Outland-ish Murder

Orland Outland writes outlandish seeming murder mysteries. They are not really outlandish -- I just wanted to do the play on his name! Anyway, one of the characters, Doan, is a guy (not a drag queen, not an mtf, just a gay guy) wears dresses. So, for some of you out there is mainland USA, perhaps a little out there. Anyway, I was pawing through the shelves desperate for a murder mystery and re-read this one: Death Wore the Emperor's New Clothes. Want to know what else he wrote? Click here. I suggest this because this particular gay author is sort of hard to find on the web. Odd, eh? He has written fiction and nonfiction, and seems to have an odd name -- and then, voila, there are others with that name?

One reason I like these mysteries is because of the name "BInky," here a Connecticut (recovering from) woman. My father's nickname was Binky. Weird. The other reason is because Binky's friend, Doan, is a shopaholic who buys kitchen stuff. So, the start of this mystery goes like this: "Doan moved through Williams Sonoma with the practiced air of a professoional chef. He glided past the big-ticket items, the best of which he'd already acquired -- the copper pots and pans from france, the knives from Germany, the Mixmaster -- and lingered over the little items, another one of which always seemed to be needed to put the finishing touches on his kitchen. He admired the Swiss melon ballers, the silver tea infuser. . . 'Ooh!' he said out loud, admiring a platinum vegetable peeler." (p. 1).

Yes, a platininum vegetable peeler. Silly, over the top, and critical -- just like the book, which features a wealthy (very) out gay man who does good with his money and has been out all along, a pair of friends and their partners (one of the pairs is heterosexual and the other gay men. . . hmmm, no lesbians?), some not-so-subtle trashing of Rupert Murdoch under a different name, a bit of critique of infomercial self-help culture, a soupcon of computer hacking, some fashion forward fascination, and related politics all tied together in a big, fun, campy (though Outland himself does not like camp and . . . ) murder mystery. Set in NYC, there are also some snide and not-so-snide comparisons between the Big Apple and the city with the Golden Gate.

All in all a romp with food just a tiny bit of a side dish to the real dishing. . . .

For a review elsewhere, click here. And want to check out a bit of a book on gay murder mysteries? Click here.  The book even outs the people on whom some characters are based. . . Maybe I better buy it!