Why should gay men be kept out of the mystery/thriller genre? Why shouldn’t we have a good chat and mouse mystery in which the main character is in the LGBTQ community, who has a great community and comedy of errors? Daniel Aleman’s book is a fun, normal-person-finds-themselves-in-a-crazy-situation dark comedy. David Alvarez is knd of desperate, he misses “the one that got away,” he can’t get an idea to write about that will be as good as his previous work, and the world is closing in on him. He only finds solace from his loneliness in matching with other gay men in NYC on Grindr, with mixed results. And then things get a lot worse. He meets a seemingly great silver fox and has an amazing night, only to wake up and find him dead next to him in bed.
But does he alert the authorities? No, he tells his agent Stacey, and they decide to haul the corpse all around Manhattan in a “Weekend at Bernie’s” type fantasy that has twists and turns and they figure out who this body used to be.
It is a crazy premise and this is kind of the definition of “dark comedy.” The dead body is just unlikable enough for us to not care that much that he is dead. We are more worried about David and Stacey and will they be able to get out of this unscathed. We shake our heads at them but we want them to solve the mystery (is it a mystery, really? or more of an identity crisis?)
This is probably unlike anything else you have read this year. Kooky and fun. Thanks to Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Book is available now where books are sold.
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