A campy cozy mystery!
Renovated to Death by Frank Anthony Polito is the debut of A Domestic Partners in Crime Mysteries. I thought Renovated to Death had a unique premise with a predominately gay cast of characters. We met JP and PJ who are domestic partners and the stars of Domestic Partners, a renovation show. They are going to renovate the home twins, Tom and Terry inherited from their parents. The home has been neglected for twenty-five years. On the day filming is to begin, they find Tom Cash dead at the base of the stairs. The police initially rule the death accidental, but then the case is ruled a homicide. PJ uses his skills as a mystery writer and JP his experience as a cop on a television show to solve the crime. The list of suspects is quite lengthy and includes some of the partner�s friends. The pair work to uncover the truth about the crime. I struggled to read Renovated to Death. The POV switches around which makes it confusing along with the large cast of characters. With so many names sounding familiar, I kept getting the people confused (JP, PJ, Tom, Terry, Cam, Bob, Hank). I did feel the main characters needed to be more fleshed out. The pacing varied throughout the book. Sometimes it zipped along and other times it dragged. There are some chapters that seemed to lag on forever. While I found the chapter about the noxious smell in the basement amusing, I felt like it went on too long. There are several chapters like this. There were also repeated phrases and descriptions especially about people. A couple of examples are the baseball hats the twins wore, a man�s smoking, one man�s muscles, and the gap between one man�s teeth. We only need to be told once. The mystery did not begin until I was a third of way into the book. The clues begin to appear in the second half of the book. There are plenty of them to help readers solve the crime before the reveal. I enjoyed the detailed descriptions of the various homes. I could visualize the beautiful homes from the author�s word imagery. I can tell the author likes the Detroit area. It really came through in the writing. I enjoyed the side storyline about PJ and JP adopting a puppy. The adoption scene had me smiling. I was put off by the frequent mentions of intimacy as well as how appealing a person is to someone (describing their body in detail for example). There are no explicit scenes, but the connotations are prevalent. I did feel the gay men were portrayed in a stereotypical way (the 80s version of gay men). Renovated to Death was a mixed bag for me. When I end up skimming, I know I am not enjoying the book. If you are on the fence, download a sample to check it out for yourself. Renovated to Death is a campy cozy mystery with troublesome twins, a stinky smell, renovation realities, a stair skirmish, mishap or murder, and snooping partners.
