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Head Rock Harbor Mystery #4
Bang Bang He Shot Her Down
It’s not fair that now that Jackson and Jeremy are beginning to admit and express their feelings for each other that duty calls for both of them. Jackson is busy with Head Rock Harbor Books as well as the new coffee bar and his new employee, Angel. Jeremy is helping the Head Rock Harbor Police Department recover from a public relations nightmare and might be taking on new responsibilities. Everything has been a blur in the month since Pride Weekend, and both guys are dying for a few days to simply take a breath–and enjoy a little romance with each other.
Fortunately for them, Jackson’s car ending up with bullet holes, a fellow business owner in Head Rock Harbor breaking his foot, and a few days off from the department for Jeremy, make it possible for them to take a long weekend. Initially prepared to simply spend time lazing about the house, eating, and romancing, the guys find that things never go as planned. The business owner with the broken foot can’t attend an important event and begs Jackson and Jeremy to take his spot.
Deciding that a free motel stay and tickets to see a special show put on by the regionally famous drag queen, Bang Bang Baisemoi, aren’t that bad of a deal, the guys head off to Littleburg for a long weekend getaway. Of course, where Jackson goes, murder seems to follow. Before they know it, Jackson and Jeremy find themselves embroiled in another mystery.
Who would want to kill an aging drag queen? And why are they so bad at it?
Fortunately for them, Jackson’s car ending up with bullet holes, a fellow business owner in Head Rock Harbor breaking his foot, and a few days off from the department for Jeremy, make it possible for them to take a long weekend. Initially prepared to simply spend time lazing about the house, eating, and romancing, the guys find that things never go as planned. The business owner with the broken foot can’t attend an important event and begs Jackson and Jeremy to take his spot.
Deciding that a free motel stay and tickets to see a special show put on by the regionally famous drag queen, Bang Bang Baisemoi, aren’t that bad of a deal, the guys head off to Littleburg for a long weekend getaway. Of course, where Jackson goes, murder seems to follow. Before they know it, Jackson and Jeremy find themselves embroiled in another mystery.
Who would want to kill an aging drag queen? And why are they so bad at it?
202 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 10, 2026
About the author
Chase Connor
41 books319 followersBANG BANG HE SHOT HER DOWN - the fourth book in the Head Rock Harbor Mystery series - NOW AVAILABLE!
https://mybook.to/HRHM4BBHSHD
GHOST IN THE CUPBOARD - the first book in the NEW Silas Erie Paranormal Cozy series - NOW AVAILBLE!
https://mybook.to/SEPC1GitC
Chase Connor spends his days writing about the people who live (loudly and rent-free) in his head when he’s not busy being enthusiastic about naps and Pad Thai. Chase started his writing career as a confused gay teen looking for an escape from reality. Ten years later, one of the books he wrote during those years, Just A Dumb Surfer Dude: A Gay Coming-of-Age Tale, was published independently. Chase has numerous projects in various stages of completion lined up for publishing. Chase is a multi-genre author, but always with a healthy dollop of gay.
https://mybook.to/HRHM4BBHSHD
GHOST IN THE CUPBOARD - the first book in the NEW Silas Erie Paranormal Cozy series - NOW AVAILBLE!
https://mybook.to/SEPC1GitC
Chase Connor spends his days writing about the people who live (loudly and rent-free) in his head when he’s not busy being enthusiastic about naps and Pad Thai. Chase started his writing career as a confused gay teen looking for an escape from reality. Ten years later, one of the books he wrote during those years, Just A Dumb Surfer Dude: A Gay Coming-of-Age Tale, was published independently. Chase has numerous projects in various stages of completion lined up for publishing. Chase is a multi-genre author, but always with a healthy dollop of gay.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 12, 2026
Let me tell you about a place, somewhere up a New York way / Where the people are so gay, twisting the night away (Twistin’ the Night Away – Sam Cooke).
