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The Luke Littlefield Mysteries #1
All The Way Dead
Former underwear model Danny Black has produced several best selling crime novels, but there is only one problem. Danny Black doesn’t exist. Danny Black is, in reality, anthropology professor Luke Littlefield.
After moving to West Hollywood to teach, Luke realizes that no one takes pretty boys seriously. As Luke says, no one has ever asked him how many college degrees he has when he’s standing shirtless at a photo shoot.
Luke puts on thick glasses and baggy clothing to appear more professional. Life seems routine and safe, that is until he meets British film star Ian Stoddard. Luke admits that he has no idea who Ian is, and Ian finds that fact appealing.
When a decades old murder is uncovered at the college, Luke and his anthropology students take the opportunity to construct a case study. Can Luke maintain his two separate identities and solve a decades old murder, or will it all blow up in his face?
After moving to West Hollywood to teach, Luke realizes that no one takes pretty boys seriously. As Luke says, no one has ever asked him how many college degrees he has when he’s standing shirtless at a photo shoot.
Luke puts on thick glasses and baggy clothing to appear more professional. Life seems routine and safe, that is until he meets British film star Ian Stoddard. Luke admits that he has no idea who Ian is, and Ian finds that fact appealing.
When a decades old murder is uncovered at the college, Luke and his anthropology students take the opportunity to construct a case study. Can Luke maintain his two separate identities and solve a decades old murder, or will it all blow up in his face?
295 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 15, 2013
10 people are currently reading
72 people want to read
About the author
Stephen E. Stanley
39 books34 followersStephen E. Stanley has been an educator for over thirty years, first as a high school English instructor and then as a full-time teacher mentor for secondary education in a large New Hampshire school district. He grew up in Bath, Maine and currently resides in New Hampshire.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
dnf
December 21, 2016Found this on amazon, fairly nice reviews, good price, first book of a series and I thought - sounds good enough and perhaps another great start for some favorite books. Sadly, that wasn't so.
The dialogues were stilted, the whole thing felt fabricated and as if the author was trying too hard to reach his goal. Whatever that might be. It wasn't interesting, it wasn't gripping, it was at least for me not working at all. So, this series will not be read by me.
The dialogues were stilted, the whole thing felt fabricated and as if the author was trying too hard to reach his goal. Whatever that might be. It wasn't interesting, it wasn't gripping, it was at least for me not working at all. So, this series will not be read by me.
October 1, 2017
More a flyweight than a lightweight, this M/M mystery has the only advantage to my eyes of not indulging in sex scenes: characters are young and attractive, the fact that they have sex is explicit but the actual deed is not shown.
As for the rest, the tone is light, which does not generally agree with a mystery but is not out of place with a "cold case" mystery. The real problem is that this lightness of tone does not manage to hide the fact that all the characters, lead first and foremost, are thinner than paper: they have no depth at all despite the rich background they are provided.
Several inconsistencies - a vegetarian happens to eat a steak, for example - add to the impression of a hurried, uninspired work.
As for the rest, the tone is light, which does not generally agree with a mystery but is not out of place with a "cold case" mystery. The real problem is that this lightness of tone does not manage to hide the fact that all the characters, lead first and foremost, are thinner than paper: they have no depth at all despite the rich background they are provided.
Several inconsistencies - a vegetarian happens to eat a steak, for example - add to the impression of a hurried, uninspired work.
March 5, 2023
The prose and vocabulary is good, but the plot is just awful. The characters have no depth, everything happens as if we were being read the events from a shopping list. And finally the love component makes absolutely no sense. You spend 2/3 of the book to develop a love story with one character and then literally out of no where this other guy pops up and he immediately starts flirting with the protagonist? Make it make sense. Also kinda funny how the protagonist was enraged when he mistakenly believed the actor was married but then he happily starts flirting with another man while dating.
August 9, 2019
This is the first Luke Littlefield Mystery I have read. Reviews were not all that positive but this one is! There is nothing I could say negatively about this book. Others said the editing was poor. Well, I did not see any such problem. So what if everyone is good looking! so what if some events do not seem realistic. It's a novel! I am glad there are no sex scenes but rather interesting plots and subplots, some fun and relatable characters and a writing style that is simple and easy to read and just enjoy!
