend this book. I first heard about it from an article in Publishers Weekly and was intrigued by its clever title "A Slip to Die For" and by the the idea of silkworms, after being fed a special secret diet , producing "gossamer strands of protein in every color of the rainbow." So I bought the book. Poor Stud Draqual (yes, Stud . . . a cruel parental joke perhaps?) finds himself in the middle of a series of murders. He is a suspect . . . maybe. His colleagues Gerald Kamey and Don deZinn, friends, lovers? have been found murdered. The catch is that each is found dressed in exclusive, exorbitantly expensive Draqualian silk nighties. Suspicion abounds and poor Stud has to navigate many twisting dangerous trails to save himself. On one side is the former porn publisher Stan Greenlyne, now head of Telaman Press whose connection the dead men is unclear and murky. Is Stan friend or foe? Whatever, he is unsavory and menacing. Another threat to Poor Stud is Clem Rollins a nasty character, crime syndicate boss, whose sexuality just might be exposed by a new book by the murdered men. Finally police inspector O'Malley is a constant threat to Stud, or is he rather a friend? There are times when it seems that Inspector O'Malley may not just trying to solve a crime but may actually have a "thing" for Stud.

Poor Stud. He is a straight man but everyone thinks he's gay. Why? Consider his business: he's CEO of Draqual Fashions making lingerie for Women . . . What straight man would be in that business? Not only that but he's incredibly good looking. As one character states, "He's too good looking to be straight." He's witty, well-read, has impeccable taste in fashions, furnishings, wine, restaurants . . . he must be gay! But such stereotypes have labeled many a man unfairly. Stud is not gay. Just let a beautiful woman bat her eyes at poor Stud and he can hardly keep his "interest" from being visibly seen "down there." One of my favorite characters in this witty, tightly written little mystery is Stud's psychologist, Dr. Melissa. Her bitchy sessions with Stud are a hoot. Those scenes, written with skill and humor, had me laughing out loud. Stud does NOT NEED a counselor but his sessions with Dr. Melissa seem to refresh is energies and send him on his way to triumph! And triumph he does. There are so many other interesting characters, so many plot twists, I could go on and on. But it's time to end this.

Like many people I tend to read in bed and since this is a somewhat short book I figured two or three nights would do it. But once I began reading I was having such fun that I just couldn't put it down and read it all in one night. I have recommended this book to many personal friends and now want to recommend it to the general public. Perhaps you won't put it on your bookshelf next to Dostoevsky and Shakespeare, but you will enjoy it.

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Summary: A.K.A. VICTOR/VICTORIA'S SECRETS
Review: I knew was in for a trashy read as soon as I opened this book. The first giveaway was the 32 point Dick and Jane primer typeface. The second was two murders within the first three pages, where the victims were discovered wearing exorbitantly expensive "Draqualian" silk slips. Both of the victims were men.

The luxurious intimates the dead men were wearing are traced back to Stud Draqual, the "Prince of Silk Nighties" who is probably the only man in the book that doesn't wear the unique lingerie he designs and sells. In addition to his profession, Stud's physical attributes...a too finely chiseled face, too thick, dark and long eyelashes, too purple eyes, too bee-stung lips, too slight physique and too tiny penis...all contradict his name. And naturally everyone in the book, including his shrink, thinks he is gay. Too, too, too much since the love of his life is his hand. The book is subtitled "A Stud Draqual Mystery," but the only mystery seems to be Stud, himself.

The book is full of plot holes, sexual innuendoes and unbelievable dialog; in other words, it has everything a good trashy book needs!

Rating:
Summary: A Mystery with Wit and Intelligence
Review: Why didn't the publisher have the foresight to list this book under Gay, Gay Literature, Gay Fiction . . . et al? Was it decided, in some boardroom, that all of Mr. Maltese's gay readers would just assume this, his crossover-into-mainstream novel, has a lot of the same great "stuff" that makes his gay erotica (CALIFORNIA CREAMIN', SUMMER SWEAT), as popular as it is? Wrong! in that while a rose may be a rose may be a rose, authors have been known to have the same name and write entirely different kinds of books. I'm thinking of one gay author whose straight namesake publishes books on mathematics. A SLIP TO DIE FOR's publishers having done a major injustice to William Maltese's gay readers in making us guess this really great novel is not only by "that" writes-for-gays William Maltese, but that this book does, indeed, appeal to "us". Had I only known, before I inadvertently stumbled upon the fact, I would have had this book "grabbed up" long before now. I suspect, there are still hundreds of gays out there who haven't yet wised up to the fact this book is gay, this book is great, this book deserves a gay readership it likely now misses. The detective hero in this book is fantastic. The theme (haute-coutre lingerie) is one of a kind. If the protagnoist can't seem to decide if he's gay, straight, or bi, let me clue him in. "You're gay . . .Gay . . . GAY! and, I love you!" Any gay aficionado of the gay detective genre won't be able to help himself from loving him, either. All of us looking forward to Book II of this impressie "gay" series. Which, when it arrives on the shelves, can only hope its publisher has sense enough to get its you-know-what out of its you-know-where to wake up to the fact gays are as much interested in a good read as any straight audience.

Rating:
Summary: WHY OVERLOOK THIS BOOK'S OBVIOUS GAY AUDIENCE?
Review: Why didn't the publisher have the foresight to list this book under Gay, Gay Literature, Gay Fiction . . . et al? Was it decided, in some boardroom, that all of Mr. Maltese's gay readers would just assume this, his crossover-into-mainstream novel, has a lot of the same great "stuff" that makes his gay erotica (CALIFORNIA CREAMIN', SUMMER SWEAT), as popular as it is? Wrong! in that while a rose may be a rose may be a rose, authors have been known to have the same name and write entirely different kinds of books. I'm thinking of one gay author whose straight namesake publishes books on mathematics. A SLIP TO DIE FOR's publishers having done a major injustice to William Maltese's gay readers in making us guess this really great novel is not only by "that" writes-for-gays William Maltese, but that this book does, indeed, appeal to "us". Had I only known, before I inadvertently stumbled upon the fact, I would have had this book "grabbed up" long before now. I suspect, there are still hundreds of gays out there who haven't yet wised up to the fact this book is gay, this book is great, this book deserves a gay readership it likely now misses. The detective hero in this book is fantastic. The theme (haute-coutre lingerie) is one of a kind. If the protagnoist can't seem to decide if he's gay, straight, or bi, let me clue him in. "You're gay . . .Gay . . . GAY! and, I love you!" Any gay aficionado of the gay detective genre won't be able to help himself from loving him, either. All of us looking forward to Book II of this impressie "gay" series. Which, when it arrives on the shelves, can only hope its publisher has sense enough to get its you-know-what out of its you-know-where to wake up to the fact gays are as much interested in a good read as any straight audience.