Reviewed by Becca
TITLE: Tainted Love
SERIES: Soho Noir #1
AUTHOR: T.S. Hunter
PUBLISHER: Red Dog Press
LENGTH: 113 pages
RELEASE DATE: April 18, 2019
BLURB:
SOME RELATIONSHIPS ARE JUST MURDER
It’s 1985, and Joe Stone is excited to be joining his old school friend, and lifelong crush, Chris, for a long weekend in London’s Soho—home to a vibrant, developing gay scene, and a million miles from the small town Joe and Chris grew up in.
But when Chris is brutally murdered, the police just write his death off as another rent boy, fallen foul of a bad hookup. Joe realises that his best friend was killed deliberately, and joins forces with former police detective, Russell Dixon—Chris’s flatmate—to find out why.
Spiralling debt, illicit sex, blackmail, spurned lovers and hard-nosed gangsters all play their part, but who among the celebrities, fashionistas, drag queens, ex-lovers and so-called friends is Chris’s killer?
A noirish whodunit set in 1980s London, with all the big hair, electro-pop, shoulder pads, police discrimination and lethal killers that the era had to offer.
TAINTED LOVE IS THE FIRST BOOK IN THE SOHO NOIR SERIES OF COZY CRIME NOVELLAS.
REVIEW:
What an amazing start! I really want to see where this series is going to go. A great whodunnit, where the killer could literally be anybody. So many people loved and mostly hated the victim. He was loud, brash, crude, egotistical, selfish and more, but you couldn’t help but love his boisterous personality. He had flair but his mouth got him dead.
Joe was excited to see his long time friend and once upon a time crush. He was in love with Chris for forever but it was only one sided. But they still remained friends. Chris had finally talked Joe into coming to the club with him. It wasn’t really Joe’s scene but he wanted to be with Chris, so why not? In the midst of dancing and having a great time with a new guy, Joe noticed some shady things going on with his friend. A confrontation with a shady character, a fight with his friend in drag who was performing that night, and finally Chris having to leave in a rush. He didn’t think anything else of it, until the next morning when he found the friend in drag, bloody in the alleyway and crying, and Chris dead and bloody on the building floor. When Chris’s roommate, Russell and he talked to the police, they knew nothing would be solved. It would be wrote off as another gay rentboy dead. But Russell and Joe starting adding things up and we’re determined to find the killer before someone else ended up hurt or dead. And the list of suspects keeps getting longer.
Nothing like finding your longtime friend dead. And murdered at that. I’d be freaking out like Joe, probably. I felt for Joe. He had been in love with Chris for so long. He finally had let go of it, but couldn’t help be feel jealous or upset that every time he turned around, someone else had been in love with Chris and/or slept with him. He hurt a bit. But no matter that felt, he had to find out who killed Chris. And he was determined to help Russell.
Russell, being suspended from the force for a set up, knew the officer in charge wouldn’t solve the case. He’s the one who set up Russell to begin with. And anyone who was gay was lower than dirt in his book. Russell knew he was going to have to find out things on his own. And if he took down the corrupted while he was at it, great! But man, trying to find out who in the long list, was becoming impossible.
The good thing is Russell was learning to really care about Joe. They both loved Chris in their way. He liked Joe as his little sidekick. They worked well together.
I’m anxious to see where this is going next. I’m hoping maybe these two will work together again. It’s a very good read.
RATING: 
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