Signs Point to Yes

Mason Braithwaite #1

by Christopher Church

After quitting his dead-end job, Mason enacts his dream of becoming a psychic investigator, despite skepticism from his boyfriend. Eluding sketchy Hollywood thugs, surviving his first lap dance, and paying close attention to his dreams, he manages to solve a few mysteries and surprise even himself with his psychic skills.

Genres: LGBT

276 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 27, 2014

About the author

Church has worked as a journalist, writer, and editor, and was one of the driving forces behind Japan’s Jezebel magazine. He helped found the Hummadruz Film Festival, which held events on three continents and provided a platform for filmmakers working in world music and environmental themes. More recently he has worked on peer-reviewed journal articles and works translated from Asian languages. Church currently lives in Los Angeles and Landers, California, with his partner and a neurotic dog.

Reviews

[Annemarie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won this book in a goodreads giveaway!

Well, this was a nice and quick read for in-between, but really nothing special.
The writing style was okay, but not spectacular. The same goes for the plot.
I had some problems with the characters, too - they all seemed rather flat, pretentious and annoying. I had to roll my eyes at the stuff they said quite a lot. Also, everything went a bit too fast and perfectly well for the main character?! Rather unrealistic unfortunately.

[Adam Dunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must say I don't believe in psychic powers.
That being said I read an interview with the author on dailyxtra and he seemed nice and the novel sounded unique. I tried a sample on the Kindle and I wanted to keep reading so I bought the book.
There seems to be a lot of gay detectives in fiction lately and a lot of ways to go wrong, but Church manages to side-step them. He doesn't write from a too-young voice that sounds forced, his characters are believable and the action is organic. I thought it was very smart that we didn't jump right in to the psychic business as that would have turned me off. There's really two cases here, one stemming from the other, and it's not until the second case when we have some knowledge of the characters that the psychic business starts happening. Also the lead Mason's boyfriend is a non-believer which helps give voice to the non-believing reader. Very smartly done.
The story was good, the characters likeable, and the action moved well. Ultimately though a psychic detective has to be psychic and when that happened it was a little too far-fetched for me. But that being said I still enjoyed the story. I also felt a little more could have been made of the humour, in the strip club for example, but it's a minor note.

[Wende · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found intriguing how Mason was able to grow his psychic powers. I really like the character Ned. He did not believe in Mason's psychic powers but he was supportive and helped him with his cases. They as as a couple was believable. I can't wait for another book in this series. I liked that I found a new author to read.

[PaperMoon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A light ditsy read for holidays. Paranomal elements mixed in with gay sleuth/detective. Reminds me of Haley Walsh's Skyler Foxe books. 3.5 stars overall.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice gentle little tale, somewhat enjoyable characters, though don’t quite see the relevance of the gay element in the telling of the story.