Back Passage Book

A pleasant country manor murder mystery married to gay pornography, slick and easy going down. This was written by a talented author under a pseudonym, and the clever, funny dialogue openly displays a prodigious talent. The murder mystery itself is certainly the bottom in this relationship, as the amount of explicit sex scenes tops the page count when compared to anything having to with murder or mysteries. Dick dick, mouth mouth, ass ass, fluids raining everywhere like a downpour of thick salty milk, plus there's a body in the cupboard, oh and an innocent man in jail.

It's amusing reading porn written by literary authors because my focus is usually less *cough* self-involved and more interested in what the erotic scenes are saying about the author's sexual predilections. And so I learned that Rupert Smith likes hairy men, he likes balding men, he likes masculine men, and he also likes what is known as versatility. Certainly can't knock a man for his tastes.

Although the book was a cheerful excursion, 1 star removed, with irritation, for some surprising transphobia and the unfortunately less surprising decision to make the most villainous queer also be the most effeminate. For some reason, this sort of weird internalized homophobia (rooted in misogyny) is found frequently in older gay men, like say men Rupert Smith's age, and often displayed by gay men who are not exactly butch icons, like say the dandy named Rupert Smith. Cheerio, Rupert darling!