Outburst (Todd Mills Mysteries) - Hardcover

Zimmerman, R.D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385323751 ISBN 13: 9780385323758

Publisher: Delacorte Press, 1998

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: Delacorte Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0385323751
• ISBN 13: 9780385323758
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304