I’ll admit that I didn’t want to read Bang Bang He Shot Her Down this soon after the previous installment because I was worried I wouldn’t have anything to talk about… but then I remembered I actually don't have to review everything I read. I could just coast off of the simple, yet effective rating system that this wonderful and always working site has to offer us. Really, what can I say here in this box that four gold or red stars can’t already tell you? I mean, it’s not like I’m doing any of this for content, I’m not one of those BookTubers who need to make monthly “book hauls” showing off all the pretty spines and pages with pretty patterns somehow painted onto them. I’m not that fairy who has fairy lights strung up and winding around pure white book shelves where everything's sorted by genre and author! Fun fact, when I was young, I never knew “fairy” was a homophobic slur and I was thoroughly disappointed when people were making jokes towards Link from The Legend of Zelda being called “fairy boy” in game because I thought that was such a cute nickname for him. Stray thought, but I’m reclaiming that particular word for myself, at the very least. Oh wait, this isn’t an invitation for people to call me slurs, I’m just thinking out loud here. Anyway, Bang Bang He Shot her Down is the fourth book in this lovely Head Rock Harbor Mystery series, and we find a trauma riddled Jackson being offered a much needed vacation out of town with his cop boyfriend Jeremy (imagine getting a parking ticket from a cop named Jeremy). And after one rather easy conversation, J and J are heading out of Head Rock Harbor to get some rocking head in some other small ass Iowa town. Fun! Giving good brain like he graduated from a good school. What I find fascinating about Chase Connor is that he finds a way to make even the most predictable twists in a mystery not only satisfyingly surprising, but also narratively sound. It’s like he unlocked the Fullmetal Alchemist secret for writing in that he knows that the best way to “get one over” on the reader is to get them so enraptured by everything around the mystery so that any left turn will do the job just find.
While I know it’s necessary to some extent for this particular genre, when mysteries get a little too formulaic and rely too heavily on checklist prose, that’s when the audience gets bored enough to where they’ll try figuring out the book. Scrutinizing it and all that, noticing the cracks and all that. Well, I can only speak for myself, but with this Head Rock Harbor Mystery series (these last two books in particular), I’ve found that I’m so engrossed in the world, the intriguing writing style, and Jackson’s own personal character arc, that whenever the mystery does get solved, I’m just sitting there in wonder. It's like the mystery is the dessert to an already full meal. Sure, this narrative tactic that takes a bit of extra work, but hey, it just works like Todd Howard is always saying! Seriously though, I’m so invested in Jackson’s bookshop, his cat, his double life as a bestselling author, that the next book doesn’t even need to be a mystery and I’d eat it up just the same. I know this is a crazy thing to put into writing, but I've always enjoyed the filler episodes in anime like Dragon Ball Z or Naruto because they allow us to see the characters in a more light-hearted context, and I was always distraught whenever the newer adaptions would come out and cut out all the fluff. Not my fluff! So, because the mystery aspects of these novels are often hidden beneath the rest of Jackson’s worries, it never feels like a betrayal whenever he’s not too invested in getting involved in every classic mystery trope that befalls him. I suppose this is my way of saying that most of Bang Bang He Shot Her Down is actually a romance novel that explores the newfound heated relationship between Jackson and Jeremy. And you know what? I’m really not mad about it this time. Usually, whenever I’m reading gay detective books like the Kip O'Connor Mysteries by S.C. Wynne or the Secrets and Scrabble series by Josh Lanyon, I get so frustrated by how unsupportive and demeaning the cop boyfriends are that I deadass want to throw the book into the wall. But again, since I mostly read on my Kindle, that’d be one hell of an expensive Hulk out moment! I mean, at least I wasn’t one of those guys who’d throw my controller when I lost at Super Smash Bros. like my older brother was! Not that I ever lost heh heh.
“I pushed that negative thought out of my head, deciding that, for once in my life, I was going to do my best to be upbeat for an entire weekend.”
