Come Clean

Rating:
Summary: Original, suspenseful and terrifying ...
Review: As an avid reader of the works of the top gay mystery writers, starting this book had me scratching my head with confusion, since I wasn't sure where the author's biography left off and the fiction began, if at all. For someone who is used to dealing with Michael Nava "Henry Rios" or Mark Zubro's "Paul Turner" character, this was confusing. You see, the name of the first time author is Kevin J. Porter, who says he is a 65 year old Vancouver-based private investigator and ex chief inspector in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and that is also the name and bio of the main character and narrator of the novel. One really doesn't know if this is based on actual cases or pure fantasy, especially where the line further blurs, such as when the narrator (Kevin J Porter) explains the reasons for leaving the RCMP and - at the end - plans to publish his first book.

That initial confusion aside, the book is one of the most original, suspenseful and outright *terrifying* mystery novels I have ever read. The author is skilled at feeding the reader carefully-timed tidbits of information, before they become evident to those trying to solve the case, making the reader feel smart and leading to "obvious" conclusions. Unfortunately, what seems obvious in the last chapter is proved to be impossible in the next, and one is left frustrated and doubting how this will all be tied together somehow, but it is, masterfully.

In a nutshell, Kevin Porter discovers a murder scene, after his boyfriend Brent (about half of Kevin's age; Kevin is Brent's "senior toy") asks him to check on a university colleague who did not return from her weekend retreat for her Monday morning classes. The unique "clean fettish" of the killer also serves to erase all of the usual sources of evidence, frustrating the RCMP investigator (a former subordinate of Porter's) who is assigned to the case. The chapters alternate between the Porter's and the killer's perspectives, and we learn early on (Note: NOT a spoiler, as this is within the first two chapters) that the killer works as a make-up artist on the Vancouver-based filming of the "X-Files" TV show. A series of complicated incidents result in Porter's being "outed" to his former RCMP colleagues, and his lover Brent becoming a suspect in the murder, two developments that are handled quite realistically. The investigation goes on while Vancouver police are also investigating the latest in a series of gay-bashing murders in a public park, and readers learn there is a connection before the investigators do. The tale is not for the squeemish, and a comparison of the murderer to Hannibal Lector isn't far fetched. I recommend it highly.

Rating:
Summary: Move Over Hannibal Lector!
Review: Kevin J. Porter's Come Clean is meta-fiction mystery at its best. In the grand tradition of the PI and police procedure, Porter treats the reader to a whodunit that keeps the reader guessing until the very end. In a twist from tradition, the reader is one step ahead of PI Porter and the Canadian Mountie working on the case, but a few steps behind the author in figuring out who, among a whole range of possible suspects, could be the killer. I call this "meta-fiction" because of the fact that the writer is Kevin Porter and the PI is Kevin Porter and in the book, the PI is writing a novel. Sound twisted? It is. It's also suspenseful and decidedly good enough to be made into a movie. In fact read about the movie in The Independent Gay Writer. You'll need to be an online sleuth to find this e-zine. -Ronald L. Donaghe, author of Common Sons