Like a little murder and mayhem with your man-on-man romance? Award-winning novelist Josh Lanyon’s first ever collectionof short stories and novellas, in two volumes, will keep you turning pages long into the night.
Volume I includes these witty, sexy, and action-packed reader favorites:
“Cards on the Table”
“Dangerous Ground”
“In Sunshine and In Shadow”
“Snowball in Hell”
I recently purchased both Volume 1 and Volume 2 of Josh Lanyon’s Collected Novella’s. Sure, I’ve read some of Josh’s novellas but of the 9 stories I’d only read 3 of them so this was a great way to get them all at once.
I read Volume 1 this past week and I just loved it. I truly am a huge Fanyon. That man knows how to write! Not only great mystery’s but great relationships. He just has this wonderful way of mixing the two that gets me every time.
Cards on the Table was a fabulous story of an author, Tim, who is writing a book about a 50 year old unsolved murder. Unfortunately he’s starting to get warning against finishing the book…like getting pushed down stairs and being held at gunpoint. He asks for assistance from his neighbor Jack, who’s a cop. Jack and Tim had gone a few dates about 6 months ago and even had had sex, but when Tim, who is epileptic, had a seizure in bed things cooled off. Jack isn’t too excited about what’s going with Tim but is grudginly helping. Things start heating up with the details on the unsolved case, between Jack and Tim and the brut that’s trying to put a stop to the book.
A great story from start to finish. Tim is so cocky, but yet with his epilepsy he has no control which drives him nuts. Tim, for all of his cockiness is pretty insecure about Jack. He really fell for Jack 6 months ago but thinks that Jack is repulsed by his epilepsy, which he really isn’t. There were such twists and turns in the story and though I should have figured out who the murderer was I didn’t. I thought it was the most unlikely person and Josh just proved me wrong.
Dangerous Ground was the only one of the 4 stories that I’d read before. This was a great story about Will and Taylor who are special agents, partners and best friends. Things were great until Taylor admitted that he had feelings for Will. In order to try to save their partnership they are camping in the High Sierras but things start going wonky when they find a plane crash and some stolen money. Things heat up with both the criminals and their relationship.
In Sunshine and In Shadow is a short story about 2 gay cops who are also partners. They had started a relationship together but one of them called it quits when he realized that he could lose him so quickly on the job. He just didn’t want the emotional tether to be that much tighter if anything happened to his partner. Yep, delusional. lol As if losing you partner and best friend wouldn’t be horrible enough. Anyway, one of the men, Kieran lets Rick know that he’s going on vacation by himself, he’s quit the force and he’s moving out of the state. It’s a fantastic story about the 2 coming to terms with their feelings.
The last story, Snowball in Hell, is an incredible mystery set back in 1943. Here’s the blurb from Josh’s site:
It’s 1943 and the world is at war. Reporter Nathan Doyle is just back from the European Theater when he’s asked to cover the murder of a society blackmailer–a man who, Homicide Detective Matthew Spain believes, Nathan had every reason to want dead.
It’s a fabulous whodunit filled with suspicion and a huge cast of characters – and of course hot man-lovin. I didn’t have a clue as to who murdered the blackmailer until pretty near the end. There’s not necessarily an HEA at the end of the story, but it makes you think that there will be in the end. Just totally worth the read.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mysteries and m/m.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Hi, Tracy! What are you doing to me? I have Layon on my TBR pile, which is monstruous by now. Now, I'll have to add one more… 😉
Thanks, great review.
I have this book on my wish list. I'm so glad so many of his stories are coming out in print..I have a kindle but I like my fav authors to be on my shelves!
He is my next new author to read. I have been saying for too long that I need to read something by him. I need to just do it, eh?
Cards on the Table is one of my favourite of Josh's novellas. Tim is such a great character and I love his mix of bravado and frustration.
Hilcia – he's so worth reading more of! lol You'll see once you start you'll want more. It's like chocolate. 🙂
Mandi – I know, I just couldn't pass these two volumes down. To have them all in 2 books is fab.
Amy – Which ones do you have that you're going to start with?
Jenre – I LOVED that one. Bravado and Frustration that's so IT. I just felt so bad for him because as all epileptics he has no control and it was so hard for him. *sigh* Great story.
Well, I don't know. I son't have any yet. Every time I go to his website to see what to start with, I end up leaving not knowing! What would you suggest?
Omg there's so many places to start!
I'd have to say either the Adrien English Mystery series or The Dark Horse followed by The White Knight.
Good stuff. Anyone else have other good starting points?
I would say those are good starting points. He just started a new series, Somebody Killed His Editor and that was really good.
But Adrien English series , starting with Fatal Shadows is my fav.
I just bought the Adrien English Mysteries! It has Fatal Shadows and A Dangerous Thing :). I feel so good! I've been wanting to read somehting of his for so long now!
Oh, I've been wanting to get this one. I bought Dangerous Ground as a stand alone, and it's really good!
Snowball in Hell has been on my list for ages. I've got Dark Horse loaded on my Palm and it will probably be the next one I read.
JL is so great at combining mystery and romance.
Amy: I think you're really going to enjoy Adrien's story! 🙂
Is this just available in ebook format? If not, where do I go to get it?!? I've been hearing a lot about this author and he just sounds great!! 😀
Amy – woohoo!!! I hope you like them..let us know!
Renee – yes, I'd read several of his novellas but I heard about these volumes and had.to.buy. lol I think you'll enjoy them.
Nath – as far as I know these books are only available in pb format at the moment. I ordered mine from Barnes and Noble and they got here pretty quickly. 🙂