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Full Release
From the Lambda-Awarding winning author of The Boystown Mysteries comes the erotic thriller, Full Release. Studio accountant, Matt Latowski orders an erotic massage on the one-year anniversary of a bad break-up, but is surprised when the masseur calls him a couple weeks later to ask him out on a date. Unable to say no to a freebie, Matt begins a journey that eventually leads to his becoming a murder suspect. As the police close in on him, Matt is left with no choice but to turn the tables and become an erotic masseur himself in order to find the murderer. Along the way he meets Detective Aaron Tripp. Sparks fly as Matt wonders whether the detective might be the murderer, or worse, the murderer’s next victim?
258 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 9, 2011
14 people are currently reading
114 people want to read
About the author
Marshall Thornton
56 books629 followersThree-time Lambda Award-winning author, Marshall Thornton is best known for the Boystown and Pinx Video mystery series. Other novels include the erotic comedy The Perils of Praline, or the Amorous Adventures of a Southern Gentleman in Hollywood, Desert Run and Full Release. Marshall has an MFA in screenwriting from UCLA, where he received the Carl David Memorial Fellowship and was recognized in the Samuel Goldwyn Writing awards.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
August 30, 2016
4,5 stars!
OH MAN!
IT WAS FUN!
I think that it cannot be overlooked that I and the writing of Marshall Thornton are perfectly compatible.
It gives me exactly WHAT I need to enjoy a book:
♥ Great mystery
♥ Fantastic 1st person POV
♥ Likeable personalities with charisma
♥ Best sex scenes
♥ Dry humour
Matt Latowski is not Nick Nowak.
As a studio accountant can not be compared with a private investigator.
As the early 80s can not be compared with the modern age.
As Chicago can not be compared with LA.
It is much easier and less dramatic and less emotional and less intense than Boystown. It is different.
Full Release has a delightful comedy touch in spite of a thrilling crime story and...IT HAS MORE ROMANCE(!!!) that makes it to a special and very pleasant read.
And yes, Matt Latvski and Nick Nowak have something in common - they have the same CREATOR, Marshall Thornton.
And it means, you'll have a page-turner-mystery with a nice erotic background, a very good written first person POV, hot sex scenes that won't give you a feeling that an author goes through the grocery's list and an unique unmistakable dry humour a là Marshal Thornton.
It is a MUST READ for all Marshall Thornton fans!
If you though a newbie in the amazing world of Marshall Thornton's writing, I 'd recommend you to read first his Boystown series.
You'll become addicted to his writing and can consciously to savour his other works.
June 11, 2014
It's a kind of a homerotic-murder-she-wrote porno-knock-off minus an Angela-Lansbury-episode. Although this might be a little slow-moving for some..(for me) I actually found it pretty entertaining even when it started falling down the rabbit hole of predictable proportions.
I know it was pretty good because it kept my ADHD-ass reading it..or maybe it was my kinked-curiosity after learning Eddie the-Latino muscle-cub and MC/Matt's 3-day hookup/trick/masseuse/lay from hell..literally won't f'ing leave Matt's house..when the f'ing party was over kind-of-thing. So Matt's like..f'it and he goes to work and then comes home to find the poor bastard dead and hanging..in the breeze from Matt's garage beam..but apparently not until he had rained a river of piss all over Matt's bed. Like a lot of piss.
Well. That was really weird..I thought..and oddly enough..of course that kept me reading.
To the writer's credit this does have a great supporting cast of characters with some ass-chuckling moments. I really got a kick out of the POS self-centered Jeremy, Matt's ex-who dumped him for Skye-the-dried-up-reality-TV-star. Peter-led-by-his-dick and too-busy-to-be-bothered-best-buddy, and Matt's drunken and grandiose-opportunistic neighbors from hell. They really added to the flavor in a nonchalant-kind-of-way. Detective Tripp was teasingly..great..but his character never fully matured to get it done for me.
So..if you don't have too high of expectations and just play along for the ride..this was good in a prime-time-episode kind of way and overall a reading enjoyment.
I know it was pretty good because it kept my ADHD-ass reading it..or maybe it was my kinked-curiosity after learning Eddie the-Latino muscle-cub and MC/Matt's 3-day hookup/trick/masseuse/lay from hell..literally won't f'ing leave Matt's house..when the f'ing party was over kind-of-thing. So Matt's like..f'it and he goes to work and then comes home to find the poor bastard dead and hanging..in the breeze from Matt's garage beam..but apparently not until he had rained a river of piss all over Matt's bed. Like a lot of piss.