But yeah, I actually enjoyed the romance between Jackson and Jeremy in this book simply because they like each other. I know most authors feel the need to drive a wedge in the relationship right away to “keep things interesting” or whatever, but I’m glad Chase Connor showed restraint and showed them both genuinely having a good time on their vacation. Besides, part of what Bang Bang He Shot Her Down needed to accomplish was to sell us on Jackson and Jeremy (because I admittedly don’t think the previous novels did a good enough job at showing us their supposed closeness), so if you had them immediately start squabbling the way they usually did, it would have only proved the detractors (me, until this book) correct in assuming they wouldn’t be good together. Though, in expressing their “newlywed” joy, I did notice that Jeremy would laugh “uproariously” very frequently, which I zeroed in on specifically because I don’t think I’ve done anything uproariously in my life! Nah, if I laugh, it’s either a snickering kind of thing like Duck Hunt or a full on “Feel Good Inc.” bark. Ha-ha-ha-ha~aa! But if I had an actual caveat, it was a little far-fetched that the owners of a gay club and a drag queen would be so down to hang with Jackson's cop boyfriend. I know he's technically a gay cop, but you'd have to be Hamilton levels of delusional about history to think that the police force and the queer community have a positive relationship. Past, present, or future. Besides, I'm of the mind that cops don't belong at Pride regardless of whatever their personal identity is outside of the profession. Sorry, but being a cop supersedes any other aspects of one's identity. There are no gay cops, woman cops, or cops of color, just... cops. The po-po! Moving on though, I’m embarrassingly invested in the town of Head Rock Harbor now, and it’s getting to the point where I’m treating it like my Animal Crossing island or something. Its success is now my own personal mission! I guess what I’m getting at is that these books work so well for me because they don’t outright feel like genre fiction, and the fact that they manage to delight all the same is something that needs to be underlined and highlighted. These are good mysteries because they don’t feel the need to outsmart the readers at every turn, Instead, every twist feels both true to the overall narrative and also genuinely surprising.
This next bit is a bit of a spoiler, but I loved this book despite the fact that nobody dies. That sounds bad, but I remember I stopped reading those Enola Holmes books and I was never able to get into Nancy Drew because they usually deal with mysteries surrounding "lighter" crimes like theft, blackmail, and ransom, and I never felt like they reached the level of gravitas necessary to give the novel stakes. Well, I'm just sitting here eating my words (yum) because I should know by now that anything can be interesting. And while I normally need my bloodlust satiated, a sacrifice to be made and all that, considering most of this book features queer folk, drag queens and otherwise, then going heavy on the murder would have made the narrative challenging to sell as a cozy mystery. You know, it'd be a bad look, and I’m not really going out of my way to read books about violence against my fellow fairies anyway. Besides, I think a lot of authors feel the need to escalate in subsequent outings because that’s just the nature of sequels, but I truly admire the restraint whenever writers decide to take a step back when they’re doing a follow-up story. For one, Jackson has now solved three separate murders in the same town, so to keep the bodies piling up around this dude would be downright cruel. Also, by giving him a “breather episode” in the form of Bang Bang He Shot Her Down where Jackson gets to go clubbing and hangout with his new boyfriend, it offers a much needed reprieve for both the characters and the readers. We all know he needs a break, so I’m just glad the author saw it fit to give him one. Because otherwise it becomes Uncharted 3, where there’s just so much adrenaline and action thrown into the mix that any semblance of emotional weight gets lost in the process. So yeah, that's it! I really enjoyed Bang Bang He Shot Her Down specifically because of its more low-key approach to the storytelling and the fact that it didn’t rely on the meta “duel between reader and author” that most mystery novelists seem to get stuck on. Hey, I’m not trying to fight you here, I just want to have fun reading a book. Wait a minute, is that what this feeling is, relief? Relief that I can just enjoy Bang Bang He Shot Her Down without all that other baggage coming along with it? I like that.
Here they have a lot of fun, putting trouble on the run / Man, you find the old and young, twisting the night away.
