DEATH SCENE

by Jeremy Beadle

GAY MEN'S PRESS (UK)

ISBN 0-85449-088-4

IR£5.50 /PB.

I was not impressed by the first chapter of this gay detective novel. Far too pleased with itself. Far too naive and irritatingly so.

Well the moral of this story is never judge a book by its first chapter. I am quite happy to admit that by the end of the second chapter I was enjoying it to the extent that I did care "who killed cock robin" or in this case Guy Latimer (what a name).

It is a classic whodunnit set in the London Gay scene. The main characters are a bunch of average gay guys who are friends of the victim. All of them, in the eyes of the police, could have had some motive to kill Guy, and knowing this they decide to find the protagonist. No nancy boys here.

I would regard this as a better than average trash novel. I now know that it irritated me because of its shaky use of adjectives and adverbs which are the signs of an inexperienced novelist who is testing his talents. In this case they are also the sign of a potentially good fiction writer who it is hoped will be able to improve the goods put out by this publishing house.