Hot Spot

Mark Manning Mystery #6

by Michael Craft

During his distinguished career as a journalist, Mark Manning has seen it all--riots, murder, political corruption, and every manifestation of the dark heart of the human species. But even his proven emotional resources will be stretched when the home he shares with his lover, architect Neil Waite, and his ward and nephew, Thad Quatrain, becomes the site of one of the most daunting, taxing, and potentially dangerous of all human rituals--a wedding.

Roxanne Exner, best friend to both Mark and Neil, is having her nuptial ceremony at their house in the normally bucolic Dumont, Wisconsin, partly because Carl Creighton, her husband to be, is in the final weeks of his campaign for lieutenant governor of Illinois. For Roxanne, Dumont will afford some needed distance from the campaign, and for the city of Dumont, it will be the social event of the season. The wedding, despite everyone's fears, comes off with nary a hitch. The reception, however, takes a disastrous turn when a local matron, who happens to be a major donor to the campaign of Creighton's rival, is killed in what appears to be a freak electrical mishap.

Authorities soon discover that the electrocution was no accident. Then another shocker--Roxanne herself becomes the prime suspect. If Roxanne is ever to enjoy her honeymoon, and if Carl and his running mate are to stand a chance of election, Mark finds himself in a race against the clock to solve a most perplexing murder.

Genres: Mystery, Gay, Fiction, LGBT, Gay Fiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published July 19, 2002

About the author

Michael Craft is the author of 20 published novels, four of which have been honored as finalists for Lambda Literary Awards. The first installment of his Dante & Jazz series, "Desert Getaway," was a 2023 MWA Edgars nominee for the Lilian Jackson Braun Award. The second installment, "Desert Deadline," was a Gold Winner of the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award, as was his 2019 mystery, "ChoirMaster." In addition, his prize-winning short fiction has appeared in British as well as American literary journals. Craft grew up in Illinois and spent his middle years in Wisconsin, which inspired the fictitious small-town setting of Dumont, used in many of his earlier books. He holds an MFA in creative writing from Antioch University, Los Angeles, and now lives in Rancho Mirage, California, near Palm Springs, the setting of his current Dante & Jazz mystery series. In 2017, Michael Craft's professional archives were acquired by the Special Collections Department of the Rivera Library at the University of California, Riverside. Visit the author's website at www.michaelcraft.com.

Reviews

[Alannah Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best of the Manning series up to this entry

The absolute best of the Manning series up to this point. As Thad is preparing to step into his adult life, his "dad" Mark Manning is wrestling with a terrible choice in his. Mark has very little time to help solve the mystery behind the death of a prominent town figure who died at a party at his own home. There is a wealth of suspects with opportunities, as well as additional suspects whose motives and/or opportunities are more murky. I hate to further along a cliche, but I was on the edge of my seat trying to figure out whodunit (or at least who didn't do it!). The conclusion was a surprise and very satisfactory. I have heard that Michael Craft intended this to be the final entry in the Manning series. "Hot Spot" winds up beautifully and would indeed have been the perfect ending to the series. But fortunately, there is one more. Yes!!!!!

[Nicolas Chinardet · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is very little happening in this book between the murder at the beginning and the reveal scene at the end. It is in fact rather a surprise that Craft managed to drag this for 272 pages.

Manning, as usual, proves a terrible detective, ignoring obvious leads, negating to have crucial conversations and taking his dreams a little too seriously, though this is, one suspects, for the benefits of extra copy. There is much clumsiness in the writing too. More than I remember in previous instalments.

The weakest book of the series so far, in my view.

[Gennaro Hathaway · Rating 5 out of 5]

Started slow but turned into a great mystery.

[Gare Bear · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good book in the series all though things are starting to become pretty repetitive. At this point I am interested to see where the last book will take us.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

Third mystery in the Mark Manning series. Good mystery regarding a death at a wedding reception with possible political campaign ramifications and a very limited time in which to solve it. Series has an unusual twist in that the main character is gay.

[Eric L Aust · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good

Even the ending the usual airing of motives that usually happens in Agatha christie type mysteries was handled without being to noticeable clunky.

[Lee Rey · Rating 4 out of 5]

another great installment in the series with a great mystery.