I’ll admit that I didn’t want to read Bang Bang He Shot Her Down this soon after the previous installment because I was worried I wouldn’t have anything to talk about… but then I remembered I actually don't have to review everything I read. I could just coast off of the simple, yet effective rating system that this wonderful and always working site has to offer us. Really, what can I say here in this box that four gold or red stars can’t already tell you? I mean, it’s not like I’m doing any of this for content, I’m not one of those BookTubers who need to make monthly “book hauls” showing off all the pretty spines and pages with pretty patterns somehow painted onto them. I’m not that fairy who has fairy lights strung up and winding around pure white book shelves where everything's sorted by genre and author! Fun fact, when I was young, I never knew “fairy” was a homophobic slur and I was thoroughly disappointed when people were making jokes towards Link from The Legend of Zelda being called “fairy boy” in game because I thought that was such a cute nickname for him. Stray thought, but I’m reclaiming that particular word for myself, at the very least. Oh wait, this isn’t an invitation for people to call me slurs, I’m just thinking out loud here. Anyway, Bang Bang He Shot her Down is the fourth book in this lovely Head Rock Harbor Mystery series, and we find a trauma riddled Jackson being offered a much needed vacation out of town with his cop boyfriend Jeremy (imagine getting a parking ticket from a cop named Jeremy). And after one rather easy conversation, J and J are heading out of Head Rock Harbor to get some rocking head in some other small ass Iowa town. Fun! Giving good brain like he graduated from a good school. What I find fascinating about Chase Connor is that he finds a way to make even the most predictable twists in a mystery not only satisfyingly surprising, but also narratively sound. It’s like he unlocked the Fullmetal Alchemist secret for writing in that he knows that the best way to “get one over” on the reader is to get them so enraptured by everything around the mystery so that any left turn will do the job just find.
While I know it’s necessary to some extent for this particular genre, when mysteries get a little too formulaic and rely too heavily on checklist prose, that’s when the audience gets bored enough to where they’ll try figuring out the book. Scrutinizing it and all that, noticing the cracks and all that. Well, I can only speak for myself, but with this Head Rock Harbor Mystery series (these last two books in particular), I’ve found that I’m so engrossed in the world, the intriguing writing style, and Jackson’s own personal character arc, that whenever the mystery does get solved, I’m just sitting there in wonder. It's like the mystery is the dessert to an already full meal. Sure, this narrative tactic that takes a bit of extra work, but hey, it just works like Todd Howard is always saying! Seriously though, I’m so invested in Jackson’s bookshop, his cat, his double life as a bestselling author, that the next book doesn’t even need to be a mystery and I’d eat it up just the same. I know this is a crazy thing to put into writing, but I've always enjoyed the filler episodes in anime like Dragon Ball Z or Naruto because they allow us to see the characters in a more light-hearted context, and I was always distraught whenever the newer adaptions would come out and cut out all the fluff. Not my fluff! So, because the mystery aspects of these novels are often hidden beneath the rest of Jackson’s worries, it never feels like a betrayal whenever he’s not too invested in getting involved in every classic mystery trope that befalls him. I suppose this is my way of saying that most of Bang Bang He Shot Her Down is actually a romance novel that explores the newfound heated relationship between Jackson and Jeremy. And you know what? I’m really not mad about it this time. Usually, whenever I’m reading gay detective books like the Kip O'Connor Mysteries by S.C. Wynne or the Secrets and Scrabble series by Josh Lanyon, I get so frustrated by how unsupportive and demeaning the cop boyfriends are that I deadass want to throw the book into the wall. But again, since I mostly read on my Kindle, that’d be one hell of an expensive Hulk out moment! I mean, at least I wasn’t one of those guys who’d throw my controller when I lost at Super Smash Bros. like my older brother was! Not that I ever lost heh heh.
“I pushed that negative thought out of my head, deciding that, for once in my life, I was going to do my best to be upbeat for an entire weekend.”