Well. That was really weird..I thought..and oddly enough..of course that kept me reading.
To the writer's credit this does have a great supporting cast of characters with some ass-chuckling moments. I really got a kick out of the POS self-centered Jeremy, Matt's ex-who dumped him for Skye-the-dried-up-reality-TV-star. Peter-led-by-his-dick and too-busy-to-be-bothered-best-buddy, and Matt's drunken and grandiose-opportunistic neighbors from hell. They really added to the flavor in a nonchalant-kind-of-way. Detective Tripp was teasingly..great..but his character never fully matured to get it done for me.
So..if you don't have too high of expectations and just play along for the ride..this was good in a prime-time-episode kind of way and overall a reading enjoyment.
April 30, 2011
Ok m/m mystery about an accountant who slowly realizes he's being framed for a murder and tries to figure out who's the actual killer. Unfortunately, he spent most of the book doing the most stupid thing he could in any given situation - TSTL characters frustrate me. A lot.
July 18, 2024
Well, it was dross!
Murder mystery with random sex scenes thrown in (sadly, both elements of the story were bland)
I read it to the end, though! But God knows why....
Murder mystery with random sex scenes thrown in (sadly, both elements of the story were bland)
I read it to the end, though! But God knows why....
September 12, 2014
2.5 stars
The thing is, I think the plot and what the MC are doing in this story to get him to the position of "person of interest" is just silly. Matt hires a masseuse (with benefits) then a day later accepts a date from him and then the masseuse ends up dead -- and even if Matt is a "person of interest" in the eyes of the police officers (because he keeps spurting lies since he doesn't want the deceased family to know that their son was working as a masseuse?!?!) but Matt never spends time in jail? Really? Is that how it works?? Then of course Matt decides to clear his name by joining the ad for the masseuse, and actually good at it ...
I don't know, there are just things that made me roll my eyes reading this because it's just doesn't make sense to me. Like the whole investigation is a joke :(. Oh, well, at least I think Matt's friend, Peter, is hilarious in terms of being ridiculously selfish ^_^
The thing is, I think the plot and what the MC are doing in this story to get him to the position of "person of interest" is just silly. Matt hires a masseuse (with benefits) then a day later accepts a date from him and then the masseuse ends up dead -- and even if Matt is a "person of interest" in the eyes of the police officers (because he keeps spurting lies since he doesn't want the deceased family to know that their son was working as a masseuse?!?!) but Matt never spends time in jail? Really? Is that how it works?? Then of course Matt decides to clear his name by joining the ad for the masseuse, and actually good at it ...
I don't know, there are just things that made me roll my eyes reading this because it's just doesn't make sense to me. Like the whole investigation is a joke :(. Oh, well, at least I think Matt's friend, Peter, is hilarious in terms of being ridiculously selfish ^_^
February 8, 2022
I became more and more nervous while Matt made a series of decisions that had me shaking my head and wondering if the book would end up with him in prison. He was a really enjoyable character to me -- his opinions of the people and situations around him were believable and sharp.
There were a lot of characters in this book, and the author deftly handled this via his skill with characterization. That's hard to do in a mystery where you are already dealing with the mechanics of the investigation and there is a constant impetus for the writer to move the plot forward with the next clue/event.
There is also a romantic component to this book, and that was nice, too. Despite being constantly betrayed or disappointed by everyone he knows, Matt perseveres, and boy does he get his happy ending .
There were a lot of characters in this book, and the author deftly handled this via his skill with characterization. That's hard to do in a mystery where you are already dealing with the mechanics of the investigation and there is a constant impetus for the writer to move the plot forward with the next clue/event.
There is also a romantic component to this book, and that was nice, too. Despite being constantly betrayed or disappointed by everyone he knows, Matt perseveres, and boy does he get his happy ending .
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 27, 2014
"Full Release" is a good story, and Thornton is a good writer. He pulls you through the tale, and doesn't show his hand until the end. It's a good mystery, and the sexy parts are just as they ought to be.
By hinging the plot on the entrance of a film-studio accountant into the world of a professional sex worker, Thornton gives the narrative a slightly off-kilter quality, and keeps both the reader and the main character unbalanced and disoriented. Already disoriented by the betrayal of his ex-lover and the looming loss of his job, Matt Latowski careens from one stupid decision to the next, as circumstantial evidence piles up that points to him as a murderer.
It's really quite fun. My only cavil is that I just never could like the main character. Matt is, from my viewpoint, a self-involved whiner. Bad things, unfair things, happen to him; but I couldn't bring myself to feel real sympathy. Such an odd misfire in an otherwise cracking good story.
By hinging the plot on the entrance of a film-studio accountant into the world of a professional sex worker, Thornton gives the narrative a slightly off-kilter quality, and keeps both the reader and the main character unbalanced and disoriented. Already disoriented by the betrayal of his ex-lover and the looming loss of his job, Matt Latowski careens from one stupid decision to the next, as circumstantial evidence piles up that points to him as a murderer.
It's really quite fun. My only cavil is that I just never could like the main character. Matt is, from my viewpoint, a self-involved whiner. Bad things, unfair things, happen to him; but I couldn't bring myself to feel real sympathy. Such an odd misfire in an otherwise cracking good story.
November 22, 2013
Of course I read this book as soon as I finished book 5 in the Boystown series. Full Release is a bit more light in mood, if a comparison is helpful. The protagonist is a somewhat self deprecating and goofy accountant who finds himself at the center of a suicide-turned-murder investigation. The mystery alone is worth the read, there is a slowly, but not so surely, romance that somewhat develops between the protagonist and a police detective. That portion of the story did not seem completely developed; the end of the story seems only the beginning of the romance. So, I am hoping there are more adventures to follow.
March 28, 2019
I'm a big fan of Marshall Thornton but sometimes his amateur sleuths fall a bit short for me. The book is very well written and captivating but I cringed when Matt the studio accountant decided to become a masseur himself.
September 27, 2011
Full Release - Understanding the genre
It’s important when reviewing a book that you assess it in terms of the genre it slots into. If you missed it, check out this blog by the author himself. http://marshallthornton.wordpress.com...
This story is mystery/suspense. So what elements do we look for in this genre?
A crime, someone to solve the crime, logical steps along the way to reveal the villain and tension while doing it.
Mystery/suspens has been written for centuries. Judging by the sheer volume of books available in stores it’s one of the widest read and biggest selling. So it’s rare to find anything new.
So how can a writer stand out from the crowd. By setting the story in an unusual setting, updating the methods of solving it to a specific time and expertise, having an unusual crime solver and giving that person a distinctive voice.
In this case, the investigating hero is gay, but his sexuality is only relevant in the way it has affected his personality, his relationships with other people and the background the story takes place in. Along the way there is sex needed to drive the plot along, and even a possible long term hook up, but more importantly it gives the author the chance to make some pithy observations on the gay community and the different people who populate it. But all this is still background, the story is not about “being gay”.
Marshall’s sleuth is a fairly innocuous accountant, the last person anyone would peg for an action hero. One reviewer accused him of being too stupid to live. Well, that’s exactly what he’s meant to be. He’s out of his element, out of his depth and needing sleep.
The question is then, does Marshall deliver on the rest? All the “guns on the wall” fired. I found the story very readable. His descriptions were good, his writing style smooth. My main bitch is the number of silly typos that pulled me out of the story time and time again, usually missed prepositions or wrong words. Most people may not even notice them, but I’ve done enough editing to make something like that shine out at me. Especially as they were basic things that should have been pulled up. Apart from these, I felt the character’s voice suited the plot and depiction. The background setting was skilfully drawn. I found the crime and its solution believable enough given the basic premises. Realistic? Probably not, but we’re talking fiction here.
Someone also suggested it was a comedy and the juxtaposition of murder and comedy was wrong. This is definitely not the case. Sarcasm about life does not equal comedy. For someone who was forever being put down because of their profession (accountancy = boring), being vanilla, having a failed relationship, being cleaned out of all his money by an ex-partner, with a job under threat even before the crime is committed of course he’s going to be wanting to fight back, however he can. In this case, with words and throw away lines about the city he lives in and the people around him.
I found the bitterness and bitchiness of Matt very similar to a couple of gay guys I know.
Did I feel the story was good as it could be? No. Apart from the typos, one of the problems came from the structure of the book and the character himself. Because he was so alienated, alone and helpless, he has no-one to bounce dialogue off, no side-kick, so a lot of the plot development – the clue solving, has to take place in his head. If, as a reader, you don’t feel any sympathy for the guy, or relate to his “voice” then this can all become dry.
It didn’t make me stop reading or dislike the book, but it does make it harder to emotionally become involved with the book or the character. I probably should read some Raymond Chandler or other authors who have written the lone warrior style hero and see how they get around this problem. Maybe they don’t, and then it comes down to a preference of styles.
If you like this type of story where the single, much put upon underdog has to bumble around trying to do something he’s not trained to do, then you will enjoy reading “Full Release”.
I found Matt’s efforts to solve the case rewarding enough, and because I can’t see any other way the story could have been better given that scenario, that set-up and setting, I’m giving it 4 stars rounded down to 3.5 because of the typos.
