emreyildiz

Rob Byrnes, author of the gay favorites "When the Stars Come Out", "Trust Fund Boys", and "The Night We Met", gives readers a glimpse into the world of two career criminals with his latest effort, Straight Lies, an entertaining, comic gay grifter novel. Grant and Chase are life partners and small-time crooks from Queens, New York, who have gotten by mostly from selling stolen cars for parts and playing bait and switch with internet predators. When these two con-artists learn about an amateur home video featuring out and proud film star, Romeo Romero, caught in a compromising position with a female acquaintance, they make it their mission to retrieve the tape and blackmail the actor for all he is worth. The first of many obstacles, though, is having to actually locate the incriminating evidence, which was left in a city cab by accident and ends up in the hands of Ian Hadley, columnist for the notoriously sudsy celebrity tabloid, The Eye, who has plans of his own for the scandalous discovery. Not to be outdone, Grant recruits fellow thief and former cabbie, Paul Farraday, and his realtor friend, Lisa, whose girlfriend, Mary Beth, becomes an essential accomplice in a plot to catch Romero--literally--with his pants down. In spite of the fact that there isn’t an honest or wholly decent character among this pathetic bunch, the novel is an irresistible page-turner, filled with adventure, intrigue and endearing idiocy. Readers will be hard pressed to put the book down until the outcome of this ridiculous, villainous scheme is revealed. A veritable race to the finish, as well as a lesson in Murphy’s Law, "Straight Lies" is an engaging, enjoyable novel that, unlike its characters, doesn’t pretend to be anything else.

2022-12-07 04:53