Reviews:
The Paper Mirror is the tenth in Dorien Grey's Dick Hardesty
series. I now plan to pick up numbers one through nine. Dick Hardesty lives
with his partner and his partner's nephew. This set of facts sets the book
up to be something different than your typical mystery book. Without overpowering
the book, the use of virtually all gay characters in the book adds to the
book's appeal.
Mr. Hardesty is retained to investigate the death of
an employee at a new museum. The primary purpose of the museum is to hold
a collection of gay material from a local eccentric. The death occurs on
the night of the dedication of the museum. Although the people believe the
death is an accident, the museum board hires Mr. Hardesty to make sure there
was no wrongdoing.
Grey leads the reader through the investigation by Mr.
Hardesty. Grey does an excellent job of leaving the reader in the dark until
close to the end. He offers several explanations which pull the reader in
different directions. The final outcome is as much a surprise to the reader
as it is to the characters in the book.
—Oliver Grace (Liberty Press)
-----------------------
Despite the implications of the hero's name, the Dick Hardesty books by Dorien
Grey are not porn of the hard or soft-core variety, but gay mysteries.
Ironically, there's nothing in The Paper Mirror, the tenth
and possibly last in the series, that you'd be embarrassed to have your
grandmother read; Grey leans toward modesty in his off-stage sex scenes.
Dick even euphemistically refers to his "crotch," rather than anything a
little more specific.
Young, African-American library researcher Taylor Cates
has taken a tumble down a set of back stairs at a fund raiser for The Burrows
Library, which contains the literary collection of a wealthy gay benefactor.
Though the police have decided the death is accidental, Dick is asked by
the library's board to investigate. While searching for clues, he connects
with letters written by a closeted gay man, son of a prominent homophobe,
and though the letters don't appear to have any direct connection to the
crime, Dick can't resist reading them and empathizing with their author,
a prolific novelist unpublished in his own lifetime.
In between investigating, Dick enjoys a settled life
with his partner Jonathan and the boy they have adopted, the son of Jonathan's
late sister and brother-in-law. Though his crotch stirs occasionally, he's
clearly settled into a happy, fulfilling partnership. The book's tameness,
though, is its weakest part. There are hints that Dick was more of a cocksman
in his single days, but here he's an oddly Jessica Fletcherish detective,
following clues in a world where sex just isn't talked about. Though virtually
every character is gay, there's none of the messiness of real gay life, beyond
a few brief homilies about condom use and the plight of those dying from
AIDS and its complications and in need of hospice care.
The plotting, character and writing are fine, and Dick's
a believable detective who comes to a solution of the crime through a combination
of doggedness and insight. Maybe if he'd just listened to his crotch a little
more the book might have been more fun.
—Neil Plakcy , author of Mahu, a gay mystery
----------------------------
The Paper Mirror by Dorien Grey is the tenth in the gay mystery
series. This time Hardesty Investigations is asked to look into a suspicious
death at the newly opened library specializing in queer culture. With a list
of suspects that include a dishonest author with a taste for debauchery,
a prominent businessman whose family secrets may destroy his social position,
and an over-ambitious cataloguer with a flair for blackmail, Dick has to
hit the books to discover the killer before someone else gets taken out of
circulation.
--- Ralph Higgins, Wayves
--------------------
With 10 novels in five years, author Dorien Grey has practically made a cottage
industry out of the whodunit.
Sleth Dick Hardesty tackles one of his most interesting and novel cases yet
in The Paper Mirror, a
tale that leads you by the nose to a solution so "obvious," you have to laugh
when he pulls the rug
out from under your feet and delivers an investigative coup that would do
Poirot proud. Since getting hitched,
Hardesty has lost much of his hardnosed charm that first attracted me to
him, but Grey backpedals a bit on
the cloying cuteness in this tale, and comes up with one of his best titles
yet.
--- Ken Furtado, ECHO Magazine
--------------------------
The Chester Burrows Foundation, which includes a valuable gay literature
collection, has moved
to a new location, purchased per the contents of the late Burrows' will,
which allocated a million dollars
for the move. Dick and his lover, Jonathan, are invited to the grand opening,
which promises to be the
gay event of the year. Jonathan, who loves to read, is particularly anxious
to go because Evan Knight,
a famous author, will be there.
At the party, the newly dead body of one of the cataloguers,
Taylor Cates, is discovered in the basement.