But yeah, I actually enjoyed the romance between Jackson and Jeremy in this book simply because they like each other. I know most authors feel the need to drive a wedge in the relationship right away to “keep things interesting” or whatever, but I’m glad Chase Connor showed restraint and showed them both genuinely having a good time on their vacation. Besides, part of what Bang Bang He Shot Her Down needed to accomplish was to sell us on Jackson and Jeremy (because I admittedly don’t think the previous novels did a good enough job at showing us their supposed closeness), so if you had them immediately start squabbling the way they usually did, it would have only proved the detractors (me, until this book) correct in assuming they wouldn’t be good together. Though, in expressing their “newlywed” joy, I did notice that Jeremy would laugh “uproariously” very frequently, which I zeroed in on specifically because I don’t think I’ve done anything uproariously in my life! Nah, if I laugh, it’s either a snickering kind of thing like Duck Hunt or a full on “Feel Good Inc.” bark. Ha-ha-ha-ha~aa! But if I had an actual caveat, it was a little far-fetched that the owners of a gay club and a drag queen would be so down to hang with Jackson's cop boyfriend. I know he's technically a gay cop, but you'd have to be Hamilton levels of delusional about history to think that the police force and the queer community have a positive relationship. Past, present, or future. Besides, I'm of the mind that cops don't belong at Pride regardless of whatever their personal identity is outside of the profession. Sorry, but being a cop supersedes any other aspects of one's identity. There are no gay cops, woman cops, or cops of color, just... cops. The po-po! Moving on though, I’m embarrassingly invested in the town of Head Rock Harbor now, and it’s getting to the point where I’m treating it like my Animal Crossing island or something. Its success is now my own personal mission! I guess what I’m getting at is that these books work so well for me because they don’t outright feel like genre fiction, and the fact that they manage to delight all the same is something that needs to be underlined and highlighted. These are good mysteries because they don’t feel the need to outsmart the readers at every turn, Instead, every twist feels both true to the overall narrative and also genuinely surprising.
This next bit is a bit of a spoiler, but I loved this book despite the fact that nobody dies. That sounds bad, but I remember I stopped reading those Enola Holmes books and I was never able to get into Nancy Drew because they usually deal with mysteries surrounding "lighter" crimes like theft, blackmail, and ransom, and I never felt like they reached the level of gravitas necessary to give the novel stakes. Well, I'm just sitting here eating my words (yum) because I should know by now that anything can be interesting. And while I normally need my bloodlust satiated, a sacrifice to be made and all that, considering most of this book features queer folk, drag queens and otherwise, then going heavy on the murder would have made the narrative challenging to sell as a cozy mystery. You know, it'd be a bad look, and I’m not really going out of my way to read books about violence against my fellow fairies anyway. Besides, I think a lot of authors feel the need to escalate in subsequent outings because that’s just the nature of sequels, but I truly admire the restraint whenever writers decide to take a step back when they’re doing a follow-up story. For one, Jackson has now solved three separate murders in the same town, so to keep the bodies piling up around this dude would be downright cruel. Also, by giving him a “breather episode” in the form of Bang Bang He Shot Her Down where Jackson gets to go clubbing and hangout with his new boyfriend, it offers a much needed reprieve for both the characters and the readers. We all know he needs a break, so I’m just glad the author saw it fit to give him one. Because otherwise it becomes Uncharted 3, where there’s just so much adrenaline and action thrown into the mix that any semblance of emotional weight gets lost in the process. So yeah, that's it! I really enjoyed Bang Bang He Shot Her Down specifically because of its more low-key approach to the storytelling and the fact that it didn’t rely on the meta “duel between reader and author” that most mystery novelists seem to get stuck on. Hey, I’m not trying to fight you here, I just want to have fun reading a book. Wait a minute, is that what this feeling is, relief? Relief that I can just enjoy Bang Bang He Shot Her Down without all that other baggage coming along with it? I like that.
Here they have a lot of fun, putting trouble on the run / Man, you find the old and young, twisting the night away.
July 27, 2026
This part was enjoyable but not as pulling, as the previous books. Jackson and Jeremy went on a weekend trip and solved a mystery on the way. Sweet and funny book.
May 13, 2026
Chase Connor Delivers Yet Another Delightul Whodoneit
I've read nearly all of Chase Connor's books and consider him amongst my favorite wordsmiths and storytellers. Jackson Harper, Jeremy Morris, Rattlesnatches and Deb return for another Iowa mystery titled "Bang Bang He Shot Her Down: Rock Harbor Mystery #4". While the possibility of death and even murder loomed throughout this story I do not believe that every whodoneit has to include a murder. Suspense and a sense of mystery can be built on lesser offenses. I think Chase Connor believes this too. As always, a Connor novel is ripe with colorful characters and impressive writing. The setting of the Rock Harbor series is small-town Iowa. We get feisty diner waitresses. Pushy small-town politicians. Local weirdos (love these). And the star of the show, a drag queen performer named Bang Bang Baisemoi. The characters did not fail to entertain. The story flowed with confidence and determination much like the Mighty Mississippi. Jackson Harper and Jeremy Morris are in a romantic relationship and seem like a good match. I don't want to reveal key plot points of the mystery. But I'll reveal this tale involves a road trip for our boys, a romantic weekend to Littleburg, Iowa, to catch the drag stylings of Miss Baisemoi. Of course, strange things happen and Jacks' detective senses tingle. Highly recommend this book!