March 13, 2023
Loved the story and the range of odd characters and truly felt wrapped up in unravelling the mystery of the walled-in "surprise". Experience of reading the electronic version was much hampered by a plethora of typos, grammatical errors and just missing words and punctuation. Poor editing did detract a fair bit from an otherwise enjoyable experience.
November 27, 2025
I was shocked
to discover the author was an English teacher—how embarrasing! There are more typos and misspellings than I’ve ever seen in a book. Do yourself a huge favor and hire a text editor—at least have another English teacher read and edit it. That said, the author is a good storyteller and able to create believable characters.
to discover the author was an English teacher—how embarrasing! There are more typos and misspellings than I’ve ever seen in a book. Do yourself a huge favor and hire a text editor—at least have another English teacher read and edit it. That said, the author is a good storyteller and able to create believable characters.
July 30, 2018
This was very difficult to judge. I really like the story and the characters, but the writing is only so so. Everything is done 8n short sentences so it is hard to get into a flow.
January 23, 2024
Its not a masterpiece by a long shot but it was quite entertaining non the less.
February 1, 2014
This book introduces Stephen E Stanley’s third whodunnit series with a gay protagonist. I really enjoyed the first three books with Jesse Ashworth (retired teacher) and Tim (retired police force) and their ‘Big Boys Detective Agency’ exploits (set in a quiet Maine township); the latter books in this series seemed a little uninspired to me. I never got into the author’s second series featuring Jeremy Dance and set in the 1930s – not sure why either.
All the Way Dead: A Luke Littlefield Mystery is set in contemporary WeHo where the main protagonist Luke Littlefield is as different from Jesse and Jeremy as possible; he follows in the grand tradition of gay characters such as Jory Keyes, Kevin Conner and more recently – Skylar Foxe. West Hollywood is a definitely the place to be if one is stunningly gorgeous (modelling and photo-shoots), artistically creative (two crime bestsellers published), relatively intelligent (a PhD and senior lecturer in anthropology) plus an uncanny ability to find himself in the midst of murder and mayhem. This fabulous character has it all – minus the love and romance of course.
Stanley’s books have never shied away from the more gruesome/graphic aspects of crime/homicide and given the nature of Professor Littlefield’s speciality/lectures – the plot and prose takes on a greater forensic tone. What’s more incredible is that the ‘evidence of foul play’ is uncovered not in some isolated beach or rundown mansion garden but merely a couple of feet away from Luke’s workstation in his office!! The prologue clearly indicates that Luke’s introductory foray into ‘sleuthing’ will be of a cold-case nature.
Assisting (or hindering) Luke in his exploits are the usual tried and tested secondary characters – sassy gay best friend (Dustin), an octogenarian vamp mother-figure with a potty mouth (Norma Jean) and the hunky assigned police officer Bryan. There’s a further but not overwhelming array of secondary characters providing the red herrings and distractions plus a secondary minor plot involving serious IT crime within Luke’s educational institution. And then on top of everything else, Luke is trying hard to reconcile / integrate the three very disparate arenas of his life plus navigating through the complicated mixed-messages from at least two fine men who want to get together with him for much more than tutoring/homework.
The plot pacing is tight and the forensic details not confusing nor boring. The uncovering of both crimes is believable and not too far-fetched (I was quite surprised as how unsensational the details of the cold case ended up being), there were one or two ‘did not see that coming’ plot twists and of course a resolution of sorts as to whether Luke finds and keeps a man to love. A word of warning - those familiar with Stanley's work will know that all the 'sex' is the fade to black/behind closed doors variety, which is fine with me for this genre of book personally. I enjoyed this latest Stanley offering – the snappy bantering and breezy nature kept this at the enjoyable beach-holiday reading level for me. Here’s hoping there will be more Luke Littlefield titles forthcoming soon.
Stanley’s website (http://stephenestanley.com/) indicates another Jesse Ashworth release this year involving a cold case and a cruise ship experience – goody goody.
