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Review By Emerald Jaguar
Blurb:
Recovering from a near
fatal accident, artist Finn Barret returns to Seal Island in
Maine to rest and recuperate. But Seal Island is haunted
with memories, some sweet, some sad; three years ago Finn
found his lover in the arms of Fitch, Finn's twin brother.
Since that day, Finn has seen neither Conlan nor Fitch. In
fact, no one has seen Fitch. What happened to him? Did Fitch
run away, as everyone believes? Or did he meet a more
sinister fate? To put the past to rest - and see if there's
any chance of a future with Con - Finn must discover the
truth. But the deeper he digs, the more reason he has to
fear Con is the only one who knows what truly happened to
Fitch..
Bottom line up front:
....speechless here.
There was this vibrant splash of color and a hauntingly
beautiful storyline. I have to say that I think this is
Lanyon's best work so far.
The rest:
Finn is a talented
artist in a long line of renowned painters. He was raised on
a very close-knit island in the middle of no place, but
rather abruptly leaves for Manhattan when he discovers his
lover in the arms of his twin brother. Bastages. After a
horrific accident that leaves him scarred and weakened, Finn
returns to Seal Island for to recover, only to find out that
his twin hadn't been heard from in the three years since
Finn left.
As upset as Finn still
is with his brother, he's concerned that neither their
mutual friends in Manhattan nor family on Seal Island have
seen Fitch since that terrible day when the little asshole
banged his boyfriend. Finn was understandably still upset
with Fitch, and was absolutely sure he could never forgive
his twin, but he's a bit puzzled that nobody seems to care
that Fitch has been missing for such a long period of time,
or even bothered to look for the guy.
Fitch had a habit of
leaving the island for months at a time, but never for so
long before, and not without contacting any of his friends.
To make things more interesting, who should pop up on the
island again but Con, the ex-lover who thought sexing up a
set of twins would be twice as nice.
With the help of Paul,
Finn's good friend and one of Fitch's ex-playtoys, he does a
little investigating. However, the response from the
island's inhabitants is a bit perplexing. The general
consensus is that Finn should just let sleeping dogs lie.
Not even family was interested in finding out if Fitch was
dead.
The more digging Finn
and Paul did, the more Finn learned about his twin. Finn is
shocked to learn after all this time that Fitch was pretty
much despised by the townspeople, and that his twin was
cruel to people when Finn wasn't around to see it. So we
have a whole island of possible suspects, including Finn
himself, who likely had the best reason to want Fitch dead.
I loved the way the
story started out with vivid descriptions of color and light
and ambiance. The writing here was lyrically lovely and very
textured, almost touchable. Everything was lush and
brilliantly picturesque. I was very much emotionally
invested in the story, and with Finn, although I didn't
always agree with his choices. That surprised me some,
because there was a fair amount of angst here, and anyone
who's read my reviews before knows I do NOT do emo stories.
At all.
One bit that made no
good sense to me was when Finn got to making out with Con.
Ok, this is the guy who very likely last saw his twin alive,
and that was because the bastage was boinking his brother
behind his back. Con did apologize profusely, but readily
admitted that part of that regret was because he got caught.
Or, as Con put it, "I didn't mean for you to see that." Uh,
yeah. So Con is a cheater, a liar, and quite possibly a
murderer, yet here Finn is sucking face with the dude. Does
not compute. There were also some typos where Finn and
Fitch's names got switched around, causing mass confusion
til I read a few times and got it straightened out.
I loved the mystery
element here. I never saw the ending coming, which was a
delightful surprise. Most Lanyon mysteries don't really
require Scooby Doo and the gang to suss out the perpetrator
in the first chapter. It hasn't really detracted from any of
his stories thus far, but still...was nice to see that
changed up a bit. There might be some smart cookies out
there who figure it out fast, but I doubt it.
Overall, the gracefully
alluring phrasing here completely sucked me in and turned
Lovers and Other Strangers into a magical read that will be
front and center on my keeper self. Can't wait for the print
version of this. And I *really* like that title. Makes me
giggle. MUST READ THIS BOOK!! It appears in
Partners in
Crime 4: The Art of Dying, as part of an antho with Jordan
Castillo Price that will be released by MLR Press later
this month.
Josh Lanyon
Jordan
Castillo Price
Emerald Jaguar
(EmmyJag) can be found talking about life and reviewing
books with an unabashed honesty and wholehearted love of the
written word at:
http://emmyjag.livejournal.com/.
She can be contacted
at:
knottykittykat@yahoo.com
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