It’s important when reviewing a book that you assess it in terms of the genre it slots into. If you missed it, check out this blog by the author himself. http://marshallthornton.wordpress.com...
This story is mystery/suspense. So what elements do we look for in this genre?
A crime, someone to solve the crime, logical steps along the way to reveal the villain and tension while doing it.
Mystery/suspens has been written for centuries. Judging by the sheer volume of books available in stores it’s one of the widest read and biggest selling. So it’s rare to find anything new.
So how can a writer stand out from the crowd. By setting the story in an unusual setting, updating the methods of solving it to a specific time and expertise, having an unusual crime solver and giving that person a distinctive voice.
In this case, the investigating hero is gay, but his sexuality is only relevant in the way it has affected his personality, his relationships with other people and the background the story takes place in. Along the way there is sex needed to drive the plot along, and even a possible long term hook up, but more importantly it gives the author the chance to make some pithy observations on the gay community and the different people who populate it. But all this is still background, the story is not about “being gay”.
Marshall’s sleuth is a fairly innocuous accountant, the last person anyone would peg for an action hero. One reviewer accused him of being too stupid to live. Well, that’s exactly what he’s meant to be. He’s out of his element, out of his depth and needing sleep.
The question is then, does Marshall deliver on the rest? All the “guns on the wall” fired. I found the story very readable. His descriptions were good, his writing style smooth. My main bitch is the number of silly typos that pulled me out of the story time and time again, usually missed prepositions or wrong words. Most people may not even notice them, but I’ve done enough editing to make something like that shine out at me. Especially as they were basic things that should have been pulled up. Apart from these, I felt the character’s voice suited the plot and depiction. The background setting was skilfully drawn. I found the crime and its solution believable enough given the basic premises. Realistic? Probably not, but we’re talking fiction here.
Someone also suggested it was a comedy and the juxtaposition of murder and comedy was wrong. This is definitely not the case. Sarcasm about life does not equal comedy. For someone who was forever being put down because of their profession (accountancy = boring), being vanilla, having a failed relationship, being cleaned out of all his money by an ex-partner, with a job under threat even before the crime is committed of course he’s going to be wanting to fight back, however he can. In this case, with words and throw away lines about the city he lives in and the people around him.
I found the bitterness and bitchiness of Matt very similar to a couple of gay guys I know.
Did I feel the story was good as it could be? No. Apart from the typos, one of the problems came from the structure of the book and the character himself. Because he was so alienated, alone and helpless, he has no-one to bounce dialogue off, no side-kick, so a lot of the plot development – the clue solving, has to take place in his head. If, as a reader, you don’t feel any sympathy for the guy, or relate to his “voice” then this can all become dry.
It didn’t make me stop reading or dislike the book, but it does make it harder to emotionally become involved with the book or the character. I probably should read some Raymond Chandler or other authors who have written the lone warrior style hero and see how they get around this problem. Maybe they don’t, and then it comes down to a preference of styles.
If you like this type of story where the single, much put upon underdog has to bumble around trying to do something he’s not trained to do, then you will enjoy reading “Full Release”.
I found Matt’s efforts to solve the case rewarding enough, and because I can’t see any other way the story could have been better given that scenario, that set-up and setting, I’m giving it 4 stars rounded down to 3.5 because of the typos.
December 10, 2012
Since I can usually figure out any mystery as soon as the killer is introduced, enjoying a mystery means a lot to me. It means the writer has a good story and has told it well. The kitchen as a metaphor for his life fulfillment was kind of funny as well. The sex was great, not at all formulaic, though the dialog was at times. My only complaint would be that too much happened in the main characters head. I like more dialog. Too much internal dialog can just start to drone on me.
August 31, 2017
Oh but a reader is a fickle thing!! I hated this book reading it in 2014, so much so that I DNF. Three years later, I read it again on a whim, and this time I loved it. I loved the humor, the mystery, the MC is a treat, and LA was described so lovingly, it felt like another character.
Loved it, would recommend it to any reader who love a good mystery with the added bonus of a solid, well-rounded gay MC- and a bit of romance too. Ka-ching!!!
Loved it, would recommend it to any reader who love a good mystery with the added bonus of a solid, well-rounded gay MC- and a bit of romance too. Ka-ching!!!
Read
September 15, 2016Didn't feel the need to inflict myself with a TSTL hero just to finish the book.
July 8, 2018
Okay.
