(h new 7) Body Language (Mark Manning)

Stuck in a midlife slump as the holidays approach, gay journalist Mark Manning returns to his hometown to visit his cousin Suzanne and her teenage son, Thad, but his happiness is short-lived when Suzanne is brutally murdered and Mark must confront sinister family secrets to find her killer.

One of crime fiction's smuggest characters, gay journalist Mark Manning, returns (after Eye Contact) in another precious tale. This one concludes with a solution that manages the dubious achievement of being both painfully obvious and singularly implausible. Mark quits his newspaper job in Chicago to take over a small-town newspaper in Dumont, Wisc., where he spent part of his childhood. His lover, architect Neil, stays in the Windy City while Mark sets up shop, hires a hunky associate, buys back the family mansion and reacquaints himself with his distant family. But events turn tragic when his successful cousin Suzanne is murdered at a dinner party also attended by his mentally challenged cousin, Joey, and Suzanne's surly, homophobic son, Thad. A good-looking local cop is soon sifting through suspects. Manning is pretty much insufferable, especially as Craft packs the book with an improbable number of handsome men. And though the "hidden in plain sight" ending trick is an old and trusty mystery gambit, it requires more narrative skill than this author manages to summon.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Reporter Mark Manning never thought he'd leave his job at the Chicago Journal, but when he fails to win the prestigious Partridge Prize for his last big story (Eye Contact, 1998) and a legacy from his uncle Edwin Quatrain makes it possible for him to buy the Dumont Daily Register and move into the Quatrain family home two hours away, he jumps at the chance. Like magic, Parker Trent, a clever editor with a fabulous tush, applies for the job of Mark's managing editor, and there's a Christmas reunion with Edwin's smart, successful daughter Suzanne and Edwin's sweet, retarded son Joey (an absent third Quatrain child is discussed only in hushed tones). Except for Mark's looming separation from his architect lover Neil Waite, in fact, everything's going down as nice as pie when Suzanne's killed at the height of the festivities, and a local antigay-male lesbian activist who's fighting Mark for custody of Suzanne's son decides to bolster her case by directing police suspicions Mark's way. Most readers will beat Mark to the solution, and the mystery of Suzanne's cryptic dying message is never quite cleared up. But Craft keeps things moving along smartly even for readers who aren't quite as entranced as Mark by the sight of Parker Trent's butt. It's not just Mark, though, who's undergone a sea-change; his third outing is as stately and old-fashioned as a Gay Pride Agatha Christie. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

When gay journalist Mark Manning buys the rural Wisconsin family estate and the local newspaper, his wealthy, prestigious family reunites for Christmas for the first time in more than 30 years. With the house, Mark also gets childhood memories of early homoerotica, decades of secrets, and 67-year-old Hazel, the family retainer, who is going blind but doesn't miss much. And then cousin Suzanne, who heads the family printing company, is brutally bludgeoned to death moments before dinner is served. A long, frustrating investigation by the unusually accommodating sheriff ensues. Could the culprit be Thad, Suzanne's sulky, homophobic teenage son? Her somewhat retarded brother? What about Miriam Westerman, the feminist extremist who claims custody of Thad and, incidentally, a hunk of his inheritance for the New Age^-ecofeminist school she wants to set up? With beautifully drawn characters and a neatly twisted plot, Craft's winning first mystery should satisfy many a reader. Whitney Scott

Gay Chicago reporter Mark Manning (Eye Contact, LJ 5/1/98), suffering from a mid-life crisis, plans a new start in his Wisconsin hometown. Soon, however, his cousin is murdered, and her troubled son is the prime suspect. A solid series addition.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.