Review: Perfect JL Merrow Book
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 26, 2014
I'm often conflicted when I need to decide how many stars to give a book. But not with any JL Merrow book. I'd give this one six stars if I could.Not only is she a brilliant writer, she's a gentle soul and a gifted creator of engaging characters.Relief Valve is another in this wonderful series, now, apparently called "The Plumber's Mate". For those of you who haven't yet read either of them yet, these books are about a British plumber (Tom), who has a very special psychic gift - he can find things. He can follow the emotional path of the person who hid whatever it was and locate something missing. The local police use his talents to find missing children and dead bodies, which, while torturous to him, brings peace and closure to the victims' survivors and many a murderer to justice. In the rest of his time, he uses his abilities to find leaks, making him a really great (if not prepossessing) plumber.Tom has an ongoing relationship with Phil, a private detective, who was also a terrible bully he's known since he was a kid. In fact, it was while running away from Phil that Tom got hit by a car, spent a year convalescing and still suffers from a dodgy hip.They met up, years later, as adults, and Phil admits that he gave Tom such a hard time because he was so attracted to him, and didn't want to be gay. Of course, they become lovers.The murder mystery in this book is not exactly Agatha Christie, but it's used to propel the development of Phil and Tom's relationship and introduce us to Tom's sister, who is a successful barrister, and victim of an attempted murder. Add a whole bunch of local literary types, an overgrown church Canon engaged to the sister and the recurring friends of Tom - Gary, an effeminate, over the top, perfectly wonderful character, and Gary's lover, a 4' 6" ex-porn-star, Darren.There are points at which I laughed out loud, others that made my eyes will up, but, typical of a JL Merrow book, not a moment in which I was bored. In fact, I'm almost sorry the book had to end. I look forward to the next Plumber's Mate book with bated breath. I'd pre-order anything this amazingly talented writer publishes. I think I've already read everything available on Amazon!If you haven't read Merrow before, I suggest you start this series with "Pressure Head" to get the whole back story of Tom and Phil. "Relief Valve" is fine, on its own, but even better if you read the earlier book first.What I love is Merrow's astonishing way with words, her ease, precision, spot-on humor - it's just a true pleasure to read her writing. If you love well-written, non-formula gay fiction, don't miss this book - or any other JL Merrow book!