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A millionaire’s missing computer, their dead housekeeper and a family secret hidden in plain sight: these are the elements of a most unusual case quite literally handed to Detective Vasily Korsokovach moments after arriving at John Wayne International in Southern California. Put into the awkward position of cleaning up a colleague’s sloppy investigation, Vasily immediately finds himself on the defensive after he begins asking uncomfortable questions in pursuit of the truth. And when he pulls a thread that inadvertently connects to a decades-old suspicious death that has a personal connection to the department, he encounters uncompromising and outdated attitudes in the one place he least expects to find them.
While he’d hoped for a fresh start, this wasn’t exactly what he had in mind.
Alone and truly on his own for the first time in years, Vasily buries himself in his initial case as lead detective and leans heavily on a new friend – one who he hopes could become something more, replacing the ache in his soul that has dogged him since leaving everything he loved behind in Windeport. Broken hearts have a way of blinding one to everything else that is important, though, and Vasily is no exception to that rule...
While he’d hoped for a fresh start, this wasn’t exactly what he had in mind.
Alone and truly on his own for the first time in years, Vasily buries himself in his initial case as lead detective and leans heavily on a new friend – one who he hopes could become something more, replacing the ache in his soul that has dogged him since leaving everything he loved behind in Windeport. Broken hearts have a way of blinding one to everything else that is important, though, and Vasily is no exception to that rule...
- GenresLGBT
206 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 6, 2021
31 people are currently reading
13 people want to read
About the author
Christopher H. Jansmann
20 books30 followersBorn and raised in Maine, Christopher H. Jansmann spent nearly three decades as a professional IT nerd before recalling a childhood ambition to become an author. He quickly set about correcting that oversight and published his first novel, Blindsided, in 2020, launching what would become his signature style of blending memorable characters with vibrant locations. Chris is the author of the Coastal Maine-set Sean Colbeth Investigates series and the interconnected Southern California-based Vasily Korsokovach Investigates novels.
Despite his love for the Northeast, Chris escaped the cold for sunny Arizona where he currently resides with his beautiful wife and a Shar-Pei mix that insists on being walked regularly.
Despite his love for the Northeast, Chris escaped the cold for sunny Arizona where he currently resides with his beautiful wife and a Shar-Pei mix that insists on being walked regularly.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 17, 2023
I took a punt on this author and was engaged with a fairly decent 'mystery' featuring a gay protagonist who is much less 'hard-nosed or hot-headed' than one Slater Ibanez but not as 'straight-laced or by-the-book' as one Hugo Duchamp. I'm always glad to find another new gay detective series to embark upon - 3.5 stars.
July 18, 2024
I thought this was going to be a 4 star book even though the writing in the first chapter was a little wonky. Two things lowered my rating. The first issue was the ending. Or should I say the lack of an ending. No closure on multiple situations in the story. It is not like it ended on a cliffhanger. It was like the author met a word quota and just stopped. I turned the page expecting more to the epilogue but there was nothing. In addition, it appears the sequel is jumping ahead and leaving a gap in the story. I haven’t finished the sequel but so far it seems to be skipping over a lot of unanswered questions from the first book. Not satisfying at all.
Second, the way Vasily was initially characterized did not make his interactions with Mark seem believable. I found it hard to believe that 15 minutes before Drew was to come over, Vasily not only allows Mark to come inside his apartment but then gets so carried away with him that he forgets about Drew, misses Drew’s texts and calls, and doesn’t hear the apartment buzzer. That seemed out of character. Maybe if it had happened after Drew said he had a boyfriend, I might have accepted it. Then to further confuse what kind of person Vasily is, the author has Vasily getting hurt the next day when Drew says he has a boyfriend. Pick a lane for the character and stay in it.
I thought the Disneyland scene with his parents was farcical. I mean I get the dinner was to convey the tension between Vasily and his parents, but why did it occur at Disneyland? Odd setting. I also thought the author should have explained more why Vasily left Maine. I have my theories but there was nothing to confirm the reason. Maybe that would have helped explain why Vasily’s character was so inconsistent. I didn’t even realize until I read the afterward that there was a book in another series that explains who Sean was. If the author wasn’t going to explain the Maine situation in this book, then it should have been noted in the synopsis or the forward that there is another series tied to Vasily. If I had known that I would have read Blindsided before Pariah.
Other trivial irritations – an indoor residential bathroom jacuzzi running continuously, detectives handing out tickets, and too many statements ending in a question mark. All minor but they started to add up and became annoying.
I think the series has potential if the author can settle on a persona for Vasily. Right now, Vasily is all over the place without consistent values and behaviors. Overall, it was 2.5 stars. I rounded down to 2 because of the epilogue and the second interaction with Mark at the apartment.
Second, the way Vasily was initially characterized did not make his interactions with Mark seem believable. I found it hard to believe that 15 minutes before Drew was to come over, Vasily not only allows Mark to come inside his apartment but then gets so carried away with him that he forgets about Drew, misses Drew’s texts and calls, and doesn’t hear the apartment buzzer. That seemed out of character. Maybe if it had happened after Drew said he had a boyfriend, I might have accepted it. Then to further confuse what kind of person Vasily is, the author has Vasily getting hurt the next day when Drew says he has a boyfriend. Pick a lane for the character and stay in it.
I thought the Disneyland scene with his parents was farcical. I mean I get the dinner was to convey the tension between Vasily and his parents, but why did it occur at Disneyland? Odd setting. I also thought the author should have explained more why Vasily left Maine. I have my theories but there was nothing to confirm the reason. Maybe that would have helped explain why Vasily’s character was so inconsistent. I didn’t even realize until I read the afterward that there was a book in another series that explains who Sean was. If the author wasn’t going to explain the Maine situation in this book, then it should have been noted in the synopsis or the forward that there is another series tied to Vasily. If I had known that I would have read Blindsided before Pariah.
