This is my sixth read by this author. I’m a fan of his queer historical mysteries, but I found this contemporary mystery didn’t measure up to my previous experiences. The story follows Milo in third person as he accompanies his best friend Mark for a weekend getaway to northern Arizona to celebrate the sixtieth birthday of Mark’s ex, Brick. They are joined by Brick’s other friends, couple Oliver and Reese, Vaughn and his new husband, Tim, as well as a chef hired for the weekend.

The snowed-in lodge setting for this story was perfect for a “locked room” mystery. Unfortunately, aside from the prologue, there was no murder until near the end of the book. The majority of the book was spent revealing the relationships between the characters and with petty squabbles between friends, exes and friends of friends. For example, there were lots of complaints about the frugality of the lodge owner and how he kept the thermostat set on the arctic temperature of 72° F. This author’s dialogue is oddly formal and filled with detail. While it works for 1950s historical mysteries, it feels out of place for me in a contemporary one. I felt like the story needed more balance between the narrative and dialogue.

While I don’t really recommend this book except to fans of this author, I do recommend trying his 1950s mystery series.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bold Strokes Books for a copy provided for an honest review.

Secrets and Scandals

Things are already complicated with Milo having a secret crush on his friend Mark, but Mark seems to have become attracted to his ex, Brick, again, and they are trapped in a lodge on a weekend getaway during a snow storm. When a member of their party is found murdered, it becomes clear many of them have secrets and suspicion has Milo and Mark wanting to reveal the killer before they find themselves the next victim.

This story really surprised me because it was so different from any of David’s other mysteries I have read. They are usually set in historic periods that lend so perfectly to David’s style, but this one was set in modern times, and with a cast of older men. That style of David’s really worked with this too, it kept a simplicity that I appreciate with mystery’s and focused on letting you paint the picture of what all the characters were like and their surroundings from the way they converse and interact with each other. The representation of different types of relationships, and not having Milo and Mark already in a relationship was refreshing and meant they could both suspect one another as well as the other’s at the lodge when the murder happened. That in itself was most intriguing.

What I liked most about this mystery was the false sense of security you are lulled into, because while Mark and Milo lead with talking about a case to an unrelated murder that makes you aware it is a topic of intrigue to them both, the murder happens a lot later in this story. With six characters sharing the lodge the simplicity of getting them all together and learning how they all reacted to their situation and were behaving was a great build up, and made this an easy read. It kept me hooked, waiting for what I knew would be a big moment when something suddenly happened and there would be a rush to uncover the truth. It really kept me guessing because with every chapter I waited for that big moment, and when it didn’t come, I’d be excited to read on and find out what it would, and whether there would be any other surprises.

Really enjoyed this story and as usual, could not figure out who to suspect from the clues. It was elegant and simple, in a way I really appreciate.

The premise sounded wonderful as I'm a huge murder mystery fan. However, I this was just not for me..

Thank you Bold Strokes Books and NetGalley for this ARC copy.

"There is no type. Anyone can be driven to murder, given the right circumstances, motive, and opportunity."

Someone is guilty of three murders and one attempted murder. Someone with psychopathic tendencies and is egocentric. Has complete absence of guilt about what he'd done, reasoning that they all deserved to die. People like that often appear like normal, upstanding citizens, often even pleasant and charming.

After eight gay men (insert two couples, two best friends, an ex boyfriend and a hired chef) are stranded in an old lodge by a blinding snowstorm, a brutal murder leaves Mark Maddox to solve the crime as he discovers deadly secrets about people he thought he knew.

💭 This wasn't entirely bad. It's a decent who-done-it murder mystery with lots of scandal, intrigues (some political), relationship drama, trust issues and double crossing.
There are a lot of characters, red herrings, and I failed to guess the killer. I like the main character Mark and his love for cats. I love the commentaries about cats. I like the friendship between him and Milo. As for the rest, they are either characterized as boring or insufferable - and that is why we get blindsighted easily. 😼This book is giving a slight Hardy Boys vibe but with older men (40s-60s age group). My only complaint is that the first half dragged and nothing pretty much exciting happened until around 50% in. Then the attempted murder only happened around 60%, and someone finally died around 76% (one of my suspected red herrings) 😹 the ending also felt rushed.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thank you to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books Inc. 🖤

2.75✨ rounded up

if you think the sound of older gay men solving mysteries sounds like the PERFECT time, i did too. unfortunately, i was greatly disappointed to find out that the majority of this specific story—from exposition to description—was written in…dialogue? like, i’m not exaggerating, the entire thing was just back and forth conversations between characters. i kept on reading, thinking that surely there was a reason for this format, but just felt sorely disappointed by the end. there was also some odd biphobic undertones here and there 😬

I've really enjoyed David S. Pederson's Detective Heath Barrington series set in the 1940s as well as his Mason Adler mystery series set in the 1950s. So, I was intrigued by this new murder mystery set in current times at a snowed-in mountain retreat near Flagstaff, Arizona. A group of seven gay men gather to celebrate a birthday as tensions run high between former friends / business partners as well as former lovers. The first chapter of the book details two murders that occurred a few years prior, which may be tied to a person or persons in attendance at the birthday weekend.

But the intriguing start becomes bogged-down, at first by the large cast of characters and their backgrounds and interactions that need to be explained and detailed. And as the tension grows at the mountain cabin with a likely murderer and victim becoming clear, when the murder finally occurs (at the 80% mark), it is truly a surprise, and honestly a relief because so much of the book prior to this moment reads as tedious details and stilted conversations.

I enjoyed the way the author gives us an excellent red herring (or two) on the way to the murder being solved. However ... it's a bit too late and too little to counteract the pages of stiff dialog and one-dimensional characters (we rarely get a POV from any of the characters).

3 stars for an intriguing murder hampered by an overly long wind-up.

Thank you NetGalley and David S. Pederson for the eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

When I read the plot description, I had pretty high hopes for this book. I thought it would be a really good transitional book as we approach winter. Almost immediately, I can say that the writing style is just not for me.

Firstly, 80% of the book feels like it’s simply dialogue going back and forth. Most of the plot was moved forward through conversation, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it felt more like I was reading a script than a book. Another thing that really bothered me, was that the characters were almost all repetitive when they spoke. I feel like I read “as you know” so many times, following a character repeating something that was explained a few paragraphs prior.

Where the average age of the characters were 40-50s, I was genuinely confused with how they spoke. Sometimes, it sounded like they were 16 year olds. Other times, they spoke like they were from England with proper English, sending emails back and forth to one another. There was no consistency in how they spoke.

The main storyline from the description was figuring out who the murderer was, however, the murder happens SO late in the book and is basically immediately solved, that it felt like most of the book was unnecessary. I will admit, I didn’t guess who did it in the end, but the wrap up was far too fast and then it felt like the book simply ended.

It’s a very fast, easy read - but unfortunately it didn’t hold my attention, and I just don’t think that I am the intended audience for this book.

I wanted to like this more then I did. I'm not a big murder mystery fan but this sounded like something I could get behind. Unfortunately it wasn't for me

I considered giving it two stars because it was kind of funny, but it wasn't supposed be funny, more like me laughing at how stupid this was, so I'm keeping it at one stars.

The book opens with two unnamed men murdering a US senator. Then, one kills the accomplice and makes it look like he killed the senator and then himself, and he gives an entire monologue of his evil plans and how he accomplished all of this, how he poisoned the other man, and I found this scene legit very funny, if also ridiculous.

Then we meet Milo and Mark, our two main characters though I wouldn't say they really take on that role. They are in a bar together (I think? The settings aren't described much at all), and they talk. And talk. And talk. About sex, relationships, rehashing all their past relationships, including Milo's dead former husband who never gets brought up again. It's part pointless conversation, part clueing the reader in to the backstory, because this author has never heard of giving information through the internal narrative of the characters.

