Additional Reviews
Additional Reviews
THE BUTCHER'S SON
by Dorien Grey
ISBN 1879194864
reviewed by Denise Pickles, Mary Martin Bookshop,
www.marymartin.com.au/crisep.html
September 8 2004
THE BUTCHER'S SON was my first experience of reading gay men's fiction. I have read and reviewed several lesbian mysteries, not finding much difference (except for the obvious) from their regular counterparts, in that there is the usual normal curve of good, bad and indifferent writers. I must say that I was very happy to discover my first experience of the sub-genre to be pleasant and interesting.
Dick Hardesty is a gay man holding down a job in a public relations firm. His boss, Carlton Carlson, is a homophobe who disdains everyone he considers his inferior. When a member of his staff does a good job, CC annexes unto himself all the praise. If anything goes wrong, he is not to blame.
Despite a series of arson attacks on gay bars, Chris, Dick's partner, persuades Hardesty to go to Bacchus' Lair, a new bar in town. There they watch a show which includes an act by a large, talented, black drag queen named Teddy but whose stage name is Tondalaya O'Tool. The finale to the show is a convincing act by another drag queen who mimics Judy Garland. Judy is the biggest hit of the night but the character is mysterious - no one knows the real name of the performer, whose exits and entrances into the building are always unobserved.
At work, Carlson summons Dick and informs him he will be working to improve the image of Police Chief Rourke. Grey describes this lovable, gubernatorial candidate as having 'political beliefs to the right of Attila the Hun'. Because of his attitudes and methods of dealing with gays, he is known in that community as the Butcher.
Hardesty must visit the police chief's household, together with a writer and a photographer, and supervise the composition of a feature story for the press. In amongst the family, Dick is introduced to Kevin Rourke, the butcher's son of the title, who happens to be a minister. Dick also notices a family photograph in which there appear to be two Kevins - he is told that Kevin and Patrick were identical twins, but Patrick has died.
Carlson puts Hardesty in charge of Rourke's drive toward being governor, although reserving his own right of veto on all matters. In the meantime, Dick learns that there is a rumour that the Police Chief despatched Patrick in what was described as a 'hunting accident' after learning that his son was gay. Despite being his identical twin, Kevin has apparently escaped that particular sexual orientation as he has a wife and child.
Dick's personal life is plunged into chaos when Chris is transferred to New York. Before Chris' departure, the two become closer to Bob Allen, owner of another gay bar, the Ebony Room.
Dick, after watching Rourke's treatment of Kevin, who seems unduly interested in becoming very close to the PR consultant, decides to undermine the campaign whilst giving the appearance of furthering the chief's political aims.
Dick has been asked by Bob, whose bar has been firebombed, to discover how his insurance claim is progressing. During this inquiry, Dick learns that the method used in all the arson attacks is the same as that formerly employed by a perpetrator enjoying the hospitality of the prison system. The awful conclusion is that either the arsonist has an apprentice on the outside - highly unlikely - or that the current bomber must be either a fire fighter or a policeman, since there were aspects of the case withheld from the public's knowledge.
A further fire bombing on a gay bar named the Dog Collar differs from previous attacks in that it was timed to cause maximum damage - and deaths - to both owners and patrons. Dick's investigations take him further toward the heart of twin mysteries, the identity of the bomber as well as the puzzle of exactly what happened to Patrick Rourke.
This is an excellent novel. The prose is crisp, the plotting encumbered with the requisite number of red herrings (mind, I must brag and say I spotted the killer well before the shocking finale.) The characterisation is convincing and the attitude of straights to gays portrayed poignantly. There is a great deal of sex, but that is an ornament of many of today's books, regardless of the sexual orientation of the lovers. Still, if you have homophobic prejudices, best shed them before reading some of the passages.
For those readers not unwilling to venture into this sub-genre, I can only recommend this Lambda Award finalist as a rewarding introduction to gay suspense literature.
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The Butcher's Son
Gay Mystery by Dorien Grey
Book Review: New Gay Mystery is Double the Fun
by Bronson Majors
Watch out, mystery fans: there's a new star down
at the corner, lurking in the shadows. Dorien Grey has made a debut splash
in a big way with his first gay murder mystery, The Butcher's Son
Grey certainly knows his way around the genre, and his
mastery of the English language is effortless. With an ease that belies the
fact he's a novice writer, he's woven a frightening tale of suspense that
kept this reviewer up into the wee hours. The Butcher's Son is all the more
intriguing because his characters are so full fleshed.
The action takes place in a major city (we suspect
Philadelphia but it doesn't matter). Gay bars are being torched right and
left, culminating in a spectacular blaze and several deaths that have the
whole metropolis talking. But no one has a clue who's behind it until amateur
sleuth Dick Hardesty (no comment) finds himself in the middle of it.
Hardesty, who works at a PR firm, is in the unenviable
position of having to punch up the electoral campaign of a sheriff whose
homophobic views grate on his nerves. But the sheriff has a married son with
looks that could kill.
Hardesty doesn't mind the work until the family's secrets start
melting away, one by one. Soon enough it starts looking less like the
all-American, family values household the campaign wants it to be, and more
like the portal of hell it actually is. And there's something about that
son that Hardesty can't quite pinpoint, and the twin who died so many years
ago....
The whole mystery unravels at the end, of course, in
a series of events too coincidental and fast-paced to be believed. The denouement
ties loose ends up way too neatly. Real life, it ain't. It's as if Grey,
once the mystery is solved, gets bored and wants everyone out of the room
as quickly as possible. The final pages do not satisfy.
But what's ten pages compared to 186 others that literally
explode in your hands? If at the beginning you think you've figured this
one out, hold your bets. Grey packs a stunning wallop at the end that will
intrigue even the most diehard fans of the genre.
We understand from the publisher he's got two more novels
in the pipeline now. We can't wait.
Dorien Grey. The Butcher's Son. San Francisco: GLB
Publishers, 2001.
196 pages paperback, $14.95. Available from the publisher at www.GLBpubs.com.
Also ask for it at Carmichael's, Crazy Ladies Bookstore, Out Loud Books,
Out Word Bound, Pink Pyramid, Planet Proud, and other fine stores. In the
Williams-Nichols Collection at the University of Louisville.
From an Amazon reader/reviewer:
There aren't many books I can truthfully say I couldn't put down, but Dorien Grey's "The Butcher's Son" is one of them. The story of identical twins, a homophobic tyrant of a police chief, a series of arson fires in gay bars, and protagonist Dick Hardesty's attempts to put all the pieces of the puzzle together grabs you from the first page and doesn't let you go until the final sentence. It doesn't matter if you're gay or straight, if you like to be kept on the edge of your seat by a good mystery, this is it!