Getting Orlando

by Anthony McDonald

When Oliver loses his job and his lover in the space of a few months he feels, aged 38, that the best of his life is behind him…Unexpectedly his life is transformed when he encounters an extraordinarily beautiful red-head on a train just minutes before a stranger offers him cash to courier a mysterious package out of the country. Money, travel and adventure are suddenly within his grasp and so, amazingly, is the young man to share them with. But when dreams come true the aftermath is seldom predictable and Oliver finds himself drawn into the outer orbits of a shadowy world of art theft and drug smuggling, and into a relationship whose roller-coaster progress will test him to his limits.Getting Orlando is a novel of adventure, travel and romantic …a taut thriller which vividly evokes southern Europe, in particular the vast expanses of Spain. …the final lines are profoundly shocking – Peter Burton…successfully creates the gay love story within this action-packed adventure – Gay Times

Genres: Gay, M M Romance

437 pages, Paperback

First published April 22, 2011

About the author

Anthony McDonald studied history at Durham University. He worked very briefly as a musical instrument maker and as a farm labourer before moving into the theatre, where he has worked in almost every capacity except those of Director and Electrician.
His first novel, Orange Bitter, Orange Sweet, was published in 2001 and his second, Adam, in 2003.
Orange Bitter, Orange Sweet became the first book in a Seville trilogy that also comprises Along The Stars and Woodcock Flight.
Other books include the sequel to Adam, - Blue Sky Adam - and the stand-alone adventure story, Getting Orlando.
Ivor's Ghosts, a psychological thriller, was published in April 2014.
The Dog In The Chapel, and Ralph: Diary of a Gay Teen, both appeared in 2014. Anthony is the also the author of the Gay Romance series, which comprises ten short novels.
Anthony McDonald's short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies on both sides of the Atlantic
He has also written the scripts for several Words and Music events, based around the lives and works of composers including Schubert and Brahms, which have been performed in Britain and in Portugal.
His travel writing has appeared in the Independent newspaper.
After several years of living and teaching English in France McDonald is now based based in rural East Sussex.

Reviews

[Roger Kean · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars The style and impact of Anthony McDonald's writing nagged at the back of my mind through three of his sublime books until it came to me: there is a similarity in feel to the work of the great Robert Goddard. I think it's the way McDonald relates so geographically to his locations – in this one as varied as London (Piccadilly), the South Coast, Funchal (Madeira), Cologne, and all over Spain – which remind me of Goddard. But it is a parallel, not in any sense of being a copy. McDonald has his own entirely romantic style.

Oliver has lost his job as a civil servant and decides to retrain as a teacher of English to foreigners. When he meets beautiful red-head Orlando at the same London college – a boy he's already infatuated with after seeing him on a train journey – Oliver loses his rather pre-packaged heart. But can a relationship between a man verging on the big four-oh and a vibrant and sometimes drunken 24-year-old really work? Finding out is a true joy in a story which includes smuggling, mad truck driving, and a fiery love-making.

[Don Bradshaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book after panning a short that the author wrote under the name Tony Pike. I was surprised at the quality of this intense story. I liked Orlando and his spirit. Oliver was a little more difficult to get into. I found it hard to believe that he did not realize that the courier service wasn't smuggling from the get go. The adventurous theme that runs through the story keeps it interesting although at times it reads like a travel guide. There were times where the fiction overlapped with the fact and hit hard as if it was taken from today's headlines. I recommend this well put together story if you enjoy your fiction on the realistic side. My compliments Mr. McDonald.

[Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic contemporary romance about the love between Oliver an out of work Civil Servant and Orlando a Farmer's son in his mid 20s. Set in the UK, Spain, Germany and Portugal with Smuggling and other dodgy dealings added in to keep it exciting.

I really liked the realism of this story, it was not sickly sweet, but nor at any point was it overly sad. Just a simple tale of the developing love between 2 men.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sorry! A personal-response rating that in no way should reflect on the quality of the book. I just found the writing meandering and ungripping & ended up skimming lots.

[Logan · Rating 4 out of 5]

bit of romance with some suspense and mystery...was a good recommendation from a good buddy.

[PaperMoon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Crazy road-trip storyline, involving some very dubious dealings and M-on-M action.

[Christopher Winterburn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! Having read two other books from Mr McDonald I had high expectations and he doesn't disappoint. In fact I loved the other two books (Adam Series) so much that I didn't think he could do something as good and original but it was amazing.

Not so much a gay novel but rather a crime adventure of sorts where the two main characters just happen to be gay. Why can't we have more like this in written form and on TV? In fact this book would make a good film or mini-series.

The main and secondary characters are excellent. All very intriguing. I have a passion for good-looking redheads so I was melting over Orlando.

A brief plot outline. Chap needs to make some money and so offers to carrier items abroad for a mysterious fellow. At all gets out of hand for him but his end goal is the delightful ginger chap he sees and falls in love with on a train.

I really aren't going to say anything further on this. If you want a first class book that puts you right inside the story then whether gay or straight or whatever, I'm sure this book will delight.

[Jess Chambers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Touchingly beautiful, this is a novel about traveling to new places, the quest for adventure, and, most of all, the enduring power of love. It’s about what happens when the things you wish for really do come true, and how life rarely turns out the way you anticipate.

After losing both his job and his lover, Oliver longs for new opportunities and someone to share them with. What he never imagined was that he would meet such a beautiful young man as Orlando, and that the two of them would be plunged into the criminal underworld of art theft and drug smuggling. This story somehow succeeds in being both surreal and horrifyingly believable, echoing real life in a way that, at times, is a little too close for comfort. Intriguing from the outset, the narrative exhibits all the wonderful writing, deeply flawed characters, and stunning descriptions of foreign landscapes that I have now come to expect from this author. I loved it.

[Martin Belcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read and thoroughly enjoyed Anthony's two novels in his Adam series and saw this book and instantly bought it. This is a charming love story, Oliver a thirty something guy going about his business on the train accidentally meets a stunningly beautiful red headed young man called Orlando. Oliver never thought for one minute that Orlando would give him a second look; they both click and fall desperately and completely in love. The romance leads them into giving up their lives in England and working their way across Europe from Germany to Spain, France to Portugal they are thrown literally into a life adventure that tests them and their relationship to the limits. A wonderful gay romance story. Beautiful.

[⚓Dan⚓ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! What a great read this was. Highly recommended.

[Edward Drew Bustamante · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this in 2013, loved it!