All the Way Dead: A Luke Littlefield Mystery is set in contemporary WeHo where the main protagonist Luke Littlefield is as different from Jesse and Jeremy as possible; he follows in the grand tradition of gay characters such as Jory Keyes, Kevin Conner and more recently – Skylar Foxe. West Hollywood is a definitely the place to be if one is stunningly gorgeous (modelling and photo-shoots), artistically creative (two crime bestsellers published), relatively intelligent (a PhD and senior lecturer in anthropology) plus an uncanny ability to find himself in the midst of murder and mayhem. This fabulous character has it all – minus the love and romance of course.
Stanley’s books have never shied away from the more gruesome/graphic aspects of crime/homicide and given the nature of Professor Littlefield’s speciality/lectures – the plot and prose takes on a greater forensic tone. What’s more incredible is that the ‘evidence of foul play’ is uncovered not in some isolated beach or rundown mansion garden but merely a couple of feet away from Luke’s workstation in his office!! The prologue clearly indicates that Luke’s introductory foray into ‘sleuthing’ will be of a cold-case nature.
Assisting (or hindering) Luke in his exploits are the usual tried and tested secondary characters – sassy gay best friend (Dustin), an octogenarian vamp mother-figure with a potty mouth (Norma Jean) and the hunky assigned police officer Bryan. There’s a further but not overwhelming array of secondary characters providing the red herrings and distractions plus a secondary minor plot involving serious IT crime within Luke’s educational institution. And then on top of everything else, Luke is trying hard to reconcile / integrate the three very disparate arenas of his life plus navigating through the complicated mixed-messages from at least two fine men who want to get together with him for much more than tutoring/homework.
The plot pacing is tight and the forensic details not confusing nor boring. The uncovering of both crimes is believable and not too far-fetched (I was quite surprised as how unsensational the details of the cold case ended up being), there were one or two ‘did not see that coming’ plot twists and of course a resolution of sorts as to whether Luke finds and keeps a man to love. A word of warning - those familiar with Stanley's work will know that all the 'sex' is the fade to black/behind closed doors variety, which is fine with me for this genre of book personally. I enjoyed this latest Stanley offering – the snappy bantering and breezy nature kept this at the enjoyable beach-holiday reading level for me. Here’s hoping there will be more Luke Littlefield titles forthcoming soon.
Stanley’s website (http://stephenestanley.com/) indicates another Jesse Ashworth release this year involving a cold case and a cruise ship experience – goody goody.
April 20, 2015
The only reason that I was able to give this three stars is because I love Stephen Stanley's work. I really really wanted to love this book as much as I have loved his other books but I just couldn't. It was like an outline that had been fluffed up, and only slightly. The characters were there, but there was so little information about any of them that you just couldn't get into them. And each segment of the story was no more than three pages. I am all for brevity, but come on. Give me something. Sorry Stephen. I do love your work, but this one just came across as lazy.
December 19, 2016
The book was cute, I finished it quickly. I liked that there was an old lady friend who was a little crazy. In addition the book was kind of an anthropological mystery, with the murder being committed 70 years before, which was a new take.
Light and fun, a couple things bothered me, the disdain for Hollywood while living there and dating it's most bankable star for one, but it was a quick entertaining read.
Light and fun, a couple things bothered me, the disdain for Hollywood while living there and dating it's most bankable star for one, but it was a quick entertaining read.
Read
September 30, 2015Two dimensions to this tale
As mysteries go it was a not very mysterious, plodding tale. The forensic aanthropologist professor hero is just too good and sorted to be true. Had me yearning for the flawed investigator type. Happy qnd lucky in love, he is perhaps a good model for the less grounded gay males who might read this. A model for the youth, but then I am not that reader.
As mysteries go it was a not very mysterious, plodding tale. The forensic aanthropologist professor hero is just too good and sorted to be true. Had me yearning for the flawed investigator type. Happy qnd lucky in love, he is perhaps a good model for the less grounded gay males who might read this. A model for the youth, but then I am not that reader.
October 29, 2014
Fun read.
April 2, 2017
I'm surprised at some of the 1 and 2 star reviews, I found the story to be engaging, with some interesting twists. I plan on buying the next book, to see how the story continues. The only troublesome aspect was the author's repeated telling of already established facts.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews