The following is a review I wrote in 2001:Tom and his lover, Scott, return to the South when Scott's father has serious heart problems. Scott, who is a pro ball player, has just come out professionally, and the couple is still reeling from the repercussions. Needless to say, the trip South doesn't make it any easier. After just a short time, Tom finds the local sheriff dead in the back of his car. And he's the main suspect, for the most part because he's gay.The first half of the book was quite enjoyable actually, if not a little slow. I easily began to sympathize with Tom when he faced hate and disdain at every turn. Zubro often managed to turn these confrontations into a display of quick wit and strength of character by Tom. His strength and resolve during this time really made it easier to place myself on his side throughout the story.However, at one point I had to put the book down because I became physically ill. Usually, violence (whether it be a western gunfight, aftermath of a war, or a SciFi alien gobbling humans a piece at a time) doesn't affect me. But the sequence describing the torture of one of Tom's friends was just too much. I didn't see any point of that gruesome scene at all. It added nothing, and caused me to drop several stars in this review.By the end I did manage to repress that aspect and get back to the main point of the story - Tom redeeming himself. And I did enjoy the low-key transformation of Tom's when he realized that he had prejudices as well. The South wasn't all toothless hillbillies in overalls and bigots out to kill him. Whether or not that's true, at least he began to reflect on himself as well - which made me like him even better.
From my library's summary of the book: A baseball player publicly announces his homosexuality, provoking the ire of his hometown in Georgia and an altercation with the sheriff. When the sheriff is murdered, suspicion falls on the player and his boyfriend, and the two must find the murderer.It's nice to read a "run-of-the-mill" murder mystery where the main characters (and some of the supporting ones, too) are gay.If you enjoy really "light" reading -- and murder mysteries -- (like a book you'd take to the beach in the Summer), this one will fit the bill. It's a quick read and a real page-turner. Probably not a book I'd ever go back and reread, but great as an "escape" story. Read it over a 2-day period.
