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Review title: gay themes are well-meaning, but not believable
Product review: This novel is essentially a very long episode of 'Law & Order: SVU' that relies on plot twists that do not feel organic to the story or characters. The most annoying element to me is the various diary entries of the gay male murder victim, which seem gracelessly inserted to humanize the victim and encourage tolerance for gay people in general. These diary entries are unconvincing; they are in the voice of an afterschool special instead of a gay man in a large city.I assume the author is straight, and that an antigay hate crime is used in this book of the series much as it is in an episode of a television crime procedural series: a fresh framework for a standard murder mystery. Regardless of his own sexuality, he has not written a believable gay character or even a believable gay milieu. Any remaining pro-gay goodwill is undermined by the plot twists, because of course the crime is not what it seems.
