Task Force |
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List Price: $5.99
Our Price: $4.79
Your Save: $ 1.20 ( 20% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Dreamspinner Press
Average Customer Rating:  
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PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Binding: Kindle Edition
Format: Kindle Book
Label: Dreamspinner Press
Manufacturer: Dreamspinner Press
Publication Date: 2008-09-15
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Studio: Dreamspinner Press
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Editorial Reviews:
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Sequel to 'Murder Most Gay'
Promoted to his own patrol beat after solving a series of anti-gay murders, Prince George County police officer Patrick St. James is happily deepening his relationship with his new lover, Dean, when more young, gay men start turning up dead. He and fellow officer Hank Capstone, now in a relationship of his own with a cute clerk from the local Seven-Eleven, face being outed by a blackmailer as they begin their investigation into the murders.
As the killings continue and the pressure to find the perpetrator intensifies, Pat and Hank go undercover again, and Dean has to face the sometimes harsh realities of loving a cop. When a chance DUI stop nets them a potential witness who implicates one of the most powerful men in the state, the two officers have to choose between risking their lives and letting the murderer get away scot-free.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Murder So Much More Intelligent
Comment: Two weeks after the events of "Murder So Gay," rookies Pat and Hank are back on the street taking care of the mundane leg-work...bar fights and so forth. Then they learn of a what seems to be a new series of murders and wonder if it is connected to their previous case.
Readers learn early on who the killer is. The story becomes about how a police team catches and proves it.
I initially felt distracted by the fact that "Task Force" was told as a third-person account when "Murder So Gay" was in the first-person. This sequel would not work in the first-person. And I actually think "Murder So Gay" should be revised and extended to be in the third-person...just so we can learn more about what is on other characters' minds.
The main flaw with "Task Force" is one common in stories dealing with a homosexual relationship. The use of pronouns--he, his, him--makes it an absolute horror trying to figure out who "he" is when there are two men in the sequence. So I suggest that when switching characters, use names instead of pronouns.
Example:
"I like this story," Tony said.
He was pleased to hear this. John Simpson would do his best to fix what errors he could in future works.
Most people would read 'he' as still referring to 'Tony' because it was the last name mentioned.
Revision:
"I like this story," Tony said.
John Simpson was pleased to hear this. He would do his best to fix what errors he could in future works.
"Task Force" gives a satisfactory ending, but it also falls flat on its face by introducing another character that should have been part of the story earlier (at least in my opinion). Now we have to wonder what will happen next--if the next book (hopefully there will be one) will bother to even continue this development.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good Sequel
Comment: This book takes up a couple of weeks after Murder Most Gay ends. It is a good sequel, but if you haven't read MMG you won't be lost. It is the continuing story of Pat, his boyfriend Dean and Hank-Pat's partner at work. Someone is killing gay men again and Pat and Hank end up on the Task Force to find the killer. Pat and Dean's relationship is evolving nicely and Hank finds a boyfriend as well. It is not a mystery since we are told fairly early on who the killer is, but is more about how they catch him. There were a few editing issues that were annoying, but not too hard to ignore.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Imaginative and realistic crime drama with two gay cops as heroes!
Comment: Their "rookie" days behind them, Prince George County (Maryland) police officers Pat St. James and Hank Capstone are now on solo patrols, dealing with the majority of mundane police calls on their overnight shifts. They're also settling in a bit in their private lives, Pat with his live-in lover, Dean, and Hank with a hunky boy-toy he ironically met in a convenience store! They deal with an attempted blackmailer, threatening to "out" them to their fellow police officers. Two cases of murder, involving young men who had been drugged, raped and strangled, lead to familiar territory with Pat going undercover as "bait" for the killer, who turns out to be a high profile public official.
Simpson indicates this as a "sequel" to his early "Murder Most Gay" crime novel, featuring the same characters, and it is best read after reading the first book. Enough detail about prior events is provided to allow it as a stand-alone read, but an empathy with the characters from the previous book would add to the enjoyment of the read.
It is a thin line that authors of "erotic novels" walk, trying to keep the balance of sexually-explicit content to the point where it adds, rather than detracts, from the pacing and plot of the book. It's a line that Simpson hit perfectly in the first book, but I think the erotic passages here - which were all in the first half of the book, delaying the start of the "real" story, dragged the book down. Still, it is a clever and original crime novel, with a refreshing "real" take on police work, and I give it four stars out of five.
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