Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Timothy by Greg Herren


Greg Herren is one of my favorite authors.  I try to read everything he writes, including his books written as Todd Gregory and I will be reading his short novel which he wrote as GT Herren.  He's a fabulous author and I love all of his books.  I first began reading his Scotty Bradley mysteries and then his Chance MacLeod mysteries (or vice versa--I can't quite remember which I read first).  Needless to say, I fell in love with him as an author.

One of his newer books is Timothy which I just finished (I'm currently reading his book Murder in the Irish Channel (Chanse Macleod Mysteries) and Who Dat Whodunnit (Scotty Bradley Adventures) will be next.  I don't have a whole lot of time to read during the school year, so summers are when I am able to catch up.  I read before I go to bed and when I have to be away from my computer, which is where I spend most of my time trying to finish my dissertation.

Timothy is somewhat of an updated, gay version, of the classic, Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, which I admit I have never read but was originally published in the 1930's.  after reading a synopsis of Rebecca, I can understand the similarities.  Timothy is described by some reviewers as fanfiction and while that may be true, it does not read as such.  You know going into the story (if you read the blurb or anything about the author in advance) what you will be reading so you should be prepared.  This was written much better than most fanfiction I have had the pleasure and displeasure of reading.  Some reviewers, who had read Rebecca previously, found this to be a wonderfully updated version of the old story.

Timothy is another in the stream of books from Herren that I've enjoyed. This is a gothic romantic suspense, and I loved it.  From a narrative perspective, Timothy tells the tale of a young man who is very much a fish-out-of-water in the big city of New York, and the whirlwind romance that leads him to Spindrift - a beautiful looming estate in the Hamptons that he is to share with his new husband. But the man he has married was married to someone before, the eponymous Timothy himself. Timothy was gorgeous - physically near perfect - and successful and suave and everything that Herren's character feels he is not.

The cast of characters - the rich, the servants, the husband, Timothy's former friends - all twisted around the young man in a tangled snarl that leads him to wonder more and more whether anything is as it seems in Spindrift, or if Timothy's legacy is one that will not leave any happiness behind.

The tone is wonderful. Herren's young protagonist (who lacks self-confidence in the face of Timothy's seemingly indelible presence) loves his husband, and the huge Spindrift as well (the home itself, as is the case in most gothic romances, is nearly a character itself), but lives in a constant sense of uncertainty in nearly everything around him. The suspense rises, and every time the young man has a conversation with someone who knew Timothy, the truth seems less like what he has been told, and the danger grows nearer.

Once I began reading this book, it was hard to put down.  Like most of Herren's books, you have to make yourself put it down so that you can do other things, such as sleep, because if you don't, you will find that you have spent all night reading.  If you have not read anything by Greg Herren, buy one of his books, read it, and you will love it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Which book would you recommend as a good place to start?

Joe said...

If you like more sex in your books and a good light read, I would suggest Bourbon Street Blues, but if you want a more serious mystery, the I suggest Murder in the Rue Dauphine. These are The first books in the Scotty Bradley and Chance MacLeod mysteries, respectively. All of his books are a joy to read, but these are the books I suggest if you want to start the series. If you like more sex in your books and just an easy read, then read Every Frat Boy Wants It by Todd Gregory, who is a pen name for Geg Herren, but Todd Gregory books border on porn. I like them though too.