Inland Empire is the second book in MLR Press‘s Taking the Odds series. Nevada Gaming Control Agent Nick O’Malley and Riverside, California, Police Detective Brandon Carr are back, this time on Carr’s home turf. Carr is closeted; only his straight partner Jeff Weaver knows he is gay, but his boyfriend Nick makes the secret impossible to keep.
Buchanan is a talented crime writer and creative at writing sex scenes, so readers who like a rich crime novel and lots of sex will like this book. But the crime and the sex are only backdrops for a much more serious story: the rocky relationship between an uptight, macho, tattooed, hunky cop and his slightly swishy, very cute boyfriend. Buchanan deals with these trials and tribulations very well, in a realistic fashion as Nick, a computer geek, becomes involved in a Riverside crime bust. By the end of the novel, these two lovers’ relationship is much improved. They may even make it.
One of the most interesting aspects of this novel is that the author is a woman. Buchanan likes to write gay male erotic romance novels and has made quite a career out of it, completely separate from her legal practice in Pasadena, California and her life with her “SexyGuy,” kids, lots of animals, and her Harley-Davidson. For this part of her life she adopted the name of our 15th possibly gay president. For more information, go to her website.
Libraries who cater to novel-reading gay men and their friends will want to consider this author and her 10 books, including this one.
Reviewed by, James D. Anderson
Professor Emeritus
Rutgers University
