Baumbach, Laura and Josh Lanyon. Mexican Heat. Crime & Cocktails Ser. 1. Albion: MLR Press, LLC., 2008. paperback. 260p. $15.99. ISBN: 9781934531051.

Mexican Heat, the first in the MLR Press’ Crime & Cocktails series, follows the gritty adventures of San Francisco police detective Gabriel Sandalini, who is working deep undercover as the hired gun for Ricco Botelli: the head of a west coast crime family. As the story unfolds, Botelli offers his sister, Gina, to the Mexican drug lord Don Jesus Sanchez as his next wife, in hopes of establishing an alliance between the two families.

But while Sandalini’s main interest is in destroying Botelli, it is Sanchez’s second-in-command, Miguel Ortega, with whom he becomes most intrigued and entangled. The story’s plot line has the requisite twists, turns, and love scenes that will leave readers pleasantly exhausted at its conclusion.

Mexican Heat is the first joint effort by Laura Baumbach and John Lanyon. These authors are widely known and respected by fans of the man-to-man erotic romance genre, which features gay eroticism crafted to appeal to both men and women. Mexican Heat is the 13th book by Baumbach (the proprietor of ManLoveRomance Press) and the 14th for Lanyon.

Libraries that currently have a GLBTQ fiction collection are encouraged to add this title to their adult romance sections.

Reviewed by TJ Lusher
Founders Memorial Library
Northern Illinois University