At first the police think it's just an accident, since he was found at the
bottom of some stairs. But the board
is not so sure. Glen O'Banyon, a close friend of Dick's, and who sits on
the board, asks Dick to investigate
the murder. Thus begins Hardesty's most difficult case to date, which leads
to more murder, a family
vendetta, blackmail, disappearing old manuscripts, and missing letters between
two gay lovers.
Jonathan, who unexpectedly arrived on the scene a couple
of books ago, is beginning to mature and is
doing so nicely; he's outgrown his wide-eyed kid phase and has turned into
a stable, wise young man.
Jonathan's nephew, Jason, adopted by Jonathan and Dick in an earlier book,
is adorable as ever,
although not enough to annoy anyone who doesn't live with children--or even
those who have and are glad
they no longer do. (NOTE: That would be me ;-)
I couldn't help thinking, as I began to read the first
few paragraphs, how reassuring it is to settle into a new
Dick Hardesty mystery. It's very much like sitting around listening to old
friends tell a new story. All of Grey's
characterization touches are deft and low key; they're always just enough,
combined with an impeccably
drawn plot which has enough twists and turns to satisfy any mystery buff
anywhere. We're treated to an
unexpectedly fascinating look into the workings of a reference library as
we watch Dick solve yet another
murder mystery while still learning to cope with his new home life situation.
This book also includes a return
visit with Tondelaya O'Toole, one of my favorite Dick Hardesty characters;
I was happy to see him again
and always thought Dorien should write an entire book around him because
he's so sweet and funny and
wonderful. And I'd love to know where I can find one of those nifty and unusual
drink stirrers described
within the chapters of this book.
Grey's characters are real and loveable, his plotting
is terrific--it doesn't let up anywhere, and the twist
very close to the end even fooled me. This is Dorien Grey's best novel yet.
Don't miss it.
--- Beth Anderson, www.bethanderson-hotclue.com
--------------------------
It is good to see another novel in Dorien Grey's Dick Hardesty series appearing
on the crime fiction shelves
of bookshops throughout the world. Grey has been steadily augmenting his
audience for the mysteries
featuring gay private investigator Dick Hardesty. This tenth outing displays
the development of the author
as his plotting and writing become increasingly skilled.
Dick and his young lover Jonathan are settling well into
their role of parents to Jonathan's nephew Joshua.
Jonathan, who was the more determined of the senior duo to become a parent,
is chafing somewhat
at the restrictions imposed by their aping a 'straight' family but on the
whole, they comprise a happy
household. Then the pair are invited to the opening of a new Library housing
an important accumulation of
papers known as the Burrows Collection. Tragedy strikes during the celebration
when one of the cataloguers
of the Collection is found dead at the bottom of some stairs. The police
are inclined to pass the death off as
the result of an accidental fall but the Board of the Library determines
to hire Hardesty to investigate—just in case.
In the meantime, Jonathan, a voracious reader who is
pleasantly overwhelmed at the opportunity to meet
his favourite author at the Library opening, becomes the object of unusual
interest for that writer, Evan Knight.
For a time, Dick must muffle feelings of jealousy when Jonathan admits that
he finds the writer attractive in
more than literary matters. Dick pursues his investigations which lead him
to seek the help of an old friend
who grew up with the dead cataloguer.
Dorien Grey, while setting out all the clues to the mystery
quite fairly, is not above dragging a few small fish of an interesting hue
across the path of the reader. The plot is well constructed and intriguing.
His characters are,
as ever, skillfully drawn. No doubt readers of Hardesty's early adventures
will welcome the return of
Teddy Wilson, aka the flamboyantly colourful drag queen, Tondalaya O'Tool.
It is interesting to see how the
character of Jonathan is developing, losing some of that naivete which may
initially have astonished readers
who perhaps wondered how a man who had been through ordeals such as those
suffered by Dick's lover
could have retained quite so much apparent innocence in his character. Joshua,
too, is growing up though
his development is not yet so apparent as Jonathan's.
It will be interesting in future tales to observe the
further growth of both the writer of the stories and those
people who inhabit them.
---Denise Pickles, www.marymartin.com.au
http://www.reviewingtheevidence.com/review.html?id=5331
---------------------
The Paper Mirror opens with a ringing telephone.
Private Investigator Dick Hardesty is working on a crossword. Before long
his thoughts turn to incidents
covering the previous months. Dick and his partner have become parents to
Jonathan's
orphaned four-year-old nephew. Plus Dick has just worked with the police
to solve a puzzling series of
murders at the newly established Burrows library housing both eccentric Chester
Butler's extensive
collection of papers and books centering on homosexuality, as well as the
Gay Archives which have
heretofore been housed in a small storefront.