I've read nearly all of Chase Connor's books and consider him amongst my favorite wordsmiths and storytellers. Jackson Harper, Jeremy Morris, Rattlesnatches and Deb return for another Iowa mystery titled "Bang Bang He Shot Her Down: Rock Harbor Mystery #4". While the possibility of death and even murder loomed throughout this story I do not believe that every whodoneit has to include a murder. Suspense and a sense of mystery can be built on lesser offenses. I think Chase Connor believes this too. As always, a Connor novel is ripe with colorful characters and impressive writing. The setting of the Rock Harbor series is small-town Iowa. We get feisty diner waitresses. Pushy small-town politicians. Local weirdos (love these). And the star of the show, a drag queen performer named Bang Bang Baisemoi. The characters did not fail to entertain. The story flowed with confidence and determination much like the Mighty Mississippi. Jackson Harper and Jeremy Morris are in a romantic relationship and seem like a good match. I don't want to reveal key plot points of the mystery. But I'll reveal this tale involves a road trip for our boys, a romantic weekend to Littleburg, Iowa, to catch the drag stylings of Miss Baisemoi. Of course, strange things happen and Jacks' detective senses tingle. Highly recommend this book!
April 15, 2026
Jackson is back with Jeremy and this time they go on a long weekend in place of their friends to try to persuade a local drag queen to do a night at the o0pening of the new theater.
Jackson much to Jeremys dismay gets involved trying to solve the mystery at the heart of the book.
I enjoy reading about these 2.
Jackson much to Jeremys dismay gets involved trying to solve the mystery at the heart of the book.
I enjoy reading about these 2.
April 20, 2026
Another fun read
The story was entertaining despite the fact that it wasn't a difficult mystery to solve. It became obvious who was responsible for the mischief at the gay club after all the main characters were introduced. Bang Bang and Arthur were
The story was entertaining despite the fact that it wasn't a difficult mystery to solve. It became obvious who was responsible for the mischief at the gay club after all the main characters were introduced. Bang Bang and Arthur were
May 10, 2026
Not much there
Chase Connor always creates a wild set of characters to fill his books. However, as a mystery, Bang Bang went nowhere. I appreciate that Connor is developing the relationship between Jackson and Jeremy. But his romance reads like YA.
Chase Connor always creates a wild set of characters to fill his books. However, as a mystery, Bang Bang went nowhere. I appreciate that Connor is developing the relationship between Jackson and Jeremy. But his romance reads like YA.
May 10, 2026
2.9. Kinda stalled with this one. Not bad, just not much there.
May 12, 2026
I still like Connor's writing style, but this was definitely the weakest of the series so far. First, Jackson is keeping a pretty huge secret from Jeremy, and he acts like it's not only NOT a big deal but as if he has the right to do so. Um ... not sure I agree with that one (especially since Jeremy is not only the man he loves but also his BFF). Second, nothing really happens in this book. The mystery is weak, the characters are lackluster, and I didn't feel like Jeremy's and Jackson's relationship moved forward much, either (I mean, it did take place over two or three days, so that probably has something to do with it).
I will be looking for the next one, regardless!
I will be looking for the next one, regardless!
June 28, 2026
"Classic Volkswagen Beetles did not generally come with factory-installed air conditioning. Instead, AC systems were typically dealer-installed options or aftermarket additions to meet customer demand in hotter climates.Several practical limitations made adding air conditioning to a vintage Beetle a tricky endeavor:Severe Power Drain: Early Beetle engines produced modest horsepower (ranging from 40 to around 60 hp depending on the year). Running the AC compressor would consume a significant portion of that power, making the car notably sluggish, especially when driving uphill.Fuel Economy: When the AC was turned on, gas mileage dropped significantly."
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews