A Simple Suburban Murder

Rating:
Summary: I found the plot more interesting than the main characters
Review: I found this book to be a bit better than a lot of the books which pigeon-hole themselves into the "gay fiction" genre. One of the other reviewers for this book noted the weakness of the main characters. I totally agree. I was not inspired or engaged in any way by the main character or his lover. That was rather odd considering that I did quite like some of the more minor characters (especially Daphne). One of my main complaints about mysteries is that so very often the plot unfolds by clues and leads simply jumping into the characters' laps. A Simple Suburban Murder is no exception, although I've read books which have been much more unrealistic. I found the plot interesting enough to pull me through the book but the over-the-top political correctness put me off. I liked the ending ok but at this point it's a total toss-up as to whether I will ever read another book by this author or in this series.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Plot, But a Little Stilted/Obvious in Places
Review: Tom Mason, remedial English teacher at Grover Cleveland High School in Chicago, walked into his classroom and found the dead body of a math teacher, Jim Evans, sitting at a desk in the back. Tom didn't know Jim well, but he had his son, Phil, in his class one year and found himself sucked in to the whole mess to try and clear Phil's name. Tom quickly discovered that Jim Evans had a lot of secrets worth killing for - and a lot of people who would be happy to see him dead. There were the female students who slept with him for passing grades, his son Phil whom he used to beat regularly, the people who owed him money on bets that he ran through a math lab program and a host of others. Tom realized early on that he was in over his head when every answer simply brought up more questions, but he was determined to find out who killed Evans and left him in his classroom - especially after Phil disappeared.

Dragging his closeted lover, Scott Carpenter, a famous baseball player, along for the ride, Tom started looking for Phil out on the streets, well aware that Phil was hustling to bring in money. He got a solid lead at The Womb, a popular bar, when Daphne, the bar's owner, agreed to let them see Phil so that they knew he was all right. However, Tom was unable to persuade Phil to return home and Phil wasn't able to give Tom a lot of information about his father's death. Tom kept pushing forward, interviewing whomever he could to try and pry more information out of them, but all the people that he interviewed had their own secrets to keep. With his supervisors at work pressuring him to stop his investigation or resign, the policemen assigned to the task force belittling his efforts at solving the case, and random attacks on his person and property, Tom knows he should listen to Scott's pleas to let the case go, but Tom has always been known for his stubbornness...

This is the first book in the Tom Mason/Scott Carpenter mystery series and I thought it was quite enjoyable, but not as good as it could have been. The plot was well done, with plenty of little subplots, suspects and red herrings, but the dialogue was stilted and the relationship between Tom and Scott seemed pretty sappy to me. I also got a little irritated about how Zubro tried to use dialogue to show what his characters were going to do next, like saying "Scott, I really think we should go and talk to x - I think he knows more than he is telling and I am going to go there now." I also thought that the policemen investigating the case were stereotyped as being stupid and inept. The main character, Tom, seemed to find out all kinds of stuff that the police had no clue about and, of course, ended up solving the mystery(ies) before the police even knew that it was a mystery to be solved. Still, I enjoyed the book enough to check out the next book in the series - hopefully Zubro will grow with his characters!

Rating:
Summary: A Good Plot, But a Little Stilted/Obvious in Places
Review: Tom Mason, remedial English teacher at Grover Cleveland High School in Chicago, walked into his classroom and found the dead body of a math teacher, Jim Evans, sitting at a desk in the back. Tom didn't know Jim well, but he had his son, Phil, in his class one year and found himself sucked in to the whole mess to try and clear Phil's name. Tom quickly discovered that Jim Evans had a lot of secrets worth killing for - and a lot of people who would be happy to see him dead. There were the female students who slept with him for passing grades, his son Phil whom he used to beat regularly, the people who owed him money on bets that he ran through a math lab program and a host of others. Tom realized early on that he was in over his head when every answer simply brought up more questions, but he was determined to find out who killed Evans and left him in his classroom - especially after Phil disappeared.

Dragging his closeted lover, Scott Carpenter, a famous baseball player, along for the ride, Tom started looking for Phil out on the streets, well aware that Phil was hustling to bring in money. He got a solid lead at The Womb, a popular bar, when Daphne, the bar's owner, agreed to let them see Phil so that they knew he was all right. However, Tom was unable to persuade Phil to return home and Phil wasn't able to give Tom a lot of information about his father's death. Tom kept pushing forward, interviewing whomever he could to try and pry more information out of them, but all the people that he interviewed had their own secrets to keep. With his supervisors at work pressuring him to stop his investigation or resign, the policemen assigned to the task force belittling his efforts at solving the case, and random attacks on his person and property, Tom knows he should listen to Scott's pleas to let the case go, but Tom has always been known for his stubbornness...

This is the first book in the Tom Mason/Scott Carpenter mystery series and I thought it was quite enjoyable, but not as good as it could have been. The plot was well done, with plenty of little subplots, suspects and red herrings, but the dialogue was stilted and the relationship between Tom and Scott seemed pretty sappy to me. I also got a little irritated about how Zubro tried to use dialogue to show what his characters were going to do next, like saying "Scott, I really think we should go and talk to x - I think he knows more than he is telling and I am going to go there now." I also thought that the policemen investigating the case were stereotyped as being stupid and inept. The main character, Tom, seemed to find out all kinds of stuff that the police had no clue about and, of course, ended up solving the mystery(ies) before the police even knew that it was a mystery to be solved. Still, I enjoyed the book enough to check out the next book in the series - hopefully Zubro will grow with his characters!

Rating:
Summary: Brisk but flavourless mystery
Review: Zubro writes mysteries more likely to be found in the Gay Literature section of your local bookstore or library ,which is a tad sad ,because they seem to me to have their natural audience in lovers of the more traditional mystery as well as among gay audiences.The gay theme is a crucial part of the plot but at heart this is a traditional whodunnit with a traditional detective double act doing the sleuthing.
Gay High School remedial English teacher Tom Mason discovers the body of a Maths teacher in his classroom -the deceased is Jim Evans who turns out to have been a nasty piece of work .He was an abusive parent ,and treats his wife as a legalised peon ,not to mention being a blackmailer and the sort of man who would stop at nothing for money.He also exchanges sex with students in exchange for pass grades.
Despite warnings from the school administrator Tom and his partner -a promiment baseball palyer Scott Carpenter -dig into the murder .It is a quest that takes them into danger -including Tom's being beaten up and shot at .The solution involves a tour of the gay underground in Chicago and involves snuff movies ,S and M clubs and teenage prostitution before the culprit is uncovered.
The ending is bitter-sweet and there is an appreciation in the book that emotional recovery from crime is not aleays easy and the families of crime victims do not always find it easy to recover from the ordeal . Tom and Scott are somewhat idealised figures-good looking,athletic and popular and are btheweakest parts of the book .There are some well etched supporting figures like the lesbian bar ownwer Daphne and the ultimate bad guy is a strikingly drawn figure with an outwardly plausible excuse for his depridations.
The dialogue is dull and the plotting mechanical but it remains just about readable.