Eye Contact (Mark Manning)

Gay Chicago investigative reporter Mark Manning and his young new assistant--and prospective amour--David Bosch try to catch the killer of a colleague, who was murdered after interviewing an astrophysicist claiming to have discovered a new planet.

Obvious and unconvincing, the latest appearance of Chicago journalist Mark Manning (introduced in Flight Dreams, 1997) is less a mystery than a platform for exploring gay sexuality. Manning is skeptical of astrophysicist Pavo Zarnik's announcement of the discovery of a new planet. He also doubts the authenticity of Zarnik's claims to be a renowned Eastern European scientist. The fatal shooting of a fellow reporter, also investigating Zarnik, ups the ante. Personal complications ensue when Manning is assigned a bodacious and flirty young assistant whose charms prove a potent distraction from the reporter's relationship with his loftmate, Neil, an architect who's redesigned their plush condo. All this happens on the eve of a gay-rights festival that is agitating the local Christian fundamentalists. Craft makes the identity of the limping killer obvious, gives his characters wooden, expository dialogue and grounds Manning's investigation in flimsy evidence (e.g., Manning suspects Zarnik isn't really from Eastern Europe because his personal hygiene is impeccable and he eats peanut butter). Manning's moral quandaries are generally convincing, but overall there is more gay sex?some real, some imagined, most graphically depicted?on these pages than mystery. Readers seeking narrative satisfactions will likely be disappointed.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Since Chicago Journal science editor Cliff Nolan never filed his story on Dr. Pavo Zarnik's claim to have discovered a tenth planet out beyond Pluto, investigative reporter Mark Manning is ordered to cobble together an article. Quite a story, if true--only Mark, fresh from his discovery of Cliff's dead body, is convinced the story's bogus and Zarnik's an impostor. (The clues that give Zarnik away, in fact, occasion the cleverest bit of detection here.) Weighted down by the assistant he's been assigned, adoring cub reporter David Bosch--who knows that Mark is gay and indicates that he'd come out of the closet to spend the night with him--Mark, determined to be faithful to his loftmate, architect Neil Waite, goes in search of the story, and promptly runs into a gigantic conspiracy that links Chicago's impending millennial blowout, Celebration 2000, to the gay-baiting Christian Family Crusade, the Pentagon, and somebody with very deep pockets indeed. En route to the movielike final conflagration, which reduces the lead villain to ``hissing meat,'' Mark will have time for an elaborate party--evidently a trademark of this series (Flight Dreams, 1997)and some torrid coupling, in his dreams and out. The conspiracy is the stuff of standard paranoia, and Mr. Hissing Meat's identity pretty obvious. But the scenes of gay domestic life, which show a welcome sensitivity, could go far toward helping this gay mystery enlarge, or even escape, its niche. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

In Flight Dreams (LJ 6/1/97) up-and-coming Chicago journalist Mark Manning solved a mystery, came out, became wealthy, and met the man of his dreams. Now, two years later, he and hunky cub reporter David (a potential temptation) investigate the new head of the Civic Planetarium, who claims discovery of a tenth planet but has no concrete proof. Mark suspects fraud and connects the man to the murder of another colleague, the newspaper's science reporter. Good plotting, with witty conversations, erotic dreams, and a philosophical moment or two; recommended for most collections.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.