Nothing bad is supposed to happen in Palm Springs. At least that's what San Francisco private detective Tom Danzel and his partner Stanley Korski believe. But when their friend Chris finds a dead body in his hotel room bed, Tom and Stanley drive out to help the local police investigate. What they discover is a gangster's plot, a rather nasty green snake, and an elegant hotel that offers delicacies not usually found on a room service menu. The two detectives are going to have to rely on their skills and each other if they're going to survive this very deadly kind of love.
Review
I thoroughly enjoyed Victor J. Banis's A Deadly Kind of Love, from Dreamspinner Press. Tom Danzel and Stanley Korski, lovers and private detectives living in San Francisco, are called in to investigate a mysterious death at a posh Palm Springs gay resort. The resort serves handsome young men as delicacies for its guests, and a particularly fine little bonbon turns up dead, the victim of an apparent snake bite. Tom and Stanley quickly deduce that they are after a two-legged reptile, and as they strive to track down the murderer, more bodies pile up.
Tom and Stanley make for an interesting, smart, likeable couple, but their relationship is of the gay-4-u variety. Rough and rugged Tom is supposedly a straight man who chased women until the flighty, queenish Stanley came along and captured his heart so fully that it made him completely renounce his heterosexual ways. Even if the implausibility of gay-4-u is a turnoff for you, it would be a shame to let that make you pass up this book. The mystery here is intriguing, involving everything from deadly, aggressive desert rattlesnakes to samurai warriors. The writing is sharp, and Banis squeezes plenty of action, suspense and a fair amount of dry gay humor into 208 pages.
