Review - The Cutie-Pie Murders by Don Travis

When BJ gets a strange call from his now-jailed nemesis from the first book, The Zozobra Incident, it involves him in a series of murders all involving young, very handsome men who have been sexually assaulted and dumped naked in public places. As usual, there are lots of suspects, and clues that lead nowhere, all while more young men are found dead. Will BJ and his boyfriend Paul be able to figure it all out, or will Paul become one of the killer's next victims?

It's been more than a year since the last BJ Vinson book. It's a good thing you don't need to have read all the books, or even have read them in order, to enjoy this volume. You will probably want to have read the very first book to get the background on how BJ and Paul met, but otherwise you won't be missing much if you've skipped a few of the books in between.

As I've mentioned before, these books have a strong element of Jack Webb's Dragnet about them, with matter-of-fact narrative style very reminiscent of the old television series. There's a bit more emotion in these stories than the cop drama. BJ expresses a lot of frustration when faced with a tough case, and of course there's his loving relationship with Paul.

The mystery at the core of this installment is much of what we've come to expect from this author. There are at first lots of suspects and leads that go nowhere. BJ ends up focusing on the least likely suspect, someone who doesn't seem physically capable of committing the crimes, yet the few tenuous clues he has all lead back to the man. Once again, Paul is in the sights of a possible killer and it's up to BJ to keep him safe.

“The Cutie-Pie Murders” is available from Amazon.