OUTBURST - A Todd Mills Mystery - Softcover

Zimmerman, R.D.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0385319231 ISBN 13: 9780385319232

Publisher: Delta, 1999

Synopsis

Todd Mills is running out of time.

Against his instincts, Todd is lured to the Stone Arch Bridge by an anonymous phone call with promises of a hot blackmail story.  Under pressure, and in need of a scoop, Minneapolis television's most well-known (and only) openly gay reporter soon finds that his visit to the bridge does deliver a sensational exclusive, but not the one he is expecting: Todd arrives to see a man murdered, leaving him as the sole witness to the crime.

Todd's lover, city homicide investigator Steve Rawlins, immediately takes on the case.  But when a mysterious suspect emerges, the danger only intensifies, for this suspect has a secret, a past, and an identity that isn't what it appears to be.  An attempt is made on Rawlins's life in the course of his investigation, and Todd--dragged into the center of the story he's trying to cover--makes a frightening discovery.  The murder victim was a police officer, and was gay.  The killer, it seems, has developed a taste for watching gay cops die.

And unless Todd and Rawlins are able to put together the pieces of the suspect's meticulously concealed past, the consequences may prove deadly--for them both.

About this title

Review

In the middle of one of Minnesota's worst rainstorms, TV newsman Todd Mills--"the most visible gay person in Minneapolis"--is standing on the Stone Arch Bridge, waiting to meet a supposed blackmail victim with a hot story. Instead, he finds an about-to-be-murdered young gay cop named Mark Forrest, lured there by the same tipster/killer. So begins the investigation in this fourth Mills book from Zimmerman, one of the best of the current crop of writers of gay-themed mysteries. As in his previous Mills outings ( Hostage, Closet, Tribe), Zimmerman shows us an often deadly urban world freighted with sexual tension. This time, involved in the police investigation is Todd's lover, Steve Rawlins, recently diagnosed as HIV positive--a fact that adds darkness to an already grim story. Rawlins becomes a target for the killer who has a grudge against gays and cops, the roots of which we begin to learn about gradually and with several sideways moves. Zimmerman creates a landscape perhaps a bit too dominated by variations on gay sexuality to be totally believable. But after decades of mysteries featuring nothing but straight sex, a little reverse imbalance isn't that hard to bear. --Dick Adler

From the Publisher

"A real page-turning mystery with heart, hope and integrity. What a fun read...I want more!"
--Kate Bornstein, author of Gender Outlaw

Praise for other titles in the Todd Mills series:

Hostage

"AIDS has not been assimilated or made a manageable disease in this witches' brew of dying fashion models and politicians on the make. From the first tragic scene to the end, you will keep reading."
--Andrew Holleran

Tribe

"Vivid . . . a real page-turning yarn . . . Along with deftly weaving unexpected elements from the characters' past and present, Zimmerman introduces a creepy religious cult, with suspenseful results."
--Q Monthly

Closet

"Closet explodes out of the starting gate . . . then relentlessly races all the way to its shocking conclusion. [It] has passion and poignancy, potent pain and a powerful plot."
--Minneapolis Star Tribune

About this edition

• Publisher: Delta
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0385319231
• ISBN 13: 9780385319232
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304