Not *terrible* but also not one if Thornton's better works. There are some incredibly clunky moments and our protagonist is unbelievably dense from time to time. I think the biggest issue, though, is something that occasionally trips up older authors trying to write about younger people, without a great grasp of current technology or how people under the age of 40 use tech in the 2010s. Who prints out contact lists anymore? And who doesn't keep their phone contacts and calendar synced with an online service of some kind? Thornton has shown he can write a wide range of believable characters but he has a hard time presenting them in a believable way in the last decade.
Not *terrible* but also not one if Thornton's better works. There are some incredibly clunky moments and our protagonist is unbelievably dense from time to time. I think the biggest issue, though, is something that occasionally trips up older authors trying to write about younger people, without a great grasp of current technology or how people under the age of 40 use tech in the 2010s. Who prints out contact lists anymore? And who doesn't keep their phone contacts and calendar synced with an online service of some kind? Thornton has shown he can write a wide range of believable characters but he has a hard time presenting them in a believable way in the last decade.
November 20, 2019
A few pages into this book, I really thought I knew what was coming. Holy uck, I was thrown for a massive loop by about page ten. This novel had so many twists and turns, at times I felt dizzy. I had to re-evaluate my headspace a few times with this one and trust me, in the oft predictable world of M/M ROM, that's a good thing. Thornton's books are always very well thought out and deliberate, and I enjoy them immensely.
March 10, 2019
Liked the characters and would read more if this became the start of a series. It lost my interest a bit in the middle, too much internal monologue thinking through possible scenarios. But it grabbed me again towards the end and I couldn’t put it down, read it really quickly. I didn’t guess the ending or a couple of the twists. A decent thriller.
January 4, 2018
It might be MM because there are gay characters in it, but it is in no way a romance. And if you give it a lot of concession it might be erotic. I did not like the mystery part too, though it's just personal opinion. For me it was slow and average.
January 15, 2019
#SpoilerWarrior
Murder Mystery is really Thorton’s niche and I totally love it. Although, if he never uses the work “stalk” again in that particular context, it’ll still be too soon.
Murder Mystery is really Thorton’s niche and I totally love it. Although, if he never uses the work “stalk” again in that particular context, it’ll still be too soon.
January 29, 2015
(In the style of David and Margaret from At The Movies)
Review by David
Matt Latowski is an accountant working with a movie studio in Hollywood, none of which bears any significance to the story. On the one year anniversary of the end of his domestic partnership, he treats himself to an erotic massage, with full release—meaning a happy ending. Then, a week later, the masseuse calls him up for a date. The masseuse turns out to be weird and after the date, won’t leave Matt’s house, where he commits suicide.
Matt lies to the police about how he knows the masseuse, then, when it turns into a murder investigation, wonders why the police suspect him and don’t seem to be following other avenues of enquiry. Naturally, he decides to undertake the task of discovering the murderer himself, by the implausible scenario of becoming an erotic masseuse himself on the off chance he’ll just stumble across the killer by taking random clients.
What follows is a lack lustre attempt at a comical whodunit with a smattering of sex thrown in for smut’s sake. In between pointless sessions with ‘clients’, Matt bumbles his way through a short list of suspects and clues and, by sheer dint of following every bad idea ever concocted in every bad whodunit ever, stumbles across the answers. The list improbable scenarios he finds himself in due to his own stupidity keeps the reader on their toes and their eyes rolling.
This is an unfunny, poorly constructed plot with immature characterisation. The author is proliferate and while this is the first of his I have read, it will also be the last.
Further Comments
David: Margaret?
Margaret: Oh, David, it wasn’t that bad. There were funny moments.
David: Really? I don’t remember any.
Margaret: How about that bit with the best friend? When he was off gallivanting with the rich bloke who ended up actually being the rich bloke’s assistant and committing fraud. That was amusing.
David: It was just another cliché on top of all the other clichés. The token best mate off on a madcap adventure reporting back with details of his hijinks to break up the supposed drama of the main character’s life.
Margaret: Well, yes, I suppose. But you have to admit, it wasn’t all clichés. The love interest wasn’t Caucasian.
David: But he was a taciturn, recovering alcoholic police detective.
Margaret: I think the drinking problem was supposed to add depth to the character.
David: Yes, about two fingers worth.
Margaret: David! You can’t say that. Though, I have to admit, the other detective wasn’t a good character, either.
David: Yes, I agree.
Margaret: Well, perhaps, but, as a woman, I was more insulted by the fact she was a bitch to all around her because of, well I can only assume, hormones, and the only way she can get a man is to break the law for him, the law she is supposed to uphold! The only other representatives of the female sex in this book were the sneaky, conniving bitch who whored out her fiancé and covered for his killer and the conniving boss who’s screwing the incompetent worker and plans to promote him over the supposedly much smarter Matt. Oh, yes, women are evil, apparently.
