Title: Tainted Love
Series: Soho Noir: Book One
Author: T.S. Hunter
Publisher: Amazon/Kindle Unlimited
Length: 116 Pages
Category: Murder Mystery
At a Glance: Establishing cause and wading through motives and suspects and red herrings is part and parcel to the storyline, conducted at a brisk but plausible pace to keep things moving towards a satisfying resolution to the mystery. If you enjoy a quick cozy with a nostalgic feel to it, Tainted Love is a nice way to spend a couple of hours.
Reviewed By: Lisa
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 where Joe and Chris grew up.
But when Chris is brutally murdered, the police simply write his death off as another rent boy fallen foul of a bad hook up. 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.
Review: A bit of nostalgia—for those of us of a certain age, at least—and a cold-blooded murder set the stage for T.S. Hunter’s murder mystery Tainted Love, introducing the start of a new investigative partnership and baiting the hook quite nicely for the second novella in the series, Who’s That Girl?
Set in Soho, London, circa 1985, Hunter establishes the sense of time and place, with little to no effort, in the pop culture references of that time. The hair, clothes, and music (note the book titles and prepare for an earworm or two) do their part to firmly ground readers in the setting. Of course, there are also reminders of the time that lend a darker tone to the story—the AIDS epidemic is taking its toll, and homophobia and discrimination and corruption in the police force set the stage for potential injustice in the murder case of a young fashion designer with secrets to spare, Chris Sexton.
Joe Stone takes on the role of amateur sleuth in this cozy noir-style mystery after finding his best friend, and unrequited love interest, dead in the entry hall of his flat, in an obvious homicide. He doesn’t go it alone, however. Russell Dixon was Chris’s landlord, and he provides all the expertise needed in the investigation. Russell is a former detective who has his own backstory which lends a connection to Skinner, the detective assigned to investigate Chris’s murder, and I liked the wisdom and composure Russell brought to the story to offset Joe’s tendency to want to jump to conclusions without basis and bull-in-a-china-shop his way through the necessary investigative procedures. It highlighted both their age difference and their experience gap.
Establishing cause and wading through motives and suspects and red herrings is part and parcel to the storyline, conducted at a brisk but plausible pace to keep things moving towards a satisfying resolution to the mystery. The limited word count doesn’t allow for deeper characterizations or procedural details, and the murderer became obvious to both readers and Russell in due order, but I liked very much what was offered in this story, appreciated the poignancy of the resolution, and look forward to getting to know both Joe and Russell better in the next installment of the series.
If you enjoy a quick cozy with a nostalgic feel to it, Tainted Love is a nice way to spend a couple of hours.
You can buy Tainted Love here:
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