Rainbow Reviews

BOOK BLURB:
Working nights in tech support is a dull but easy life for David Boyd. Then he meets Matt. Wealthy and flamboyant, David’s never met anyone like him. After a drunken night of debauchery, their worlds collide. A notebook David filled with names of hostile support callers is lost. When people from the list start to die, David has to figure out which of his new acquaintances is trying to frame him.

BOOK REVIEW:
The Night Caller is presented as a mystery but the actual mystery portion is rather weak. The story focuses on the burgeoning relationship between two men with a very diluted mystery thrown in to add interest. Unfortunately the poorly written thriller combines with problems in characterization, pacing, writing, and flow, and ultimately this is a weak story without much to keep readers’ interest. However, this is a quick and easy read that doesn’t require much intuition from readers so perhaps this will be of interest to some.

The premise of the book revolves around David, a phone tech support agent for a computer software program. He meets gallery owner Matt at the show opening for David’s brother’s artwork. Matt quickly transfers his clinging affection from the brother to David. Although David claims he’s not gay, he can’t help his attraction to Matt. That attraction and slowly emerging new relationship is put into jeopardy when David realizes that recent murders are problem callers of his.

The actual mystery of the murders and responsible culprit is weak and forgettable. There is so little attention paid to the actual mystery that I forgot about the storyline in several places. The culprit is obvious and telegraphed as the reader is offered two clear choices. Unfortunately there are numerous holes in the story from impossible actions to unexplained rescues. Most of the possible tension and conflict is eased by Matt’s wealth and the lack of any real mystery. Without giving away too much information, the killer’s acquisition of David’s notebook is never explained nor is it even possible given the actions and timeline presented within the story. The first murder occurs the day after the notebook is lost/stolen but the location of the notebook at that time make it completely impossible for such to happen given the identity of the killer. Furthermore, the killer’s motives are outrageous and ridiculous, as is the eventual explanation of some of the killer’s actions. Not all are explained either, which leave the mystery portion unfulfilling, uninteresting, and totally unrealistic.

Not only does the mystery theme do nothing to help the book but also the actual focus is on the characters of Matt and David. Unfortunately both character is well developed or consistent and their connection is tenuous at best. David spends the majority of the story treating Matt very poorly even after his comments about hating the way Matt is treated by others. David insists repeatedly he is not gay, yet when he finally decides to be with Matt he ignores the fact he spent the majority of the book denying he was gay. He simply shrugs and accepts his newfound sexuality without further thought. This type of inconsistency is repeated in David’s carelessness towards Matt. He muses once that he hopes their sex life isn’t hurting Matt but then immediately shrugs off that concern as he has bigger issues to deal with ~ literally. David enjoys the positive aspects of Matt’s wealth and frequently notes Matt’s unhappiness, unease, or dissatisfaction but ignores all of those in favor of whatever action David wants at the time.

For his part, Matt is clearly a disturbed individual in need of therapy. From his issues with his parents’ death to past relationships and masochistic tendencies, Matt needs some deep therapy and not to be in another potentially abusive relationship. Matt’s almost stalking of David, a man who treats Matt very poorly for the majority of the book, is sad and pathetic. As is Matt’s response to any threat, physical or emotional. Matt’s weak hand slapping and whining is ridiculous and shows his weakness as a character that is unfortunately not offset by anything. Instead of a clever, witty personality, Matt is portrayed to be a near whore for his business ~ a fact everyone comments on repeatedly and often to Matt himself ~ while further spiraling into an emotional and mental tailspin. His relationship to David is not only odd and dysfunctional, but there is nothing romantic or interesting either.

The writing is littered with errors from the wrong names used to punctuation errors, editing errors, and misspelled words. The pacing is uneven as the brief action is followed by long periods of inactivity and the few scenes involving the mystery itself feel out of place and jarring when the focus is so rarely on the actual murders. The flow gets more disjointed as the story goes on, which is very unfortunate as the beginning chapter is funny, witty, interesting and has a lot of promise. The humor and clever setting is not carried through though but instead dropped when the dour, alcoholic David enters the story. Additionally while there is no explicit sex in the book (until the very end with a gratuitous scene) so some of the scenes likely meant to imply the characters are having sex. However, the hints are too subtle and thus the physical relationship between David and Matt comes across oddly.

Unfortunately I ultimately didn’t enjoy reading this book but it is rather easy and fast to read. The lack of real mystery is definitely a negative aspect and those readers who enjoy murder who-dun-its will definitely be disappointed. The romance does contain a rather weak and vague gay for you theme so perhaps those readers who enjoy such can overlook other problems to focus on the relationship. I sadly can’t recommend this book due to all the problems outlined above but as always this is just my opinion.

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. However, some books were purchased by the reviewer and not provided for free. For information on how a particular title was obtained, please contact us at reviews@rainbow-reviews.com.