Other trivial irritations – an indoor residential bathroom jacuzzi running continuously, detectives handing out tickets, and too many statements ending in a question mark. All minor but they started to add up and became annoying.
I think the series has potential if the author can settle on a persona for Vasily. Right now, Vasily is all over the place without consistent values and behaviors. Overall, it was 2.5 stars. I rounded down to 2 because of the epilogue and the second interaction with Mark at the apartment.
July 20, 2023
Barely 2 stars because the writing itself (grammar, spelling) was fairly decent for an mm book with a really lousy MC, coupled with an even lousier storyline.
This book was a big, fat "ugh" for me. The lead MC comes off as a complete manwhore who lets his penis guide his life choices, including those that impact his job. He has an Obnoxious-with-a-capital-O coworker who starts coming on to him hard and fast right off the bat. The MC wisely tells the guy to back off and that he's heading into sexual harassment territory. This occurs several times. Then, from out of the blue, the obnoxious coworker stalks the MC to his home and when the MC lets him in (mind boggles), the MC suddenly finds this guy is like sexual crack because of the way he is dressed and events ensue like, immediately (mind REALLY boggles). This all turns around and bites the MC in the butt as we poor readers know it will and yet the author wants us to read the whole book anyway. Meantime there is a murder mystery going on that the MC is ostensibly working on, except that he really isn't, because he's too busy running/swimming/whoring around/running some more/swimming some more/whoring around lots more, ad nauseum.
The MC gets a metric f-ton of sex in this book in the matter of mere days, but the sex is pretty much off the page, which feels really weird when the book's MC apparently can't keep it in his pants for 24 hours. Not that I'd want details (spare me), but it's just an odd juxtaposition - although one I was ultimately thankful for.
The book also attempts to come off as a love letter to the alluring call of So Cal, and for me, that's a riot as I can personally state that the author's version of So Cal seriously glosses over all the ugly parts of existing in that environment. Better you should listen to the lyrics of Hotel California, which nails the truth of So Cal to the wall with its steely knife.
p.s. once you've been to Disneyland 1,000 times because you live nearby, you really never want to ever go near it again, much less pine for it from afar.
Will not be reading more by this author, cannot recommend.
This book was a big, fat "ugh" for me. The lead MC comes off as a complete manwhore who lets his penis guide his life choices, including those that impact his job. He has an Obnoxious-with-a-capital-O coworker who starts coming on to him hard and fast right off the bat. The MC wisely tells the guy to back off and that he's heading into sexual harassment territory. This occurs several times. Then, from out of the blue, the obnoxious coworker stalks the MC to his home and when the MC lets him in (mind boggles), the MC suddenly finds this guy is like sexual crack because of the way he is dressed and events ensue like, immediately (mind REALLY boggles). This all turns around and bites the MC in the butt as we poor readers know it will and yet the author wants us to read the whole book anyway. Meantime there is a murder mystery going on that the MC is ostensibly working on, except that he really isn't, because he's too busy running/swimming/whoring around/running some more/swimming some more/whoring around lots more, ad nauseum.
The MC gets a metric f-ton of sex in this book in the matter of mere days, but the sex is pretty much off the page, which feels really weird when the book's MC apparently can't keep it in his pants for 24 hours. Not that I'd want details (spare me), but it's just an odd juxtaposition - although one I was ultimately thankful for.
The book also attempts to come off as a love letter to the alluring call of So Cal, and for me, that's a riot as I can personally state that the author's version of So Cal seriously glosses over all the ugly parts of existing in that environment. Better you should listen to the lyrics of Hotel California, which nails the truth of So Cal to the wall with its steely knife.
p.s. once you've been to Disneyland 1,000 times because you live nearby, you really never want to ever go near it again, much less pine for it from afar.
Will not be reading more by this author, cannot recommend.
July 24, 2024
This review is for the audio version of the book.
This is my first book by Christopher Jansmann, but it’s definitely not the last. At 1/2 the story I looked up and downloaded 5-6 more of his books. This is so good!!!!
Real, gritty, and well written, Jansmann’s first book in the series reminds me of the gay detective series set in the 80’s by Marshall Thornton. Nick Nowak suffered the bigotry and violence for being a gay detective. Vasily Korsovovak is a gay detective in current times, also suffering from prejudice and isolation in the LAPD. One would expect that acceptance of sexual orientation would be the prevailing culture in the 2020’s. This book is compelling and so good!
I hate AI narration. It’s cheaper than employing a human voice actor, but it’s so wrong. For example, the AI voice inflection is often incorrect, going up like a question at end of sentences, halting midway through a sentence, just irritating and sad.
I support human voice actors.
This is my first book by Christopher Jansmann, but it’s definitely not the last. At 1/2 the story I looked up and downloaded 5-6 more of his books. This is so good!!!!
Real, gritty, and well written, Jansmann’s first book in the series reminds me of the gay detective series set in the 80’s by Marshall Thornton. Nick Nowak suffered the bigotry and violence for being a gay detective. Vasily Korsovovak is a gay detective in current times, also suffering from prejudice and isolation in the LAPD. One would expect that acceptance of sexual orientation would be the prevailing culture in the 2020’s. This book is compelling and so good!
I hate AI narration. It’s cheaper than employing a human voice actor, but it’s so wrong. For example, the AI voice inflection is often incorrect, going up like a question at end of sentences, halting midway through a sentence, just irritating and sad.
I support human voice actors.
May 10, 2023
Interesting plots let down by writing style; the detail accorded every little thing interfered with the pace of the book. At the same time, important questions weren’t asked I.e. how had Vasily’s colleague been allowed to get away with obvious incompetence? With some good editing, this could have been a much better murder mystery.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews