The Butcher's Son

GAY MYSTERIES

# 1 OF THE DICK HARDESTY SERIES

THE BUTCHER'S SON DORIEN GREY

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Reviewers' Comments:

New Review-- 2004:

It is refreshing to find a gay protagonists who never goes to a gym, smokes two to three packs of cigarettes a day, stays out late drinking with his partner, and passes for straight in his day job as PR man for the gubernatorial candidacy of the much disliked Chief of Police.
The book is set after Stonewall, but not by much. Six gay bars have been torched in the last six months. They were burned using the method of a convicted arsonist who is still in prison, early in the morning when they were empty, so no one was injured.
Dick Hardesty works for a PR firm in an unnamed western city. He has been living with Chris, head window dresser for an upscale department store, for the last five years. Dick and Chris seem to be growing apart. Chris like to go out at night and party. Dick prefers to stay home. They go to a drag show which has a smashing last act, a Judy Garland impersonator, who seems to be Judy.
Dick's boss tells him that the chief of police, nicknamed "The Butcher" in the gay community, is going to run for governor and his PR firm has been selected to run the campaign and Dick has been chosen to try to make Chief Rourke, a right-wing homophobe, more accessible to the public. He does the best he can with the Chief, his nondescript wife, five children, and one grandchild. The eldest son, Kevin, is a minister. His twin, Patrick, died on a hunting trip when he threatened to come out of the closet.
Hardesty does his work well. The Chief is in the running. Dick sets up a press conference/fundraiser for the Chief at Kevin's shelter, on the fringes of the gay district. Dick knows that Chief Rourke owns the building which the shelter uses, and hopes that when that fact comes out, it will be enough to sabotage his campaign.
The book, only 197 pages long, speeds along to a satisfactory conclusion. This is the first of eight Dick Hardesty books by Dorien Gray (an obvious pseudonym).
By the way, there is some gay sex in the book, but, if you can tolerate straight sex in a book, there is no reason to pass this book up. There are wonderful examples of gay friendship and the futility of hypocrisy.
--- Barbara Franchi (www.reviewingtheevidence.com)

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Excellent book filled with a marvelous array of characters. From the delightful drag queen, Tondelay O'Tool/Teddy, the mysterious Judy Garland, and right down to the bigot O'Rourke, these are people who catch and hold your attention. The mystery surrounding Patrick O'Rourke's supposed death, his brother Kevin, and Dick Hardesty himself are all credible characters behaving in a plausible manner. The twists of plot coupled with Hardesty's personal life situation provide the backdrop for his leaving the Public Relations firm and hanging out his shingle as a Private Detective.
Evocative of Christine Spindler's "Faces of Fear"and filled with the spine-tingling chill of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the narrative grabs the reader from the opening page and keeps the interest right down to the last.
The Butcher's Son is Dorien Grey's second mystery thriller and is the prequel to his highly acclaimed The 9th Man. We who enjoy thrillers are delighted to know Dorien is hard at work on the next, and many more novels in this series are soon to be forthcoming. The Butcher's Son is a tale that will clinch you tight from the first line and will hold you fast right on down to the last page. Perceptive book and highly recommended.
--- m.j.hollingshead, www.bookdragonreview.com

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Gay mystery authors abound these days, although quality authors do not. Writers such as Mark Richard Zubro, John Morgan Wilson and Mary Wings are still popular, yet gay mysteries seem to be losing some of their luster as authors such as Michael Nava retire from the field, and other writers with lesser abilities come forth to try and take his place. Fortunately, Dorien Grey ranks right up there with the best mystery authors and clearly demonstrates his staying power in his latest release, The Butcher's Son.
Grey's protagonist Dick Hardesty was first introduced to us in The 9th Man, an exceptional piece of mystery writing (and also available in ebook and POD format through http://www.glbpubs.com). The sequel, The Butcher's Son, is actually a prequel in that it shows us exactly how Hardesty becomes a private investigator.
This time out, Hardesty is dealing with a lot of issues. For one, he and Chris, his lover of five years, are about to be splitsville. His horrible job has him doing public relations for an extremely homophobic police chief with designs on the governor's mansion. Add to this a mysterious series of bombings of local gay bars, and Hardesty's talent for snooping is greatly aroused.
Along the way he meets the police chief's son Kevin, a local priest running a homeless shelter who, although married, seems to be interested in Hardesty. Then again, so are a couple of local drag queens. When the fires start hitting close to home, Hardesty discovers that the flames and deaths are perhaps just smoke and mirrors for more deadly activities ahead.
I found this mystery to be just as enjoyable, if not more so, then Grey's first book. Once again his characters are extremely well-defined. The plot of the story is presented in a logical manner with a VERY surprising end twist. Just when I was convinced I knew who the killer was, Grey pulled a fast one that left me gasping with surprise at the conclusion. Throw in a little bit of gay sex, a well captured ambience of a drag show, accurate depictions of loss and love and voila…a recipe for a successful gay mystery.
This one's definitely worth reading, and does not need to be read before The 9th Man to make sense. Congratulations to Dorien Grey. At this rate, his third and fourth books are bound to be as successful as his first two, and just as likely to establish him as a premier mystery author to rival his contemporaries.
--- Jay Hartman, www.knowbetter.com

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Dick Hardesty is intelligent, witty, and sensitive. He's also gay. Not something you'd expect in your average P.I. but then Dick Hardesty is definitely not average. Apparently the gay community has just as many bad guys and murders as the straight folks and this can be good for business as DH discovers in earlier books in the series. Now, with The Butcher's Son, author Dorien Grey gives us the backstory on Hardesty -- how did a nice, intelligent, sensitive guy become a P.I.?
The Butcher's Son is a well-crafted story with fascinating characters and insightful prose. Dorien Grey is a talented writer whose ability to draw the reader into the story makes this a real page turner [at least in referring to the Print Published edition]. Well worth reading.
--- Betty Babas
Compuserve Romance/Mystery Reviews

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Dorien Grey, in his new detective book, The Butcher's Son, puts his hero, Dick Hardesty (yeah, I chuckled at the name, too), in the position of not being sure who is who when someone starts burning down gay bars all over town and the police chief (also called "the butcher"), shrugs the whole thing off. But then the female impersonators and drag queens get into the act and Dick is required to sleuth out who is hot and who is not. Dorien Grey's fine writing and his attractive assortment of characters may keep you up all night.
— Bill Lee, Author of Different Slopes and Rogues To Remember

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