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The Luke Littlefield Mysteries #5
Road Kill
Anthropology professor and former male model Luke Littlefield has the unfortunate luck to witness a situation that later turns out to be a murder. As a witness, Luke finds himself involved with the investigation when he is deputized by Mary Brooks, the medical examiner.
Luke’s personal life takes on a new twist when Scottish action hero Ian Stoddard appears back in Hollywood. As the murder investigation progresses, Luke is introduced to homicide detective Paul Johnson. When Paul teams up with Luke, it’s not clear what exactly Paul is looking for. And when a mummified corpse turns up in Ian’s home, a new mystery presents itself.
Back in Luke’s graduate class, the students are eager to take on the case study of a cold case from 1950. It soon begins to be clear that all three cases have something in common. As Luke navigates through the various twists and turns of the investigation, something unexpected is revealed about his friend, the octogenarian Norma Jean Baker.
Luke’s personal life takes on a new twist when Scottish action hero Ian Stoddard appears back in Hollywood. As the murder investigation progresses, Luke is introduced to homicide detective Paul Johnson. When Paul teams up with Luke, it’s not clear what exactly Paul is looking for. And when a mummified corpse turns up in Ian’s home, a new mystery presents itself.
Back in Luke’s graduate class, the students are eager to take on the case study of a cold case from 1950. It soon begins to be clear that all three cases have something in common. As Luke navigates through the various twists and turns of the investigation, something unexpected is revealed about his friend, the octogenarian Norma Jean Baker.
238 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 29, 2018
About the author
Stephen E. Stanley
40 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 - 1 of 1 review
April 11, 2018
Uneven but better than previous Littlefields
This series is supposed to take place in very gay West Hollywood California, with typically gay men. It misses the mark on several levels, most notably the author's inability to accurately reflect the SoCal gupy lifestyle. These guys are up around 6am to do some sort of workout everyday. They might not be gymrats and live there, but to maintain a great body they go to a gym and lift weights at least 4 days a week. And they don't eat or drink anything with sugars and starches anytime they want if they are trying to maintain 6 pack abs, which the author describes all the male characters as having. So the level of drinking described is unrealistic for these athletic men. The dedication required to maintain this level of physical upkeep is nowhere to be found in this book.
The author, also, doesn't accurately portray what it's like in the modeling world. While it is possible to work part time, the discipline required to maintain the perfect hair, teeth, and body are enormous and never go away. Not to mention an ongoing relationship with booking agents, photographers, and stylists. That necessary emphasis on maintenance is nowhere to be found either. If anybody has ever been around models, male or female, this level of upkeep (gym and fashion) is pervasive and inescapable.
Then there is the problem of two secondary characters getting tenure after being on staff at the college for less than 2 years. First of all, tenured track college positions are very hard to come by, and 2 of these positions popping up at a small college is impossible. Then there is the problem of these 2 teachers receiving tenure after only a year. Tenure track positions are usually a 5 year process with lots of tenure committee meetings to get final approroval. The department head doesn't just surprise a collegue with an "oh, by the way, you now have tenure." The author should know better than to make a sloppy mistake like this.
This series isn't as good as his other two (Ashford and Dancer), but the editing mistakes (grammar and spelling) are few. He does make the mistake of going on for a page at a time without naming the speaker in a lot of dialogue. I shouldn't have to go back and count paragraphs to determine who is speaking.
This series is supposed to take place in very gay West Hollywood California, with typically gay men. It misses the mark on several levels, most notably the author's inability to accurately reflect the SoCal gupy lifestyle. These guys are up around 6am to do some sort of workout everyday. They might not be gymrats and live there, but to maintain a great body they go to a gym and lift weights at least 4 days a week. And they don't eat or drink anything with sugars and starches anytime they want if they are trying to maintain 6 pack abs, which the author describes all the male characters as having. So the level of drinking described is unrealistic for these athletic men. The dedication required to maintain this level of physical upkeep is nowhere to be found in this book.
The author, also, doesn't accurately portray what it's like in the modeling world. While it is possible to work part time, the discipline required to maintain the perfect hair, teeth, and body are enormous and never go away. Not to mention an ongoing relationship with booking agents, photographers, and stylists. That necessary emphasis on maintenance is nowhere to be found either. If anybody has ever been around models, male or female, this level of upkeep (gym and fashion) is pervasive and inescapable.
Then there is the problem of two secondary characters getting tenure after being on staff at the college for less than 2 years. First of all, tenured track college positions are very hard to come by, and 2 of these positions popping up at a small college is impossible. Then there is the problem of these 2 teachers receiving tenure after only a year. Tenure track positions are usually a 5 year process with lots of tenure committee meetings to get final approroval. The department head doesn't just surprise a collegue with an "oh, by the way, you now have tenure." The author should know better than to make a sloppy mistake like this.
This series isn't as good as his other two (Ashford and Dancer), but the editing mistakes (grammar and spelling) are few. He does make the mistake of going on for a page at a time without naming the speaker in a lot of dialogue. I shouldn't have to go back and count paragraphs to determine who is speaking.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review