Some people can make being bad seem so very good. Lee Hayes, the critically acclaimed author of Passion Marks, A Deeper Blue , and The Messiah , returns with a delightfully wicked spin on what constitutes a “bad seed.”
The wildly entertaining duo of novellas are sure to intrigue and titillate readers with their exploration of risqué themes. “I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues” is about a cosmetically beautiful but emotionally damaged young man who marries a wealthy older man to go from rags to riches. After beginning an illicit affair with his husband’s attorney, he decides that he would rather enjoy the amenities of limitless money minus the husband. He will stop at nothing to see his husband six feet under so that he can dance on his grave, toasting with expensive champagne.
In “Crazy in Love,” a hyper-sexual seventeen-year-old high school boy develops a fatalistic crush on his reclusive high school English teacher. When the teacher rebuffs the boy’s advances, all hell breaks loose—and the upstanding teacher’s life is put on the line. Hell hath no fury.
Lee A. Hayes is a native Texan and a graduate of the University of North Texas with a degree in Sociology. He loves the power of words and recognizes the profound effect they have on the mind, body, and soul to effect change and catapult us to a new place in life. His first book, Passion Marks helped to make his mark and clearly illustrates his mastery of the use of words to paint a clear picture for readers. Mr. Hayes lives in Washington , DC and continues to write and attend literary events around the country. Mr. Hayes currently resides in Washington , D.C. , and can be reached via e-mail at: lee@leehayes.info or via his website at www.leehayes.info or www.myspace.com/leethewriter
I’ve been a fan of Lee Hayes since he ripped the lid off that dirty little secret known as black gay domestic abuse in his debut page-turner “Passion Marks.” With “The Bad Seed” he has solidified my loyalty.
From the Hitchcockian opening to the surprising and notorious climax, this deliciously nasty piece of work is pure suspense entertainment, written with humorous venom, edge-of-your-seat twists and turns, shocking emotional hubris, and mad sex.
The novel is divided into two parts, each featuring an outrageously nefarious, impossibly gorgeous black gay anti-hero.
Part One, subtitled “I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues,” opens with a bang, as mad high school beauty Blues Carmichael provides non-requested assist off the side of a mountain for his fleeing lover Jabari.
Years later the young adult Blues lures a much older Washington D.C. tycoon into his web, marries him (courtesy of the new D.C. same-sex marriage laws), and plots the old geezer’s death with as much passion as he beds everything with three legs, including a bartender, his own personal Igor-thug, and the old man’s personal lawyer.
A wrench is thrown into the works when sugar daddy hubby’s former crack head daughter shows up, threatening Blues’ spousal inheritance upon the death of his mate. But Blues, not to be taken lightly and certainly not to be fucked with, spends the rest of the story turning others on themselves and bending everything to his better, or evil, good.
In “Crazy in Love” (Part Two) another gorgeous black gay teenage hunk who’s rotten to the chore, Brandon, obsesses over his high school teacher, Mr. Jones, a twenty-something-year-old matinee idol best-selling author who has decided to teach in a noble effort to give back to the community.
But Mr. Jones is unknowingly way over his head when he tries to come to the educational and emotional rescue of Brandon, even when Mr. Jones’ publisher and best friend tries to warn him. When Brandon decides the party is going to be about “me and Mr. Jones” there is no stopping him. Lies are told, kinky sexual fantasies indulged, friends betrayed, and bodies drop as the young sicko’s rampage toward a me-or-nobody love escalates into fierce, revengeful violence.
A cross between “Fatal Attraction” and “Body Heat” coated in SGL chocolate, “The Bad Seed” (audaciously and aptly borrowing the title from the old classic film) is a hard-to-put-down dark and dastardly read with enough back-stabbings, infidelities, murder plots, and bloodletting to render Lade Macbeth saintly by comparison. At times I had to stand up, put my hands on my hips, and shake my oh-no-he-didn’t head. At other times I just fell out in hysterical laughter. The Bad Seed is quite simply a wonderful guilty pleasure, and with it Lee Hayes secures his place as the master of the black gay suspense genre.
This book was very good! So much intense moments throughout the book. Lots of hot sex! So much intense passion throughout this book. The author did a good job writing this book.
Bad Seed is a book made up of two novellas, with the first story taking up about 60% of the book.
The first story begins at a defining moment in Blues' life in high school then jumps forward to present day where Blues is I'm a loveless marriage waiting for his big pay day. Blues battles with unresolved issues from his past and a surprise visitor who threatens his dreams of a handsome pay out once his husband dies. The story allows us to get inside Blues' head and follow along to see if his plan to get paid will work out or if something unanticipated will ruin it.
The second story follows an attractive young athlete I'm his final year of high school. He develops an obsession with one of his teachers and will stop at nothing to be with him. He allows his infatuation to take control of his life which leads to unforeseen events.
I'm a big fan of Lee's and he's written another great book. While the second story was a bit predictable, he made up for it in the epilogue!
This book is a little different from others I've read because of the GLTB theme, but I really enjoyed the stories. There are 2 separate stories in this book, and both had me reading constantly, to find out what happens next.
In the first story we follow Blues, a young man married to an older rich man. He is tired of the marriage to the dirty, old man and will try anything to get out, rich. I loved the unexpected ending!
The second story follows a high school teen named Brandon. Brandon is quite delusional and will do anything to be with his teacher. I liked the ending to this one as well.
I will be reading more books by this author in the future!
I received an ARC copy of this book from the publisher Strebor Books, to read and review. Thanks for the opportunity to read this!
The bad seed was a slow week for me Blue and young nice looking man that comes from rags and gos to riches because of the man that came into his life and was older then him and this man married him for better or worse. Blue wants to kill his husband so he can have all his money and wealth so now hes planning his murder but somethi ng happens to change all of that.Crazy love is just what it said crazy love a young man that fell so much for his teacher he would do anything to have him and now his teacher is in big troublehow will he get out of this .
The protagonists in this book are certainly bad... "bad" by anyone's definition of bad, they lie, cheat and murder to get their way. It would be inaccurate to call them antiheroes, nevertheless as villains are so often more interesting than heroes, there is certainly something refreshing and certainly at least pleasurably escapable about these tales of bad, bad, bad men.