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Paperback
Publisher: Alyson Books
Against the backdrop of state elections, Phillip Scott's likable but unlikely amateur sleuths from down under, Marc and Paul, find themselves investigating a series of bizarre murders. But the investigation is hampered when Paul finds unexpected fame on television, and Marc must cope with a sexy new neighbor and a weepy ex-boyfriend. Phillip Scott is the author of three other Marc and Paul mysteries: One Dead Diva, Gay Resort Murder Shock and Get Over It!
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| Enjoyable Australian |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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This is the first of Scott's books I've read, and I enjoyed it. Marc is asked to teach an adult education course after the original lecturer is killed in what might be a gay hate crime, and out of guilt and curiosity he does some brief investigation.
Then Paul becomes a minor media star, and Marc signs on as his personal assistant/minder. When another gay man is murdered, this dynamic duo undertake their investigations in earnest. I enjoyed the Australian background and found the two sleuths to be fun and believable.
Neil Plakcy, author of Mahu Surfer: A Hawaiian Mystery (An Alyson Mystery)
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| Mildly Entertaining |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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MARDI GRAS MURDERS is a murder mystery that offers some modest entertainment and suspense. Set in Australia, and staring an aging unemployed opera queen, and his totally self-impressed friend, the mystery surrounds 2 seemingly unrelated, but somehow related, murders. Huh?...Yep...The plot line is liberally doused with opera trivia (so totally `50's and foo-foo ya' know?), some passable banter, and a political agenda which never is clearly, at least for this reader, defined. The outcome is totally predictable and hardly worth the effort. I was somewhat disappointed with this book, but not everything one reads is going to be stellar. If you have run out of things to read, this is an option, but do not place this book ahead of anything you find even marginally more interesting.
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| Nostalgia trip |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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I love Marc and Paul! It's a few years since I read the three books in the Marc and Paul series, and even longer since I wrote them.
The world has changed since then: everything subtly altered after 9/11 and the casual, camp world that Marc and Paul inhabit seems to be no more, certainly not as it was. The climate of fear produced by terrorism and the hype surrounding it in some perverse way seems to have set back general acceptance and tolerance of us. I have no idea why; blame it on chaos theory! I seem to have been weirdly prescient in Mardi Gras Murders (originally published as Get Over It! in Australia in 2000)- I predicted a sharp swing to the right and the revival of "acceptable homophobia". Where I was wrong, though, was imagining a surge of grass-roots activism to counter it. There has been nothing of the kind. (Yet! It may come as circumstances worsen and rights disappear.) Instead we in the gay community, if you can still call it that, have gone about our trivial business, doing our best imitation of pre-WW2 Germany: "nothing's happening and if you don't look you won't see it."
These books are funny: I was pleasantly surprised at how much trouble I'd gone to in order to get laughs. Laughter is a pretty good political tool and still "the best medicine". I think you'd like Mardi Gras Murders. If only out of sound business practice, I give it 5 stars.
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| Entertaining and humorous light mystery |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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In the third of the "Mark & Paul" mysteries to be released in the states by Alyson (All were previously released in Australia), Phillip Scott takes a decidedly political bent in having his characters involved in protesting proposed anti-gay laws while investigating what appears to be the work of a serial killer preying on gay men. Mark, a fifty-something retired teacher, is drafted the be the personal assistant to Paul, his flamboyant younger friend, who lucks into a position as a "lifestyle" commentator on a tabloid TV show. When one of the support people on the show, who had previously dated Paul, becomes a victim of the killer, he and Mark investigate the possible connections between the victims, which takes them from Sydney to a smaller town as well as to a meeting of the local S&M play group! Lots of dry comedy mixed in with a decent mystery plot, as is usual in Scott's entertaining books.
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