Reviewed by Roberta

TITLE: Netherhall Gardens

SERIES: Netherhall Trilogy

AUTHOR: Carl Patrick

PUBLISHER: Troubador Publishing

LENGTH: 188 pages

BLURB: First visit to Netherhall Gardens? Let me introduce you to some of the neighbours. Meet handsome trainee accountant Mark… who’s friends with beautiful petite Stella… whose sister Iris can’t abide Stella’s lawyer boyfriend Hugh… who doesn’t at all like the sound of Mark… who discovers his sexuality with leather-loving policeman Steve… whose ex-boyfriend Glen is a security guard with a closely guarded secret that, once unleashed, unravels a very tangled web among the marijuana-fuelled denizens of leafy Hampstead.

And meet New Yorker Laura who teaches playboy Patrick to play the flute and runs an illegal escort agency on the side… which sends pot-head Pierre to meet the kinky German couple who have a deadly compulsion that has near fatal consequences for Mark.

Oh and not forgetting the indomitable Morag, Stella and Iris’s mother, who descends on them all with a lottery win… though just how much is a mystery.

And you really must meet Fanny Rosenberg, Laura’s tiresome neighbour, who doesn’t at all approve of all the funny goings on.

Finally, feel the panic as London’s gay community is gripped by a series of bizarre sexual murders.

Come on in, you know you’ll love them… they’re right up your street… in more ways than one!

REVIEW: So this book was so very different for me.  I had such a hard time getting into this story.  It was just so jumbled to me.  I couldn’t even find someone who I cared about in this story.

I assume that Mark is the lead character in this story.  He’s a trainee Charted Accountant at this firm in London.  He has always dated women and he’s kinda has this thing for his friend, Stella who is seeing this guy named Hugh.  Mark’s life is about to change in ways that he’s never even thought of!!

There wasn’t a main love interest for Mark as he met Hugh under a different name, Jock and started making out with him.  Then he gets involved with Steve, who is a police officer.  There was also a guy named Glenn, who used to date Steve and now wants to date Mark.  So, this was a big ol’ jumbled mess.

Stella is Mark’s friend and Hugh’s main squeeze.  Laura lives in the same bed-sit that Stella lives in and is friend-ish with Stella and new to Mark.  Pierre lives in the same bed-sit with Stella and Laura.  Pierre works as an escort and Laura is his pimp.  Patrick is this young guy who Laura teaches the flute. 

See what I mean?  Way too many characters in this book.  There was no clear cut, who is the main character.  There was no main romantic interest.  There was just a whole bunch of characters getting into stupid stuff and being along for the ride.  I wanted to smack these characters more than once for the completely STUPID things that they kept doing. REPEATEDLY!!!

There was a murder mystery that occurred in this story.  You pretty much figured it out from the very beginning.  It wasn’t really a big surprise about who did it. It was actually solved rather quickly and then the story just kept dragging on. 

I tried to like this book, but I just couldn’t.  There were too many characters and stupid decisions that each character repeated that made me just want this book over with. 

I wanted to like something about this book.  I kept looking and yet, there was nothing there.

There was lots of sex in this book. Don’t worry, it wasn’t explicit. There was sex between men and m/f sex as well between some of the characters.  If you don’t like that sort of thing, this isn’t the book for you.

I understand that this is a trilogy and maybe it gets better. There is always the everlasting hope in my heart.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: Troubador amazon Are