Throughout the book, there isn't really any internal narrative. I couldn't tell you which character's POV the book has, nor is there a clear omniscient narrator. It's basically 90% dialogue with the occasional, sparse description of the environment. And the dialogue itself is really not great. It keeps meandering, the characters have no filter whatsoever and rehash all their past drama all the time, even under circumstances where that doesn't feel appropriate at all, and I get the idea this is mostly to tell the reader all this. There's little setting the scene either, no atmosphere, just the minimal description to have a clue of what's going on.

The book basically goes on like this for a long time, and the actual murder doesn't happen until 80% in, unless you count the murder at the beginning, which no one is really investigating as it's a closed case and not really anyone's business. However, on their way to this getaway, Milo and Mark do rehash this murder, which happened a couple years ago, and they speculate about a second murderer and if any of the men they're going on this trip with could have been involved as they all had a connection to this senator. Which felt really weird, and again, only exists to clue the reader in to these connections.

As for the actual murder, it happens really late, and is solved rather quickly. Through investigation, do you ask? Not really. They do investigate a little, find a couple of clues that lead to the wrong person, and then they all get together, talk about it, and Mark has figured it out and basically tells us all what happened. We don't see Mark figuring this out, we don't go along on an investigation. We find a couple of red herrings and then suddenly Mark has the answers and it doesn't really feel earned.

The characters were largely either flat, or they sucked. I hated Vaughn deeply, and I feel sorry for anyone he's ever treated as a psychiatrist. He's rude to everyone, constantly correcting their speech when they aren't even wrong, and is randomly diagnosing people with disorders that don't even exist. Then there's Tim, his much younger husband, who I hope leaves him because I'd characterize the relationship as abusive even though the book never goes that far. Vaughn is in his 60s while Tim is in his thirties and Vaughn constantly belittles him and treats him like a child and at the end this felt really unresolved to me, it was not super explicit but it felt more like 'but Tim really loves him', which yes, lots of people love their abusers, that doesn't mean it's not abuse.

Milo and Mark, who are supposed to be the main characters, feel rather flat. Mark has a little bit of characterization, but Milo is just sort of there. At some point, a character, while rehashing past drama that truly shouldn't be for an audience, he's like, oh woops, didn't realize you were still there Milo. That's what most of the book felt like. I don't know what Milo was even doing in the story, apart from being a love interest to Mark, and even that didn't feel developed at all.

As far as I know, all the characters are gay, except for Brick who is bi, and there were some biphobic moments early on that I don't feel were ever challenged. Mainly, it's mentioned Brick used to cheat, but claimed it didn't count if it was with women, which feels really weird and it never gets brought up again anyway so I don't see why this was included at all.

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone, it truly reads like someone's unedited first book and it would need a lot more work before being anywhere near ready for publication.

No me encantó, pero tampoco me disgustó. A pesar de que ninguno de los personajes son agradables, el autor supo cómo mantener mi atención.

La historia trata sobre un grupo de amigos que se van de viaje y quedan varados por una tormenta. Durante ese tiempo, se descubrirán verdades que llevarán a la muerte de uno de ellos, y ahora tendrán que averiguar quién lo mató y por qué.


Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a great mystery throughout this, it had that element that I was looking for and enjoyed getting to read this. The plot was everything that I wanted and thought the characters worked overall. David S. Pederson has a great writing style for the genre and glad I got to read this.

I was really excited to read this after reading the synopsis but unfortunately I couldn’t bring myself to continue it. The writing style and dialogue was so bland and off? Definitely going to pass on this one but I truly appreciate being given the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Eight gay men snowed into a private lodge certainly sounds like a recipe for a memorable weekend. And it was, but not for the reasons the attendees would probably hope for. After all, a weekend where one of the men is murdered and attempts are made on the life of another isn’t something you would forget anytime soon.

To be honest, with the personalities most of these men had, it would have been satisfying for almost any of them to have ended up being the eventual victim.

The book is more than 2/3 finished by the time the murder takes place and then it just seemed to be a bit rushed from there to the end where we find out who did it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher/author for this copy of the book.

A group of men have decided to spend a weekend together relaxing. But that is far from what happens. Someone is out to get rid of one of them or all of them if they get in the way.
Not long ago a senator had been killed, suicide was suspected but that’s not what happened. And someone may have information about what happened.
A snow storm has cut them off and things are heating up not only with a killer on the loose but the attraction of two of them.
This is an interesting read but I would have liked more description of their surroundings as well as each person so you can connect better with them.

Thank you #netgalley #boldstrokesbooks #fatalfoulplay for this ARC

Thank you, NetGalley and David S Pederson for the ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 Stars!

TW: Biphobia.

Let it be said that I love a mystery as much as the next person, and I thought the mystery in this was interesting. After all, I pushed through because I wanted to know what happened in the end. I was incredibly intrigued by the concept of the book, and I loved that it would feature an all LGBTQ+ cast and would have something of a love triangle to contend with between the main character, his best friend, and his ex. I was pleasantly surprised to find this to have an older cast as well. Considering most novels these days tend to focus on 20-30-year-olds, it’s always nice to see older folks get the limelight.

I will say this novel successfully led me astray with red herrings, in the sense that I couldn’t guess how anything would connect in the end despite all the clues that Pederson laid for us. I did enjoy the drama within the story, the relationships between our cast are interesting to the point that you wonder why any of these people are friends. I think this relationship dynamic would bother some people, but I found almost all of them quite interesting. One of the highlights of this book is that each of the characters feels like a real person. Some of them were so familiar with the way they acted that I was sure I’d met someone just like them in real life.

However, despite these upsides, there is everything else in this book that kind of ruins the experience. My main gripe is the writing itself. This is the most straightforward writing I’ve ever read in my life. You could almost count this as a screenplay because it is mostly comprised of dialogue and nothing else. No expressions. No feelings. Barely any settings. No atmosphere. Everything is told to you. It literally goes like this:

“A”
“B”
“A”
“B,” he said.
“A,” he said.
“scene change, setting, what the characters are wearing.”
“A,” he said.
“B,” he said.
“C,” he said.
“D,” he said.

It’s like this throughout the whole book, and while it did make reading it fast-paced, it didn’t feel like I was reading a book. I understand that this author has multiple novels out and I can’t imagine that all of them are written like this.

Another issue that bothered me was the murder aspect. Murder doesn’t happen until we’re 80% into the book. I kept waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and was constantly disappointed. Then it became incredibly obvious who would be killed and the only saving grace here is that I had absolutely no idea why this person was killed, pushing me to finish the book. I may be no expert, but I’m pretty sure a murder mystery novel is supposed to have a murder happen a little earlier on so readers can feel a part of the investigation. This murder was resolved too quickly, and you really have to suspend disbelief for how it’s solved.

This leads me to yet another aspect that bothered me. Mark and Milo are side characters and they’re supposed to be the protagonists. The synopsis puts a great deal of emphasis on their relationship development and the drama that comes from Mark’s ex-boyfriend wanting to get involved. Some scenes between Mark and his ex (Brick) are so painfully awkward and stilted, I skimmed over them. And then there is no indication throughout the book that Milo is in love with Mark, minus one simple line thrown in the middle. If I didn’t know there was supposed to be a budding romance between them, I would have thought they only ever saw each other as friends. There’s no reason to root for them to be together. At least Mark’s relationship with Brick was interesting, even though it was clear that Brick was not good for Mark.

There is kind of a subtle hint of biphobia thrown at Brick’s character quite often and I can’t tell if it was just to make him look like a bad person or something else. There is this impression that his relationship with Mark didn’t work BECAUSE he was bisexual. *SPOILER* I didn’t care for the stereotypical cheating angle thrown in or that Brick didn’t think it was cheating because he slept with a “woman”. *SPOILER END* Bisexuals already deal with this stereotype that they are promiscuous and not looking for serious relationships. Brick had enough bad aspects to his personality that this didn’t have to be included to make him even more of a bad guy for Mark. This just felt unneeded and rubbed me the wrong way.

