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A review by kaje_harper
The Elegant Corpse by A.M. Riley
5.0
4.5 stars. This is written in very spare prose, with the emotion delivered between the lines. I think it will have a variable reception, based on whether you feel that connection being made, or not. The setting seems a bit ambiguous, but with the MC having been a very young Dom in 1983, it has the feel of very late 90's or early 2000's (one remark suggests 2008, but it seems a bit older than that). Because the mystery involves old, cold cases, there is a lot of backward-glancing in this, to the 80s and 90s. The reader is pulled back to Detective Roger Corso's memories, mingled nostalgia and pain, experiencing his first exposure to leather and BDSM clubs, and a sea-change in gay culture as AIDS ripped its way through the population, while the world at the same time became more open and accepting.
Roger Corso is an interesting MC, a police detective who is quietly out to his partner and department about being gay, but firmly closeted about his BDSM lifestyle, with its inevitable illegality. He's cool, controlled, a bit OCD and unemotional, although you get the feeling that there is emotion, just locked away since the slow death from liver failure of his partner, Patrick, four years earlier. He has an old friend who will sub for him when he wants a scene, and sometimes share his bed outside the scene. He's reasonably content, until a body in his own living room opens up cases of murdered, cross-dressing, young subs linked inexorably to his past and the men he once knew.
When the brother of the first victim arrives, Roger is primarily irritated by Sean's obtrusive presence. But fairly quickly, other feelings supplant his annoyance...
The mystery is a good one, although the "he's crazy" type of perpetrator is not my favorite. (Since the first body was mummified and embalmed, this was inherent from the start, not a surprise.) There were times when the plot seemed to be force-fit around the scenes the author wanted, rather than really holding a coherent shape. But I was pulled in enough not to care.
The relationship with Roger's partner Mary Anne was great, and I adored her as a character. The MCs' love was a bit fast and hot, and so was, IMO, Sean's progression but it was a compelling ride. Where the book lost points for me was at the end, in the denouement after the climax. There was a wonderful scene where Roger seeks advice for some of their lingering issues from an old friend. But still, the consequences for both Roger and Sean, and the complications of their relationship in the wake of the climactic action, got a bit of a short shrift. I wanted to see the immediate aftermath and some of the work to get them past it on the page. Still, well worth a read if you like mystery, BDSM, and the leather culture of the late twentieth century.
Roger Corso is an interesting MC, a police detective who is quietly out to his partner and department about being gay, but firmly closeted about his BDSM lifestyle, with its inevitable illegality. He's cool, controlled, a bit OCD and unemotional, although you get the feeling that there is emotion, just locked away since the slow death from liver failure of his partner, Patrick, four years earlier. He has an old friend who will sub for him when he wants a scene, and sometimes share his bed outside the scene. He's reasonably content, until a body in his own living room opens up cases of murdered, cross-dressing, young subs linked inexorably to his past and the men he once knew.
When the brother of the first victim arrives, Roger is primarily irritated by Sean's obtrusive presence. But fairly quickly, other feelings supplant his annoyance...
The mystery is a good one, although the "he's crazy" type of perpetrator is not my favorite. (Since the first body was mummified and embalmed, this was inherent from the start, not a surprise.) There were times when the plot seemed to be force-fit around the scenes the author wanted, rather than really holding a coherent shape. But I was pulled in enough not to care.
The relationship with Roger's partner Mary Anne was great, and I adored her as a character. The MCs' love was a bit fast and hot, and so was, IMO, Sean's progression