David: Ooh, go get ‘em, Margaret.
Margaret: And what was with that shonky formatting? It was all over the place.
David: Yes, that was very distracting. That and all the superfluous information about room design and eating and the weary drudge through everyday tasks the author padded the very thin plot with.
Margaret: Oh, yes! Not to mention the TSTL main character who’s decision making paradigm was as chaotic as the formatting and as dull as the setting description. One minute he’s telling the police something he’s discovered, the next, when presented with a situation that couldn’t be any more clearly labelled as a trap, he does everything he can to make sure the police don’t know about it and walks right into it happily. Then there was the whole romance subplot.
David: Romance?
Margaret: Yes. You know, where Matt and the gay detective fall in love.
David: Really?? But they hardly even interacted. There was definitely no connection.
Margaret: I’m not surprised you missed it. It happened in that one scene, where the detective who’s convinced Matt ‘accidentally’ killed his lover, shoves his tongue down Matt’s throat and goes the grope.
David: That was the romance?
Margaret: It was a deep connection between a murder suspect and the cop who thinks he’s only guilty of man-slaughter.
David: I thought it was just another meaningless sex scene, like those with the ‘clients’. No talking, no explanation, just a tug-and-go.
Margaret: You could be forgiven for thinking that, yes.
David: So, what are you giving it, Margaret?
Margaret: I’m giving it 1.5 stars for the friend who was slightly amusing. David?
David: I’m giving it 0.5 to make it up to 2 because Goodreads doesn’t let us do half stars.
Review by David
Matt Latowski is an accountant working with a movie studio in Hollywood, none of which bears any significance to the story. On the one year anniversary of the end of his domestic partnership, he treats himself to an erotic massage, with full release—meaning a happy ending. Then, a week later, the masseuse calls him up for a date. The masseuse turns out to be weird and after the date, won’t leave Matt’s house, where he commits suicide.
Matt lies to the police about how he knows the masseuse, then, when it turns into a murder investigation, wonders why the police suspect him and don’t seem to be following other avenues of enquiry. Naturally, he decides to undertake the task of discovering the murderer himself, by the implausible scenario of becoming an erotic masseuse himself on the off chance he’ll just stumble across the killer by taking random clients.
What follows is a lack lustre attempt at a comical whodunit with a smattering of sex thrown in for smut’s sake. In between pointless sessions with ‘clients’, Matt bumbles his way through a short list of suspects and clues and, by sheer dint of following every bad idea ever concocted in every bad whodunit ever, stumbles across the answers. The list improbable scenarios he finds himself in due to his own stupidity keeps the reader on their toes and their eyes rolling.
This is an unfunny, poorly constructed plot with immature characterisation. The author is proliferate and while this is the first of his I have read, it will also be the last.
Further Comments
David: Margaret?
Margaret: Oh, David, it wasn’t that bad. There were funny moments.
David: Really? I don’t remember any.
Margaret: How about that bit with the best friend? When he was off gallivanting with the rich bloke who ended up actually being the rich bloke’s assistant and committing fraud. That was amusing.
David: It was just another cliché on top of all the other clichés. The token best mate off on a madcap adventure reporting back with details of his hijinks to break up the supposed drama of the main character’s life.
Margaret: Well, yes, I suppose. But you have to admit, it wasn’t all clichés. The love interest wasn’t Caucasian.
David: But he was a taciturn, recovering alcoholic police detective.
Margaret: I think the drinking problem was supposed to add depth to the character.
David: Yes, about two fingers worth.
Margaret: David! You can’t say that. Though, I have to admit, the other detective wasn’t a good character, either.
David: Yes, I agree.
Margaret: Well, perhaps, but, as a woman, I was more insulted by the fact she was a bitch to all around her because of, well I can only assume, hormones, and the only way she can get a man is to break the law for him, the law she is supposed to uphold! The only other representatives of the female sex in this book were the sneaky, conniving bitch who whored out her fiancé and covered for his killer and the conniving boss who’s screwing the incompetent worker and plans to promote him over the supposedly much smarter Matt. Oh, yes, women are evil, apparently.
David: Ooh, go get ‘em, Margaret.
Margaret: And what was with that shonky formatting? It was all over the place.
David: Yes, that was very distracting. That and all the superfluous information about room design and eating and the weary drudge through everyday tasks the author padded the very thin plot with.