The only characters and relationships that I liked were Vaughn and Tim. They seemed like the most unlikely couple, and at first, I thought their relationship would go awry, but they grew on me. I was happy to discover that they really seemed to love each other. They of course have their issues; Vaughn can be an asshole. (Although I felt that he was undiagnosed autistic or neurodivergent and given his age and how autism would have been seen when he was growing it, it would make sense that he doesn’t know or see it in himself.) However, despite this, it’s clear that even with their age gap, there is genuine care between them. I’m glad this wasn’t the cliché case of a younger person marrying an older person for their money.

Overall, I can’t say that I disliked this book because I didn’t, but I can’t say that I loved it completely either. It kept me occupied for an evening if nothing else!

I would say give it a go if you want a rather quick read!

Again, NetGalley and David S Pederson for the ARC of this novel!

There was quite a lot of casual biphobia towards one of the characters. It was used very casually and it did not sit well with me. There were other problems with the writing and characters as well, but honestly as a bisexual, I was not pleased with how casually biphobic this book was at times.

Thank you very much to Netgalley & Bold Strokes Books for giving me an E-Arc in exchange for an honest review!


CW: Biohobia, Murder/Death


3.5 / 5 Stars

I struggled with the first 20% of this book, mainly because the writing felt a bit rough around the edges. The opening chapters feature two characters in a bar, just talking. There's no description of their expressions, gestures, or even thoughts—just pure dialogue like this:

"A"
"B"
"A"
"B"
"A"
"B"

It wasn't just the bare-bones writing style that threw me off, but the dialogue itself. It was clear that the characters were speaking more for the reader’s benefit than for each other, creating a disconnect that took me out of the story. The worst offender? Chapter one, with Mark and Milo. These are the two we’re supposed to root for, but honestly? I didn’t feel any spark between them. Given the story's direction, I knew they’d end up together, but they had so little chemistry that I found myself almost wishing we'd give Brick a second chance, even though he was kind of a jerk.

Actually, they were all kind of jerks at times. I couldn’t figure out how these people even became friends, given how intense their interactions were. It felt like a friend group that came together in school or college and stayed together out of habit rather than genuine connection. The kind of friendship that’s more about shared history than present feelings. It would’ve been interesting to explore this dynamic, but there wasn’t really time between all the childish pettiness and playground-level behavior.

That said, I did grow to like Vaughn and Tim a lot. I was relieved that we didn’t fall into the cliché "I just want your money" plotline. Honestly, by the end, I was wishing Vaughn could’ve called Tim "Timothy" one more time—ready to apologize—only for Tim to say, “No, I ... I actually like it when you say it.” Would have been the cherry on top of an already great established couple. Because, out of the three and a half couples we got—sorry, Brick—Vaughn and Tim were by far the best. I can't tell you how relieved I was when Vaughn survived the death flags.

Speaking of death, the book promises a murder mystery, but no one actually dies until we’re almost 80% in. And then the "mystery" is wrapped up in just two chapters. The senator’s murder felt completely unnecessary and only loosely connected to the actual cabin murder, which made it even less impactful.

On a slightly different note, I have to mention something that bothered me: there was quite a bit of casual biphobia throughout the story, particularly aimed at Brick. It was tossed around like it was just another Tuesday, and honestly, it didn’t sit well with me.

Final Thoughts:
I didn’t hate the story, but it’s not one that will stick with me for long. Vaughn and Tim definitely made it worth reading, but I doubt everyone will love them the way I did—or the way they loved each other—so keep that in mind.

I've read a lot of David Pederson's historicals and remember liking them. So I was surprised that this contemporary was so hard to get through. The first 30 percent or so—maybe more—was tell, tell, tell (with a healthy serving of "As you know, Bob" dialogue). I couldn't figure out why any decent person would want to hang out with any of the characters apart from Milo. And then, once the murder took place, the unraveling of the mystery had at least one major plot hole. (Spoilers: No one with an upscale lodge and a fancy kitchen would try to slice bread with a carving knife rather than a bread knife. Oh, and a presidential candidate doesn't pick their running mate until they've sewn up the nomination.)

I can, and will, forgive a lot in a book if I care about the characters and am caught up in the plot, but this book achieved neither of those things. All in all, it was a surprising disappointment.

My thanks to the publisher/NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.