Reviewed by Dan
TITLE: Dying For A Thrill
SERIES: A Mike King Mystery
AUTHOR: Mark Zubro
PUBLISHER: MLR Press, LLC
LENGTH: 296 Pages
RELEASE DATE: March 21, 2016
BLURB:
Sleuth Mike King in the midst of international intrigue, blinding snow, and bitter cold.
Detective Mike King finds himself investigating international intrigue while the worst blizzard in Chicago history rages outside. A group of gay computer hackers desperately asks for his help and protection. As Mike King and his cohorts deal with the usual apocalyptic folderol of spies, plots, and fear, they have to blast their way, or trudge their way through building mountains of snow. A dead body, no one can find, plots against various characters and governments and individuals around the world become centered on a group of gay self-proclaimed Robin Hoods. It’s up to Mike King to sort it out before the world caves in on them or himself.
REVIEW:
I’m going to have to start out by saying I didn’t like this installment in the Mike King Mystery series as much as the first one. Let me explain why. If I hadn’t read the first one, I pretty much would have been clueless as to who Duncan, Jerry and Georgia De’Jungle were. There isn’t even much description/background on Mike King himself. I felt if you picked this one up as a standalone, you would miss those details.
So let’s talk about the story. In this installment Mike and his crew are off on a new mystery. When a skinny wet geek named Jamie Vincek shows up at Mike’s office in the middle of the worst blizzard to hit Chicago in years…with his glasses broken…and then passes out as soon as he walks in the door, the mystery is on. When we learn that the young man is actually part of a secret gay underground group that has been robbing from the rich bigots and giving to the gays, as well as uncovering and publicizing misdeeds by everyone from ultra-right wing religious groups…to actual Middle Eastern terrorists…to the CIA, FBI, MI6, and all the other secret government groups, you know you’re in for a story.
I liked the story. It was fairly fast moving, with lots of players, and with lots of interwoven storylines and plots. I think Mr. Zubro did a very good job with the story. It is very well written and as always with his books, expertly edited. I didn’t like that again, like in the previous installment, the sex was fade to black. I also found it a little implausible that every single man that Mike came in contact with from the other agencies, terrorist networks, etc., seemed to have an instant hard-on for him. Well, except for the biker gang/religious right group. It just seemed a little overdone, in my humble opinion.
Because it is well written and I really liked the story overall, I’m going to recommend this book to anyone that likes a mystery, particularly anyone who likes one that ties in some real life events, mixes them up with some poetic license, and leaves you guessing right up until the last page. I would highly recommend you read the previous book in the series Dying to Play first, before you read this one for the background on the characters. If you are interested, that review is here.
RATING: 
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