Review: Lanyon Does It Again!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 6, 2014
No surprise. Josh Lanyon is, without a doubt, one of the very top gay fiction writers alive today."Stranger on the Shore" will do nothing to diminish his stellar reputation.It's true, the ending of the story was telegraphed early on. If you haven't figured it out by the end of the first third of the book, you haven't been paying attention. Therefore, there's no surprise ending to the mystery. But that's not the point of Lanyon novels - what is the point is the near-miraculous journey he takes you on, weaving a magical spell with his brilliant writing.This is the story of a young man (Griff) who takes a week off from his job as a reporter, in Wisconsin, to meet with the Arlingtons, a ridiculously wealthy family on Long Island. The grandson of the family scion (Brian) was kidnapped twenty years earlier, at the age of four. Griff is given the rare opportunity to interview the notoriously publicity-shy family when the patriarch, Jarret, decides that a book about the kidnapping might generate some new evidence to give the family closure - or bring back their long-missing child.Lanyon paints an uproarious picture of eccentric family members and retainers, each with his or her own bizarre peccadilloes - people who live far from reality, protected by barrels of money - and their young retainer, an attorney close to the family (Pierce) who was especially close to, and worshiped by, the four-year-old Brian before he was kidnapped.The characters are all lovingly drawn, the budding romance between Pierce and Griff adds a few sexy scenes and anticipation to a plot drawing to an obvious and inexorable conclusion.And how Lanyon entertains us along the way! He is the king of metaphor, able to instill even the briefest description with weight and perspective with the use of only an occasional adjective or adverb. One of my favorite lines in the book is from the very first page:"...the while, Italianate facade of the building, punctiliously flat roofs, balconies with wrought iron railings...".He also writes one of the best descriptions of orgasm I've ever encountered. So many gay fiction authors write about one of the partners in the sex act "falling apart", but Lanyon moves it into an entirely new and delightful direction:"Something had to give or his entire frame was going to fly apart, nuts, springs, wires, bolts flying across the room."Wow, classic Lanyon.My only complaint is that Lanyon often doesn't handle endings well. They're almost always abrupt and tend to squander the emotional impact that builds up to them. This book  is no exception. It ended just fine, but without a wallop. That, too, is vintage Lanyon, but something I'm willing to overlook in light of the absolute joy I experienced just reading his words.Thanks, Josh. Waiting for the next one with bated breath. I will read anything you write!