Review: smooth little gem
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 23, 2012
I am always so grateful when one of the truly talented writers in this genre offers us a new entry. I love m/m, but there is so much drek out there that it can overwhelm and suck the joy out of the experience.  Books like this restore that joy.  "Heart Trouble" is as well-written as any of Lanyon's works, his strengths here being character and dialogue.  The setup will be familiar to Lanyon's fans, but the story is executed well and stylishly and is absolutely worth the read.However, I am now dinging writers who fail to acknowledge that cell phones exist, and that people of even modest means (including their children) have them.  So 4 stars, not 5.  I get that Lanyon wrote this 20 years ago, but other than 1) the lack of mobiles and 2) a reference to a model of car whose name has morphed since then, there is nothing in the story to indicate or require an earlier era.  Since there is no compelling reason to leave the setting circa 1992, and the reader will assume the tale is contemporary absent any obvious or plot-dependent cues, this detail should have been updated.  Otherwise, readers are left thinking "WTH?"  It took me only a moment to sort out how the story could have been re-written to incorporate current technology.