Chester Burrows, reclusive gay, wealthy and dead at 89
collected every thing written bearing the word
homosexual. His companion of later years was noted writer Evan Knight who
has a grasp of the nuances
of the 20s and 30s not often found in modern authors. Knight was hired to
by Burrows to get his
collection in order, catalogue and protect. Evan devoted a good bit of his
effort to the extensive 'Butler'
papers. During the 20s and 30s Jerromy Butler was a brimstone and hellfire
despiser of homosexuality.
Upon Burrows' death a million dollar bequest provides
that the Burrows Foundation be set into place.
It is at the celebratory party announcing the opening of the Burrows Library
that a body is found in the basement.
How cataloguer Taylor Cates died is apparent; blunt trauma to the back of
his head. He has fallen down
the stairs. Attorney Glenn O'Banyon, Burrows Foundation Board Member arranges
for Dick Hardesty
to begin an investigation. The police call the death an accident, O'Banion
and others on the board think
perhaps not. Hardesty is convinced that Cates' death is murder. But, how
to prove it, and why will take all
of Hardesty's skill as a detective.
As he continues his writing; Writer Dorien Grey just
gets better. In this reviewer's opinion The Paper Mirror
is the best to date. As is found in other writings offered by writer Grey
characters are clever, often conniving,
excellently masterminded and thoroughly developed. From the disdainful Evan
Knight, sneering Butler
nephew Zach Clanton, and contemptuous Butler grandson Collin, to young, sixteen
year old Craig Richman,
a fellow we have met before and who is coming to grips with his own gender
identity, to Craig's patient father,
Mark Richman each is credible and engaging. They are not all agreeable or
likeable.
Characters we have come to know and enjoy from reading
previous Dorien Grey:Attorney Glen O'Banyon,
police officers Mark Richman and Marty Gresham, Bob Allen and his partner
Mario, assistant Medical Examiner
Tim and his partner model Phil, Tondelaya O'toole - Teddy Wilson well known
drag queen who appears at a
fundraiser at the dance bar Steamroller are all included in the tale. Teddy
knew one murder victim, Taylor Cates,
they were neighbors when Taylor was younger.
Zestful energy, appealing perplexity and potent dialog
are offered in this tale filled with profuse strife in this well written,
fast paced tale. The Paper Mirror: a Dick Hardesty Mystery
by Dorien Grey, reveals a razor sharp account with
wit and eclat. I particularly enjoyed the repartee between Hardesty and Jonathan
as they settle into their roles as
new parents to an energetic youngster.
Not for everyone, while no explicit sexual scenes there is some oblique reference
to sexual activity. Those who
are unable to get beyond their own bias will not see beyond the references
to the gay community. On the other
hand The Paper Mirror is an excellent choice for any who enjoy
a good mystery, excellent presentation,
and fine writing.
Enjoyed the read, happy to recommend The Paper Mirror:
a Dick Hardesty Mystery by Dorien Grey for the home pleasure reading
library.
---Reviewed by: molly martin, www.angelfire.com/ok4/mollymartin
------------------------
As always, Dorien Grey offers splendid entertainment and enough plot twists
for the book to qualify as rotini.
It's hard to decide which is more fun, working with Hardesty to solve the
riddle or watching him adjust to parenthood.
— Elizabeth Burton, author of Dreams of Darkness and Shadow
of the Scorpion
--------------------------
Death in a research library sets Dick on a convoluted trail of fathers and
sons, suicide,
a closeted writer, and a tragic love.
The tenth in the Dick Hardesty mysteries presents us
with a more mature Jonathan.
Though still sweet and adorable, he isn't quite as naive as once he was.
I think parenthood
is good for him, though I can't help missing the person he used to be.
During a party, someone makes unkind and insensitive
references to an occasion when he'd
had sex with Jonathan during the latter's hustler days. Dick leaps in and
punches the guy,
causing me to cheer.
I particularly enjoyed Dick's mixture of empathy and
frustration with the long dead Morgan Burrows,
a man who found himself trapped in the closet by both family and the times
he lived in. Dick
is reminded of how much easier life is for him and Jonathan.
Gray's writing seems to have grown, Not that I had any
problem with it before. The murder-mystery
plot is complex and seems to have more twists. However, I had no problem
in keeping up.
There aren't as many suspects this time, and those paying very close attention
will be able
to spot whodunit, though I defy anyone to be totally sure until close to
the end.
I definitely recommend this story.
--Review by British Bull Dog in Rainbow Reviews
-------------------------------
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