Someone You Know: A Novel »

Gary Zebrun is the editor of The Providence Journal. A graduate of Brown University, he is the recipient of a Yaddo fellowship, a MacDowell fellowship, and a Breadloaf fellowship, and previously taught creative writing at the University of Michigan before

A one-night stand leads to a terrifying nightmare of twisted games and grisly murders.

Publishers Weekly

In his uneven mystery debut, Zebrun successfully captures the angst of a closeted gay man, torn between the wife and teenage daughter he doesn't want to hurt and his desire for other men. Providence newspaper columnist Daniel Caruso has a big problem: the men he has sex with, starting with a firefighter he meets on a business trip to Seattle, tend to end up dead and mutilated, victims of a sadistic killer with an uncanny ability to track Dan's every move. The author doesn't explain the passive Dan's sudden urge to have gay sex at every opportunity, but his risky, compulsive behavior does serve to ratchet up the tension. Readers will sigh with relief when Dan finally turns for help to a police detective friend with whom he once had a homosexual encounter and he sends his family to safety in Florida. After a lengthy interlude at an S&M bar in Manhattan's meat-packing district ("They were thinking of the sting of ropes and the bite of whips"), the story lurches to a rushed, open-ended climax at an abandoned Woonsocket boathouse. A small suspect pool, perfunctory police work, a few important questions left unanswered (did the firefighter have AIDS or not?) and a serial killer who too easily commits his crimes and eludes detection all make for a less than satisfying thriller/whodunit. (Apr.) Forecast: The sex is too explicit to attract straight fans of cozier gay mysteries like those by Michael Craft and Mark Richard Zubro, but a blurb from Edmund White will certainly boost interest among gay male readers. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.