Margaret: Oh, yes! Not to mention the TSTL main character who’s decision making paradigm was as chaotic as the formatting and as dull as the setting description. One minute he’s telling the police something he’s discovered, the next, when presented with a situation that couldn’t be any more clearly labelled as a trap, he does everything he can to make sure the police don’t know about it and walks right into it happily. Then there was the whole romance subplot.
David: Romance?
Margaret: Yes. You know, where Matt and the gay detective fall in love.
David: Really?? But they hardly even interacted. There was definitely no connection.
Margaret: I’m not surprised you missed it. It happened in that one scene, where the detective who’s convinced Matt ‘accidentally’ killed his lover, shoves his tongue down Matt’s throat and goes the grope.
David: That was the romance?
Margaret: It was a deep connection between a murder suspect and the cop who thinks he’s only guilty of man-slaughter.
David: I thought it was just another meaningless sex scene, like those with the ‘clients’. No talking, no explanation, just a tug-and-go.
Margaret: You could be forgiven for thinking that, yes.
David: So, what are you giving it, Margaret?
Margaret: I’m giving it 1.5 stars for the friend who was slightly amusing. David?
David: I’m giving it 0.5 to make it up to 2 because Goodreads doesn’t let us do half stars.
June 21, 2019
I love Thornton's slightly hapless everyman heroes, but good lord Matt needed a slap at several points.
June 14, 2011
2 stars
This is the sort of book that drives me wicked up the wall. The writing is decent and in that respect, the story pulled me in and kept me reading. But when it was over I realized that all of the characters were so incredibly ridiculous—with the exception of Eddie but then, he was dead—that I wanted to throw my Kindle across the room. How do I rate something like this? I could give it 3 stars and set it loose on the vast sea of mediocrity. Or I could give it 1 star, but that gives a bad book a certain cachet and infamy—and on reflection, it really wasn’t that bad. So I settled for 2 but really, in this case, the whole rating thing is sort of pointless. It’s easier to just say: this is not a book I’d recommend but fans of the author might enjoy it.
Anyway, to the review. A fundamental question I found myself asking when I finished this was, can murder ever be funny? Is it possible to write a funny murder story?
I thought about that for a long time. I finally remembered two books by James Lear that were humorous murder mysteries: The Back Passage and The Secret Tunnel. So that answered my second question. But what about the first? What did Lear do to make murder funny?
One, he made it clear from the start that the stories were over-the-top send ups of traditional British mysteries. Second—and this turned out to be a very important point—the victim was not an important character. A body conveniently turned up in the coat closet (or bathroom) and existed only to have all the rest of the characters run around to figure out “whodunit.”
I bring this up because I struggled for days after finishing this book to figure out if the author intended this to be a madcap lighthearted murder romp or a truly suspenseful police procedural. I finally decided it was the latter and on that basis, it was an epic fail.
The key point for me was that the victim—a young man named Eddie (whose real name turned out to be Javier)—was a character that I, as a reader, had come to know and like. He was the masseur that Matt hired to celebrate the anniversary of his break-up (see the blurb). Eddie calls Matt a few weeks later and invites himself over for dinner and a date. Matt and Eddie talk. They eat. They have sex (twice). They sleep together. Eddie seems like a nice guy. When Eddie ends up dead—his death first classified as suicide, then later changed to murder—I felt bad for him. I wanted justice to be served. And unfortunately, every single character in the story fails him: the police, Matt, his friends, and his family. It really was a shame.
The story is written from Matt’s first person POV and frankly, by the end of the book, I really hated this guy. Inconsistent and stupid, he was supposedly a murder suspect but that didn’t seem to rattle him too much. Instead, he’d do things like go for a job interview, have sex with his ex and a neighbor (the same neighbor that a few paragraphs before he said he loathed), set himself up in the erotic massage business using the victim’s massage table (ick!), get himself drunk to give himself an alibi, and, most ridiculous of all, not attend to the important detail of hiring a lawyer because he was broke. He seemed to think he could get himself out of the mess he was in without any legal assistance.
Fortunately, because the detectives assigned to his case also had IQs in the double-digits, the latter turned out to be true. I mean, aren’t the police supposed to do things like arrest suspects? Bring them to the station for questioning? Search the house for evidence? Or I am being too picky, expecting a murder mystery to really focus on solving the murder?
Eventually, everything did get sorted out, but with an unnecessarily violent interlude near the end that I did not appreciate. The post-coital conversation that ended the book was truly inane, IMHO. I suppose there is someone out there who might think it’s romantic but that person is not me.
As I said, fans of the author might enjoy this but I can’t recommend it. I’m just one reviewer, however, and others might feel differently.
posted on reviewsbyjessewave, 6/11/2011
This is the sort of book that drives me wicked up the wall. The writing is decent and in that respect, the story pulled me in and kept me reading. But when it was over I realized that all of the characters were so incredibly ridiculous—with the exception of Eddie but then, he was dead—that I wanted to throw my Kindle across the room. How do I rate something like this? I could give it 3 stars and set it loose on the vast sea of mediocrity. Or I could give it 1 star, but that gives a bad book a certain cachet and infamy—and on reflection, it really wasn’t that bad. So I settled for 2 but really, in this case, the whole rating thing is sort of pointless. It’s easier to just say: this is not a book I’d recommend but fans of the author might enjoy it.
Anyway, to the review. A fundamental question I found myself asking when I finished this was, can murder ever be funny? Is it possible to write a funny murder story?
I thought about that for a long time. I finally remembered two books by James Lear that were humorous murder mysteries: The Back Passage and The Secret Tunnel. So that answered my second question. But what about the first? What did Lear do to make murder funny?
One, he made it clear from the start that the stories were over-the-top send ups of traditional British mysteries. Second—and this turned out to be a very important point—the victim was not an important character. A body conveniently turned up in the coat closet (or bathroom) and existed only to have all the rest of the characters run around to figure out “whodunit.”
I bring this up because I struggled for days after finishing this book to figure out if the author intended this to be a madcap lighthearted murder romp or a truly suspenseful police procedural. I finally decided it was the latter and on that basis, it was an epic fail.
The key point for me was that the victim—a young man named Eddie (whose real name turned out to be Javier)—was a character that I, as a reader, had come to know and like. He was the masseur that Matt hired to celebrate the anniversary of his break-up (see the blurb). Eddie calls Matt a few weeks later and invites himself over for dinner and a date. Matt and Eddie talk. They eat. They have sex (twice). They sleep together. Eddie seems like a nice guy. When Eddie ends up dead—his death first classified as suicide, then later changed to murder—I felt bad for him. I wanted justice to be served. And unfortunately, every single character in the story fails him: the police, Matt, his friends, and his family. It really was a shame.
The story is written from Matt’s first person POV and frankly, by the end of the book, I really hated this guy. Inconsistent and stupid, he was supposedly a murder suspect but that didn’t seem to rattle him too much. Instead, he’d do things like go for a job interview, have sex with his ex and a neighbor (the same neighbor that a few paragraphs before he said he loathed), set himself up in the erotic massage business using the victim’s massage table (ick!), get himself drunk to give himself an alibi, and, most ridiculous of all, not attend to the important detail of hiring a lawyer because he was broke. He seemed to think he could get himself out of the mess he was in without any legal assistance.
Fortunately, because the detectives assigned to his case also had IQs in the double-digits, the latter turned out to be true. I mean, aren’t the police supposed to do things like arrest suspects? Bring them to the station for questioning? Search the house for evidence? Or I am being too picky, expecting a murder mystery to really focus on solving the murder?
Eventually, everything did get sorted out, but with an unnecessarily violent interlude near the end that I did not appreciate. The post-coital conversation that ended the book was truly inane, IMHO. I suppose there is someone out there who might think it’s romantic but that person is not me.
As I said, fans of the author might enjoy this but I can’t recommend it. I’m just one reviewer, however, and others might feel differently.
posted on reviewsbyjessewave, 6/11/2011
December 22, 2016
Entertaining
If you are familiar with the Boystown series, you know Marshall is a talented storyteller who has a penchant for telling compelling stories in the first person. Although this story is not as high caliber as the Boystown stories, it is enjoyable. There were some laugh out loud moments. Good choice for a quick stand alone read.
If you are familiar with the Boystown series, you know Marshall is a talented storyteller who has a penchant for telling compelling stories in the first person. Although this story is not as high caliber as the Boystown stories, it is enjoyable. There were some laugh out loud moments. Good choice for a quick stand alone read.
April 19, 2011
The mystery aspect was ok but not riveting, and there was disappointingly little romance to add much needed emotional engagement.
October 21, 2012
Well after the incident in the garage i was thinking that the incident was just only a prank for matt and i keep expecting that eddie wakes up and surprises matt. Well that didn't happen
November 13, 2012
Surprise ending. Did not see that coming.
January 28, 2015
Roller coaster ride of love, mystery and murders. Another great read from Marshall Thornton.
March 28, 2019
I didn't enjoy this as a story because all the characters were terrible. I didn't want to spend time with them. I will try more as I have loved many other books from this author.
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